By Toby
For the second week in a row SPR enjoyed a good turnout at the crits. This week the race was around the WA Newspaper building in Herdsman. The course is quite long for a crit, being around 2.5km, and is dead flat. It was pretty warm today and the wind was blowing across the circuit which meant crosswinds the whole way.
We had two riders in A-grade Matty U and Ryan. Paul O had a day off which meant no SPR in B-grade. C-grade was choc-full of Rouleur goodness though with Josh, Jason, Lisa, Gregor, Matt W, Dave and myself lining up.
Straight from the start three NDCC riders attacked and went off the front. Seems these guys will try about anything to get off the front. They were brought back in pretty quickly, with a fair bit of work being done by Jason on the front.
Shortly after this there was a move that went off the front with two riders getting a small break. One of them was the NDCC senior guys. Again SPR was forced to bring it under control and again Jason did the work on the front with some help from Josh and Matt.
The field was split in two now and stayed split for a good 2-3 laps.
About halfway through the race Dave came up to the front and rode a good pace for quite a while. All of a sudden a solo attack went off down the right hand side of the road on the back straight. As he went past the front of the pack someone called out “Let him go, he’s only one guy”. For some reason we all seemed to agree – although I was thinking “yeah he’s only one guy, but he bloody huge!”
He had a 20 second gap after half a lap and it seemed to stretch out from there. We were past by A-grade and I think this helped the breakaway get further away as our pack eased up to let the big boys past.
Nobody wanted to help SPR chase down the break. A called out to the NDCC guys that they needed to get on the front if they wanted the win because we weren’t going to do everything. At this point Gregor, Josh, Jason and Matt W were pretty much doing all the work. Gregor did about 2 laps on the front b himself at one point. I was getting a bit frustrated that we were being left to do the pulling so I had a crack to get off the front. The plan wasn’t really to stay away, but I figured it might help get some more people on the front as they couldn’t expect SPR to chase if we had someone up the road. I didn’t last long off the front, but I think I stirred it up a bit. A couple more guys moved up the front including the JCC guy and a few others. After this I went to rest in the pack for a while.
The solo break managed to stay away, and it became pretty clear a couple of laps out that he was going to win. We all started to organize ourselves for the bunch sprint.
With one lap to go Matt W came whizzing up my outside. I followed him up and got a bit closer to the front. Josh and Jason went through the final corner about 4 or 5 wheels back and I switched onto Jason’s wheel. Josh and Jason went to the right coming out of the last corner. I got lost in the middle of the pack somewhere and was surrounded by NDCC crew. Josh and Jason faded as the sprint started kicking. I decided to go for it and weaved my way through the middle of the pack. I thought I was going to run out of room for a second, but stomped the pedals and found some space. We went a bit earlier than I wanted because it was a head wind, but at this point I was committed so I put my head down and went for it. When I looked up I had cleared out pretty well and had time to give the SPR tent a little salute as I crossed the line. Matt W got up to 5th and got himself in the money too.
So 2nd Toby, 5th Matt W.
In A-grade Ryan got home for 7th and Matty was only a few seconds back in the next group. I will let them fill in the gaps for what looked like a pretty tough ride.
All in all another good day. We had the SPR tent up today which was awesome. It seems to bring everyone together which is nice – and we managed to get it right on the finish line which made for good viewing.
NDCC’s next crit is in march I think. There are some MFCC ones coming up, and the Australia day race too. Thanks to everyone for coming out and also again to Jonathan for the photos!
Sorry for the duplicate photos – I’m still learning how to drive this thing!
Some great shots and results there lads awesome effort 🙂
Well done again guys, you worked as a team well. Great photos too!
Well done guys, great to hear that the ‘SPR train’ is coming together well, and most importantly, everyone stayed upright and OK.
Great write up mate…
Great to see The Flying Fynn out there racing again…write up?
Yeah yeah, right after I do one for the fast group’s Sat ride…
The tennis is going to kill me this week.. Fell asleep tonight but it was only Tomic playing when I fell asleep.. Any relation to Josie?
someone needs to shave and oil up those bulging calves!!! its a cycling catastrophe!
Yes Jason – I think it’s time….
A grade was once again hard, with the absence of my usual partner in crime ( Nico ) it was left upto Ryan to keep me company this week. As i expected a few riders hit us on the first lap and formed a breakaway. I wasn’t too concerned as i heard from a few riders back in the bunch that two of the guy’s in the break were there to slow it down so they told me not to panic and just wait until we catch them before we try to go. This didn’t end up happening and that break ended up being the winning one. Ryan & I managed to stay out of trouble and for the most of the race rode in the front 3rd of the bunch. Ryan went of the front in a chase group at about the 40min mark so i sat on the front of the bunch to disrupt the chase it worked and Flying Fynn was away. it wasnt untill the bell lap that i jumped out of the bunch with 3 others to try and finish higher up in the placings. Ryan finished 8th ( they payed to 7th ) and i got 12th so it was another good day for SPR in the main grade.
Jason… that goes for you too!
Your legs resemble old growth forests 😉
Well done guys… great to see SPR being a regular presence at the Crits 🙂
For the second week in a row one of the NDCC crit organisers spoke to me after the presentations to give their appreciation for SPR supporting the NDCC crits…we should continue to give them our support when we can.
Lorraine you might be able to organise leg shaving lessons for us!
Paul O, what gender is this person who keeps saying they appreciate you being there (even in your civilian outfit?)…
And where abouts did they approach you for this informal chat?
The NDCC crew appreciated the muffins I gave them too 😉