By Toby

Today I fronted up for the MFCC C grade crit down in Yangebup. Dave (@madrapper for those on twitter) has been dueling it out in the crits for the last few weeks and I thought it would be good to join him. Unfortunately Dave was unwell this week and didn’t make the start line. Michael arrived typically late with Mino playing mechanic for the day.
Mike and I had a quick chat about tactics and I offered to lead him out for the sprint if we were both in good shape. I’ve seen Mike belting around the velodrome a few times recently and I felt confident he could have a crack if I could get him up there.
Mike had changed his front clincher for the occasion, but hadn’t adjusted his brake shoes. Unfortunately we realized this too late to be able to change it. He decided just to try and use the rear to get through 30 minutes of racing. More about this decision later.

It was already pushing 30 degrees when we set off. The pace was quite steady and we did the first lap or two in the mid 30’s. It wasn’t long before the pace got up around the 40km/hr mark.

The race was dominated by two clubs. The NDCC and a bunch of guys in blue/black kit – I think they were the Cyclo Vito guys or something. They had good numbers at the Joondalup classic too.
Anyway, as I was saying those two groups had control of the show. I rode about 4th wheel for most of the race. We endured successive attack after attack from each club – one after another. The young NDCC guys would put a guy up the road, and then the Vito boys would drag them back or vice versa.
A small group of 4 got off the front for a few laps. Unfortunately because there was a rider from NDCC and Vito in the break nobody wanted to chase. I put in an effort with the young ECU guy in the pack and we pulled them back relatively easily.

With about 3 laps to go the pace back off a bit as people started to get themselves organized for a sprint. Mike came up out of the pack and met me in the front of the pack. We had a quick chat and I told him I was going to rest on his wheel for a lap, and then move up for the lead out. The Vito boys were onto us though – I heard them talking about “that guy in the Confidis gear” (Mike) not doing anything up the front and that they thought he was going for the sprint. Damn.

As we rounded the corner into the home straight to get 2 laps to go I started moving up for Mike when disaster stuck. Mike flatted – probably from the brakes running on his tyre. Time for a new plan.
New plan – pick a wheel and hang on.

The plan worked pretty well. As we came down the back straight there was 3 NDCC boys and 3 Vito boys and myself all lining up for the sprint. One of the young NDCC boys hit the final corner in front and put his head down and went for it. I stuck on the wheel of the biggest Vito guy hoping he would roll over the others. As we drew down on the finish line I could tell I had the wrong wheel as we weren’t closing the gap on the NDCC rider. I decided to go for it so I pushed out the sprint as hard as I could. I managed to draw up alongside a couple of riders and with a huge throw at the line got my wheel over in 3rd place.

It was a pretty close finish for 2nd to 6th place so I didn’t know what I got until the presentations. Very happy to get a place! A huge improvement from my two DNF’s so far this year – and my first placing in about a decade.
It was a pretty good event, with the normal A grade domination from Carlito and Cam Meyer. The road surface is dead flat and very smooth. I would recommend anyone who wants to try a crit to give it a go. It would be awesome to see some more SPR jerseys out there as today I was the only one. It a different feeling compared to the Joondi classic when there seemed like dozens of us in each grade.

There was a crash in the last corner and one of the Vito boys went down.  I’m not sure who he was but he did have a SPR drink bottle.  I think the poor guy did his collar bone too.

Some stats for those who are interested:

Time: 32:13 – includes warm down lap.
Distance: 20.0 km
Average Speed: 38.5
Max Speed: 73.3km/hr (zing!)
Average HR: 177
Max HR: 192 (99%)