Jonathan Bolton – guest riding for the dome coffees cycling team

Team

Jonathan Bolton
Toby Brown
Luke Ellis
Stuart Passmore
Mathew Upton

Team Manager

Travis keen

Waiting at the at the airport for our flight this was some of the team members first international race so everyone was exited to get on the plane over to Indonesia.
After all the bikes and bags had been checked in and a few photos in front of the Perth International airport Dome Café, and a final Long Mac, we were off.
Once we arrived at Denpasar airport Bali we had a short wait before our connecting flight to Surabaya we had arrived.
After checking into the hotel and un-packing our bikes we decided to venture out for a short ride to stretch out the legs, venturing through traffic and back streets of Sidoarjo we eventually came to a dead end road near a fishing village and decided to head back to the hotel and get back into the hotel.

The day before the race we decided to go for another ride to make sure everything was fine before we raced, but after getting stuck in traffic we were only able to get about 20kms in an hour.  So we found some back street which turned into a dirt track and eventually got us back to the hotel.

Day 1 of the 3 day Tour de East Java began with a 20km neutral zone before the 180km first stage. Our team manager Travis had everything sorted including trying to explain to our driver how to drive and get up close enough to feed the team.

The first 50-60kms were absolutely flat out averaging around 50km/h with a move of 3 riders finally got away which relaxed the pace so we were finally able to feed.  The race was pretty settled till just before the climb and then picked up again slightly after the decent.  The break was away with about 5mins on the main group so a few of the teams including ours decided to get on the front and start to bring the brake back.  With us swapping off at around 45-50km/h we had got the break with in a 1.30 then it got down to 1.10 and the chase began to ease up as the counter attacks were expected. Sure enough they came and they were fast with 50kms to go the pace was on again as with Luke, Toby, Stu and myself trying to get in a counter attack we were roasted with the temperature sitting around the 40 degree mark we were wrecked.  Another move of around 10 got away, we were within 3kms of the finish and there was some miss communication with the “traffic management” and we were stuck behind scooters trucks and cars who had no idea there was a bike race on so the commissaries neutralised the main group and we all rolled over the line 2.30 behind the winner. Afterwards myself, Luke, Stu and Toby were just happy to have finished a race of that intensity and distance and heat.  We soon found out that Uppers had to pull the pin after nearly passing out from heat stress and not wanting to end up in an Indonesian hospital.

Day 2 was Mt Bromo, with a relatively short stage of only 84.5kms with a 13km neutral zone.
With our compact chain rings fitted and we were ready on the start line ready to go another hot day. Once again the neutral zone finished and there were a few attacks before a move got away the race was pretty uneventfully for the first 50kms with Toby helping one of other teams to bring back the breakaway.   At the bottom of the climb a few of the Bahrain riders decided to ride into each other with most of our team managing to avoid the crash we started the climb.  With in the first 5km the group had splintered with a couple of riders in sight I continued to tap out a rhythm passing a couple of riders half way up the climb our team car was able to push through and feed me, after some encouraging words from our team manager and Toby who after having a rough night not being able to hold down any food decided to take the car up to the top of Bromo.  Pushing the pedals I finally managed to get to the 10km to go and what felt like ages to get to the 5km to go banner I was finally close to the top.  I could see a rider up ahead so I kept my rhythm going eventually with 200 meters to go I was able to catch him and with 100m to go I could see the finishing banner and with a sneaky wheelie over the line I had conquered Mt Bromo in 15th position.  After a Huge effort from Stu being able to finish the climb and a big effort from Luke who is still getting over bronchitis and having to pull the pin on his first Asian race we were all at the top of Mt Bromo.

Day 3 The Final Stage,
Day 3 was another relatively short stage of 78.6 kms.  After two awesome days of being fed by my team mates and only having to go back to the car myself once in the whole first two days I was now on my own.  The race started later than the previous two with a 1.30 start opposed to the previous 10am starts – it was HOT!  I stuffed my jersey with ice, but after only 2.8km in the neutral zone the race had started and my ice was already gone.  The roads had been rough and full of pot holes the entire tour but the roads today were insane, with one section the field was bunny hopping more than they were actually riding! There were bottles flying everywhere and lots of punctures. I managed to avoid losing any bottles or getting any flats which was a huge relief it came to the 30km mark and we were able to feed.  With a long flat tail wind section I decided now was as good as any time to go back to the car and feed after getting full bottles and some encouraging words from Toby I was back with the group.  The climb began starting off relatively gradually but being the last stage the pace was on! I stayed with the front group until around the 5km to go when the pace went through the roof.  Around 10 guys got up the road, and I was in another group of around 10 and as it started getting steep a few more got up the road.  Myself and a couple of others started hitting it when  we finally saw the 500m to go banner then I hit it again.   Just before the finish we had a small downhill section before it ramped it up again onto the bumpy finishing straight with a steep gradient around 18 precent. I crossed the line again in 15th and finished the tour in 16 on GC.

