Josh Hopwood of the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club has been living, breathing, eating and sleeping cycling in a grueling 12 months training block that culminated with his appearance in the masters event at the Great Ocean Road Gran Fondo 2025 in Lorne this weekend.

Josh gave a great account of himself up against the world's best and finished in the front third of a competitive field of cyclists.

"The conditions on the road were quite brutal," Josh said.

"The race was his by gusty roads and quite a lot of cyclists came off their bikes.

"I felt everything worked well for me.

"The training, the nutrition and my tactics on the bike on the day.

"I managed to stay with the leaders through the first climbs of a hilly course but 100km in, I got dropped on a climb and couldn't find my way back.

"I'm really pleased to have been able to share the experience with my kids and to show them, if you work hard you can reach your goals and do amazing things."

Having qualified for the event this time last year, the road to get to this past weekend has been long.

He developed and implemented a devoted training program to maximise the wattage his body can produce on the bike over long distances.

He focusing on early morning training session on a wind trainer whilst in a high altitude tent.

A tent that has become his office and his bedroom while he attempted to acclimatize his body to do everything it can with what little oxygen it has.

Like all dedicated cyclists he has followed a strict dietary program to every ounce he can from his frame, pushing himself toward emaciation while keeping his power output and endurance high and focusing on recovery through really fine tuning his stats and numbers to ensure he is at his best for every performance he has put in throughout the 12 month block.

His appearance in the masters event at the Great Ocean Road Gran Fondo 2025 came off the back of some seriously impressive form.

On 16 September, Hopwood competed in the Masters Nationals road cycling race in Wagga Wagga NSW.

After a competitive showing other the 61 kilometre course, Josh came away with a very respectable 8th place finish.

And on 7th October, Josh put the finishing touches to his 12 month training block when he competed in the Emergency Services Games.

The 63 kilometre course met its match in Josh who did his best Tony Martin impression by performing an ultra impressive (and remarkably hard to pull off) solo breakaway 42 kilometres from the finish line.

Despite no peleton around his to set the pace nor shield him from the elements nor provide him a slipstream in which he could cruise along, Josh won the gold medal in a scarcely believable display of bravery and endurance.

Louise Hopwood, Josh's wife, praised her husband's incredible dedication and discipline.

"With full time work and being a dad of two, schedules are tight time is limited," she said.

"However, he always gets it done.

"5am sessions, sometimes a double session with an 8pm nighttime session following.

"All whilst the depths of winter keeps him confined to the wind trainer.

"It was his dedication and consistency that has given him his second crack at the World Stage.

"He qualified a few years back but unfortunately had to pull out due to a back injury."