“Hell of the North” B Grade
by Gregor

Long overdue an outing in a proper road race, I finally signed up for my first one in this years Joondalup classic (previous commitments to mountain biking, beer, pizza and such have hampered my road racing career to date).

Having never entered such a race before, I wasn’t entirely sure which grade I should be signing up for. I sought advice from El Presidente on the matter, and on Pete’s recommendation, rightly or wrongly signed up for B grade.

I figured I should show up nice and early, got parked pretty close to the start/finish line and bumped into some of the other SPR B grade riders, Ben (thanks for the coffee), Jarrad and the Judd. Went through the motions of registering, giving the bike a once over, and hooking up the timing device. By the time I wandered over to the SPR tent, the support crew were setting up shop.

I kitted up, hydrated, warmed up by riding a few km’s on the last few turns of the race course (though warming up seemed somewhat unnecessary as I was already perspiring sitting under the shade of the SPR tent). After a brief discussion with Paul O, decided my saddle bag and pump were unnecessary weight and shed them from my bike. Then there were some discussions regarding feed zones, the net result of which was that we would be able to collect additional bottles as we passed through the start/finish area. I figured the support crew would have their work cut out with the number of SPR riders in the various grades, and having never collected a bottle at speed before I didn’t fancy my chances of actually being able to collect one… I had two bottles on the bike and stuffed a third one in my jersey.

All too soon we were lining up at the start line, and shortly thereafter we were off. The first obstacle occurred within the first 100m of the start line, a Garmin Edge bouncing down the middle of the road, I think Jarrad said he actually hit it. Right from the start, the tempo was pretty quick, and I realised I was going to have my work cut out for me. With not much more of a plan than taking it as easy as possible for the first couple of laps, and then hoping to still have something left in the tank by the third and fourth laps, I sat in probably the back 1/3 of the group for the first couple of laps. From where I was, the first couple of laps were fairly uneventful.

Being toward the derriere of the peleton, I’m not entirely sure when the Échappée first formed, and what the reactions were from the front end of the group. I’ll have to ask others who were closer to the action, to tell how they saw it. But as far as I know, Ben made it into the breakaway. All I knew at the time, was that chasing breakaways was not the order of the day for me, and I was content to sit at the back, take it easy as possible and keep up with the surges as they happened.

Into the third lap, the main group was starting to stretch out a bit and gaps were beginning to form, I decided that if I was going to stick with the first group of poursuivants, I’d have to move up. Certainly there were a couple of moments that stretched the main field. It’s hard to know just exactly who dropped out when, as looking back really isn’t an option, when you are trying to keep up with the guys in front.

There was one moment, when there was a surge from the front end of the main field that a guy in front of me didn’t follow, and as I hesitated to come around his wheel, a gap appeared. Quickly the gap opened up to 10-15 meters or so, and I wasn’t sure I needed to be putting in the effort to close it at that time. I was hoping there was enough support coming from behind me to help close it. Help came in the form of Tim H, who shouted some words of encouragement as he came around and powered across the gap, I jumped on his wheel and was able (thanks entirely to Tim) to make it back. Glancing back, I don’t think many others were able to follow Tim’s lead.

I think it was on the third lap, there was another significant moment that shed a few weak gazelle’s from the group. Heading north on the backside of the course, there was a pretty strong crosswind hitting us from the west. An echelon formed across the entire width of the road, and I was in the right spot to be one of the last riders to get on the right side of the echelon. As I got into position onto the far right side of the road, I glanced back over my left shoulder, to see what appeared to be a number of riders drop out of the group as they ended up on the wrong side of the draft.

Riding through the bell on the start of the our final lap, I was riding alongside Jarrad, who had been counting on collecting a bottle from the feed zone. Unfortunately for him (and not for the first time), he was unable to collect his bottle. Checking on my own reserves, I still had a bottle and a half, so offered up my half bottle to Jarrad for his last lap.

About midway through the last lap, the chasing group was down to something like 10 riders or so. When it’s that small, all are obliged to do your turns on the front. I was 2nd wheel, and after putting in a decent effort (albeit only in 2nd wheel), I decided I needed to drop back before I popped. In attempting to do so, I slowly dropped off the first guys wheel and tried to ease back down the left hand side, assuming others behind would fill the gap. The guy behind me seemingly, didn’t want to lose my draft, and putting a hand on my rear quarter, pushed me back up to the guys wheel. Eventually I was able to ease off the front and  as I headed to the back, Jerard asked me if I was doing OK, I told him I was fine, I just didn’t need to be on the front for any longer. When I initially had planned to drop off the front, I had felt that the guy on the front (as well as myself) had earned our right to drop off, not sure why the fella on front didn’t choose to drop off with me, as some time later when he did eventually pull off, he went straight out the back door to no mans land.

The last few km’s were pretty uneventful and the pace probably dropped back a little, for the inevitable dash for the line. Coming round the last couple of bends I was close to the front of the group, and as we got inside 500m to the line, noone had made a move. I didn’t fancy my chances in the sprint, so figured I might as well contribute to the show and led it out, sure enough (in-spite of the SPR supports best cheers), as I got within 100m or so of the finish most of the guys behind me came around and passed me.

All in, I was very happy with my outing and I accomplished pretty much what I had set out to do (1. Finish 2. Don’t fall off).

Big thanks to the support crew, for the cold towel, coke and the brownies! And congrats to all the participants. Great to see so many SPR jerseys out there.

Unfortunately there seems to be some discrepancies in the results, perhaps some teething problems with the new system. For one Jerard finished ahead of me and oddly there are a number of instances of duplicate riders appearing in the results. Removing the duplicates, puts me in somewhere like 13th spot. Though that likely isn’t accurate as per some known inaccuracies. Still, no point worrying about it, as it’s all just a bit of fun, right?

Stats:
Distance: 82km
Heart Rate: Avg 169bpm, Max 201bpm
Speed: Avg 37.48 km/h, Max 66.7km/h