What a great tour with a great bunch of guys!

A big shout out to Toby for letting me ride in the Dome Coffees Cycling team and for Satalyst Giant Racing Team for allowing me go to this race, and also Travis for being a great team manager and getting absolutely everything sorted.

Finally thanks to the rest of the team for doing an awesome job of getting me to the finish of each of the stages feeding and sheltering me!

Jonathan Bolton

http://www.tourdeeastjava.com/en/gallery/2013

After a hard crit, involving a slide along Sturt Street two days prior, the road nationals were upon us. Bike prepped, breakfast down and we were off to the start. With my driver Emma at the wheel we were at the start in no time. After finding a good park across from the feed zone and Emma’s lack of care for the hire car, we were parked. As Emma marked out her claim for a feed position (not very happy when a green edge van almost stole her spot!) with her lone chair and eski she was ready. I was getting myself ready for the start involving cranking the car’s heater up to full as it was a freezing 9deg morning. After a few reps up the first half of the climb I was starting to warm up. After passing Pete my long sleeve jersey I was ready. Looking around I was in awe; so many pros and riders I had only ever seen in magazines and on tv were sitting around me. After the chief commissaire’s address and the information that there had been a burst water main on the course so we would have to be rerouted.

With the bang of the starters gun we were off!! Straight off the line there was an attack, consisting of our newly crowned time trial champion. As the break consisted of a representative from most of the big teams and with still 195kms to go, the main field didn’t really seem to respond. After a relatively easy climb and fast descent the first big lap was over. Thinking to myself, well this was not going to be too hard a day in the saddle, the next climb began. After organising my two great helpers, Emma and Pete, to feed me on every pass I wasn’t too concerned on my position to get a bidon on the way through as I still had one and a half bottles when the feed zone came around. As the feed zone was about half way up the first part of the climb I went to the outside and just stayed out of trouble. The climb again was over and the pace seemed to stay the same. On the flatter part of the second big lap we were informed by the commissaire that the break had got out to 6 minutes and if it was to get to 10 the remainder of the field would be pulled out of the race. A couple of remarks from riders joking about how this could be a nice easy bike race. Then one of the smaller teams came to try and pull some of the time back but this didn’t last for long. Before long we were up the climb for the third time and much like the first two not a whole lot really happened. At this stage the commissaire advised us that the gap had got out to 8 minutes. After this, either the break slowed down or the main field’s pace picked up, and by the 4th ascent the break was down to around 5 mins. So I had arranged with Pete and Emma to get a bidon every lap past the feed zone and a bag around every 4. At this point I hadn’t fed at all yet so I tried to get into a good position to get a feed bag off Pete; as everyone else had the same idea this proved quite difficult. So 3 big laps down and I still hadn’t fed. On the 4th time past the feed zone i was in a good position. Pete, like a true soigneur was able to get me a feed bag with a full bottle in it so after sorting myself out filling my pockets and swapping bottles over I was able to, with confidence, stomp up the second part of the climb. I got into a good position for the descent and held that position for the rest of the lap. Much the same for the next few laps, being able to get bottles when I needed.

At around the 90km mark I stood up to put some power down to get in a good position for the next ascent. As I did this I felt my quads start to cramp up. Not too concerned, I unclipped a foot and went to hook it over my saddle to stretch out. I got my foot half way up and my hammies were not going to play that game. I spun the legs out for a bit and finished off a bottle. Then the next climb began. As I went up I kept in a really easy gear, drifting through the group, then descending again. I spun the legs to try to stop them from cramping but they were starting to get sore and heavy. So on the next ascent I decided, as I often do, to attack the bunch. I knew this was never going to be a good move and I wasn’t going to get away or catch the break. I still hit out and well Pete got some good photos, and I got some awesome cheers from the crowd and hell, I didn’t want to just get dropped cramping up having sat in the bunch all day. Before the top of the climb I had been caught but i think this must have spurred the bunch on a bit because the descent was fast!

The next couple of laps I was in the hurt box, drifting back through the group and on the last few loosing contact but catching back on with a few others on the descent. Then on my final ascent I lost contact on the corner before the last step of the climb and the field must have hit it hard as I lost sight of them on the descent. So with two other riders and the sag wagon nipping at our heels, we crossed the line and with the wave of a red flag we were pulled from the race. With four laps to go I was able to watch the powerhouse of Luke Durbridge ride away from the one rider left on his wheel to take the win. The first rider to take out the TT and RR in one year. So much for the cynics saying this wasn’t Durbo’s course and he would be lucky to finish. All in all, a great experience and I got to hit it up with some of the worlds best riders!!

