by Jonny
Well I’m sure this won’t be the only report that mentions this but ‘how bloody cold was it last weekend’ ! Luckily our start time was not till 9.10am which would give the body a chance to thaw out a little.
I arrived at the velodrome early as Lennie was also riding in an all-girls team and was due to start a bit earlier. We parked up and straight away could here a call of ‘traitor’. Either this was the guys I rode the last two cyclo’s with giving me grief or some of the SPR crew giving Lennie grief. Luckily it was Lennie getting the grief….. the traitorous devil.
Registration was very straight forward and having the SPR tent on site made meeting up with the rest of the crew easy. A few introductions were made as many on the team did not know each other nevermind trained or rode together. We rode the 8km to the start together apart from Mike B who said he would meet us there. Having ridden with Mike for some time now I was expecting him to join us on route from a random side street as he so often does on group rides.
A few of the girls in Lennie’s team had driven up to the school so this was a chance to offload a few layers of clothing in people’s cars ready for the start. Unfortunately one of her team mates had a puncture and they were all at the school trying to fix it. I rode down to the starter to request a later start for them. I told him nine girls were trying to fix a puncture and it was not a pretty site !
While queuing for the start we were surprised to see a casual looking Morrison and Mike Tan; this calmness evaporated a little when we pointed out there SPR team had left 6 mins beforehand. We told them to jump in with us and we could all work together to pull the other teams back. We did end up pulling back the 2, 4 and 9 min gaps to the other SPR teams but the extra guys only stayed with us for the first 15 mins or so and decided to save some energy for when they did catch up. I’m looking forward to the write up’s from the other teams to get all the details.
The ride went well and the team worked great together. Those feeling the strain did short turns on the front while others feeling good pulled longer. One or two calls of ease up on the drags and out of some of the corners but on the whole we gelled well. We said hello to the other SPR groups when passing and were pleased that we caught quite a few teams without getting passed ourselves. It’s a shame we couldn’t find an extra 3 riders to make a complete team as this would have been a bonus; still 9th fastest is not too bad especially as I know at least four of the teams ahead of us didn’t wait for tiring riders or those with mechanical problems in the true cyclo-sportif spirit.
Well done to all my team members and to everyone who took part on the SPR teams also and a big congratulations to those who put in some great performances at the track.
Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/106627723232873020094/PlanBCycloSportifSwanValley2010#
Results
Thanks for the write up. Had a great time and I have even decided to have a go at a time trial this weekend now.
Does anyone have a set of tri bars I could borrow for this Sunday just to see if I like it or can handle it?
Cheers
John, I’ve got a pair of Easton AeroForce MOD clip-on bars you are welcome to borrow.
http://www.trisports.com/eaaemod.html
They are fully adjustable
Let me know if you want them
Lorraine 0415-489-173
Well done to all the SPR teams (and there sure were lots of you). Well done to Dec and the Flying Fynn. I was looking after a team of newbies in the B distance. Need to be sure of the facts when bagging no less than 4 other teams for not riding together. I know for a fact Team Ultra Force only had 5 riders and stuck together for the whole journey . I can’t see Plan B or Broad dropping any of their riders. That only leaves positions 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8. Your team had a great ride all the same. Cheers, Christo
Mate I do know for a FACT because I’m friendly with riders in the teams referred too and they told me. I will be happy to pass them on if you like but I’m not going to name names here because at the end of the day it is not really a big deal, just a point of reference to how well other teams have done and a bit of a tongue in check jest. Cyclo says people shouldn’t use Tri-bars but some do. It says people should stop for punctures but some don’t – it’s hardly a UCI event that’s taking place and the casualness is one of the appealing factors.
I don’t know anybody in Team Ultra force but good on them that’s a great result with five riders. Maybe have a look at the photos and do some counting you will definitely see the number of riders at the start is not the same at the end…….maybe even for the teams you mentioned !
Our EBT girl power team “Don’t Get Chicked” did discuss chicking yuz, but we knew you lot would never handle the humiliation of it. So we were kind and merciful and let you pedal on ahead ;0)
ahhhhh….that would explain why jonny was riding like 10 men….fear of being chicked by the missus!