Saturday’s Main 1….

As a welcome home present for Pete, thought I should try and provide a late write up for last Saturday’s Main 1 ride.

Good turnout of people. I think Toby’s attire has been dually noted by Mark, the other  stand out item was the fact that Kimbo managed to rock up but Ryan was noticeably absent…mmmm….soft?? Also no safety net for me as dag-man is overseas undoing all of his hard work that saw him step up to the Fast group last week.

Weather, yes it is currently raining, but on Saturday I would say it was positively balmy. Oh yay oh yay, no need for 6 different layers of clothing and still not being able to feel ones toes. Ahhhh summer and the appearance of strange tan lines….

So this time I do know the name of some of the roads – Benara and Jutland Parade!! 🙂 Aside from that there were a lot of flat roads, some traffic lights, couple of round-a-bouts and a few slight inclines (hills from my perspective).

The feeling in the group was very upbeat in general this morning. Lots of chit chat. Lots of people riding particularly strong. Kimbo was particularly tuneful and somewhat….well Loraine, how would you describe it….however he did some fantastic turns on the front and I think won the benara road sprint. Loraine’s progression from transitional three weeks ago, to Main 2 last week, to Main 1 this week has her ready to join the Fast group next week.

We gave the fast group a bit of a head start but nearly caught them on canning highway (ohhh, I know a third road name). Luckily, pops was on the front (not sure who with) and they very gallantly decided to keep the pace at a slightly slower rate to give the fast group a chance to get away 😉 Excellent roll throughs on Benara road. Thanks go to Andrew (I think it was, but I was struggling to breath) who, as he effortlessly gliding past, asked if I had square tyres – yes always!

Benara means relatively flat with hopefully a wickedly fast roll-through and Jutland Parade means the same as Benara but less flat. There are a couple of approaches you can take if you want to be good at sprint sections – actually let’s not limit it to being good, let’s just say if you want to still be with the group at the end of the section. One approach that I have heard of that has met with great success is to train hard and often (#1) and just be good. A second aspect, that when added to approach #1 can significantly improve one’s performance, is having a fab bike (#2). A third approach is to pick a good wheel (#3). Many people rely on #1 add in a little of #2 and ice the cake with #3. Personally I rely on #3.

Katie stepped up from the transition group to Main 1 this week. And all I can say is wow. The girl is good! Mark asked me to keep an eye on her, but I was struggling to keep her rear wheel in sight. I’d lined up with Lennie that we would both keep an eye on her along Jutland Parade in case she got dropped so that we could help pace her home (I say this fully aware of the irony of me helping pace someone, hence the enlisting of Lennie). I’d explained the importance of picking a good wheel for the sprint section along Jutland, and we had an enlightened discussion over what constitutes a “good” wheel. Anyway Katie soon moved up (!) the line to her chosen wheel, leaving space for Anna to come alongside me and very serendipitously confirmed that the definition of a “good” wheel seems to be universal. Anyway, focus, focus, back to the main story. Not only did Katie not get dropped, she bloody well sprinted!  Welcome to Main 1 🙂

Twas great to be out with the group. Thanks to all who put in the big efforts at the front and on the roll throughs – it is noticed and appreciated! And sorry this is a somewhat disjointed write up, but I’ve been reviewing grant applications and my brain is fried.