Once again, thanks to everyone that helped me out along the way, Toby and Dome Westralia Plaza for the huge amount of help that got me to the start line and hopefully next time also to the finish. A big thankyou to Pete and the club for all the support and donations. And a huge thanks to Emma for putting up with me!

One of my friends is currently undertaking a unit as part of her Nutrition degree at Curtin which involves a group research project on a topic of her choice. Their group have a keen interest in sports nutrition so saw this as an opportunity to conduct a research project involving athletes.
The topic they have chosen to investigate is ‘Sports drink intake among athletes.’ And have created an online questionnaire as a method of data collection, which will enable them to draw conclusions from the results obtained.
To fulfil the requirements of their project they need to recruit 40-50 people to complete our online questionnaire.

We are contacting your particular club in the hope that you would be able to notify club members of our project and need for participants. The online questionnaire takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and all information remains unidentifiable.
To ensure that you are well informed about the purpose of our research I have included a brief overview of the project below.
In appreciation for your participation in this research we will provide your club with an incentive pack, which will include various sports drinks for you to use.
Thanks
Rach

Project Overview
The aim of this research project is to examine current practices involving the consumption of various sports drinks by young athletes. The project’s main objectives includes the following:
· Determine which sports drinks are regularly consumed by athletes.
· Investigate the timing and quantity of sports drinks consumed by athletes.
· Determine the perceived benefits which athletes experience from their sport drink of choice.
· Establish sources of information available to athletes regarding sports drinks.
This area has previously been neglected in funded research projects.
Data from the completed surveys will be used to fulfill the research objectives stated above. A report will be produced to provide a detailed explanation of the project with a summary of the findings. From these findings we hope to achieve an insight into the most popular sports drinks amongst athletes. This will provide vital information on actual consumption patterns of sports drinks among athletes.

Sports drinks

We’re looking for athletes 18 to 30 years to complete our short 10-15 minute questionnaire online.

From this information we aim to analyse the intake of sports drinks among athletes.

Please follow the link below to the questionnaire before Sept 23rd

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D9WVVS9

(Ethics approval number SPH – 25 – 2011)

If 10 or more members from your club complete the questionnaire we’ll send your club a sports drink pack!

After much pressure from toby here is the race report for last weekend’s B grade road race down In in Pemberton.

The day started with a bit of a sleep-in, waking up at a nice lazy 6.30. After looking outside, the sky looked pretty grey, never the less I started to get ready. As we got ready to start warming up it started to rain, thankfully I decided to bring my rollers so started to warm up as Toby and Paul went for a ride. After a good warm-up I put on my jacket (which I would later regret) and we headed to the start line, which wasn’t the easiest ride carrying spare wheels riding downhill.  Never the less we signed in and lined up.

On the line Nic told me he didn’t want to ride with the group in the wet and was going to make a break as soon as he could. The commissar gave us a few words and we were off. Sure enough Nic went off the front, and after the first rail crossing Toby was already one water bottle down. We started over the rolling hills when a few went off the front and caught up with Nic the break was now starting to look pretty strong as Emma Pooley was sitting on my wheel I thought it would be time to bridge the gap but to my surprise I was the only rider to go across. In the break the pace started to pick up as we tried to make the gap bigger. Doing so, we dropped the other riders so it was down to three: Nic, Will Heath and I. Knowing we had a long downhill ahead of us and the group would be able to drag us in we stepped up the pace on the corners and got out of sight. Some hard roll throughs kept us away till the bottom of pump hill.

The group was momentarily back together until pump hill started to sort all the riders out. By the top of the hill myself, Nic and Will were in another break away now consisting of eight riders, one of whom was Emma Pooley. The break stayed together for the remainder of the first lap then somewhere between there and the highway we were down to 6 riders.

Once again up pump hill the group splintered slightly but reformed just after. Then flying back into town with the rain coming straight into us and carbon rims still not wanting to brake we were over the start/finish line with one more lap of pump hill to go. As we approached I attacked getting about half way up before Emma’s counter attack, dragging three guys behind her caught me. As I went to chase, the legs decided they’d had enough still with the lead four in front of me and a south west rider tried to catch back on but to no prevail. Once more down the hill into town and crossing the line I was tired, wet but happy with my race.

After waiting around for presentations when they decided that out of a six man break I had got 7^th and apparently the timing devices are over ruled my the line marshals – who of course couldn’t see my race number under my jacket!! All in all a great weekend of cycling.