race report by peter.
handicap races. i haven’t had a good trot with them this year as it is a totally different style of racing. the first was menzies to kalgoorlie where i hit the cramp wall at about 85kms and had to pull out. the group i was in was smashing along at 45km/hr from the gun and i just couldn’t hold that pace for 132kms. the next was the collie-donnybrook race where i had no legs left once the group hit the final climb. one of the guys in our group wanted to go hard from the gun to try to stay away from scratch. we didn’t have enough of a handicap for that to happen over 100kms. at least i finished that one.
this race at northam had the potential to be a hell of a lot worse as it was five laps of a circuit that contained the main climb out of town. it wasn’t a particularly hard climb, but over the 125kms it was going to wear the legs away each lap. so it was all going to come down to who was in our group and what handicap we would get. we being mike who was the only other spr rider to front up for this event. brendan and steve were racing as was davina who was going with the plan-b team. the rest of the spr crew were chasing mountain points around perth.
the day was pleasant enough with only a sprinkle of rain as i approached northam. the predicted top of 20ish was easily achievable and with a start time of 11:00 we would be racing in the “heat of the day”. not that it would be too much of a problem today.
i pulled into the start finish area as they were setting up tents and tables for the race and went looking for the sign-in point. hmmm. not here. apparently it was up the road at the visitors centre where they start the avon descent. back in the car as it was too far to walk. well too far if i was to do a 125km race as well. handed over my licence, collected my number and found out the handicaps. the plan b girls were off at 11:00 with another group 4min later. mike and i were off the 8min mark with hamish and dean from squadra barista off 12min. brendan was off 17min and steve somehow managed to be thrown in with the 21min group. after that there were the usual “a” grade boys in two groups back to 27min. on a 125km course with 5 hill climbs, i was sure that we would not be staying away from scratch to the end.
as we rolled up to the start line one of the guys in our group tried to set the ground rules. he didn’t want us to go too hard and smash the group apart early, but try to stay together for as long as we could. mike and i said that we were just trying to get to the end so weren’t looking at attacking and going on a 125km solo effort. as we set off, we had aussie crates guy who set the ground rules, lpr dude, knightfrank, melville fremantle guy along with mike and myself. a pretty small group and it would be interesting to see how well we did together.
the first couple of laps were pretty uneventful. the climb we tackled at an even tempo although on the second time up there were calls to take it easy. this was usually when mike went to the front to set the tempo which was generally higher than the other guys. i sprinted around to get on his wheel, but he wasn’t attacking, just going faster. these laps were really just getting an idea of the course and the wind direction. we did work well together and everyone did turns on the front without really missing a beat. the only problem was that they had started the juniors and they were now on the road in front of us, making it hard to know if you were gaining on our 4min men or not. at the top of the climb one of the young guys must have put a wheel in the dirt as he was sitting on the road edge with the bike on top of him. didn’t look too bad and there were some support people not far behind us, so we weren’t stopping.
at the start of the third lap we saw the group ahead of us on the climb. we had already pick up one of their number earlier on and i heard him say to one of our group that they had smashed it to try to catch the girls and he fell off the back on the hill. there were three or four riders in that group and when they saw us they kind of sat up and waited. we continued the climb together and i think we lost melville freo guy on this ascent.
we kept up the same tempo riding down the side of the hill and along the flats. pretty soon we saw the girls up ahead and the tint-a-car lead car just ahead. we swallowed up their group and our numbers hit that point where we could actually start rolling through instead of just doing turns. unfortunately this didn’t really work too well as some of the guys would smash off the front for their turn then stop pedalling causing a kind of sprint situation to close the gaps. this made the pace irregular and we eventually fell back into single turns at the front. unfortunately the pace change had caused us to drop a few more riders and when i looked around mel and josie were not there. we still had davina and claire with us along with half of the two other groups.
at the start of the fourth lap, we lost claire as the climb started but the rest of the group hung in there. after the small plateau halfway up the first section of road, an old guy from the 4min group in a ag2r kit took off. no-one was really keen to chase him as we were forcing a tempo up the hill and still had one more lap to go. mike and i did some turns at pace setting on the hill but i coped a mouthful from the crates guy who for some reason was accusing me of going slow to let the other guy get away. i have no idea what he was talking about as i was still just setting the same tempo.
as we crested the hill and headed back down, the group set up an informal roll through to chase the ag2r guys down. informal cause it is hard to get a proper roll through happening when you are all going at speed and also the pace was continuously surging. as the road flattened into a series of rolling bumps the group still tried to chase down, but it was really all over the place. a guy in front of me would literally sprint when he hit the front and then i would be left with a huge gap. i wasn’t sprinting and tried to close the gap without forcing another one to open behind me. after this happened a couple of times, the crates guy started yelling at me calling me a poofter and claiming that i was deliberately riding slow to let the other guy go. i’m pretty sure i told him what i thought and blamed him for not consistently rolling through and braking the group apart every time he hit the front. i was tempted to just sit in now as he had really pissed me off.
we kept going though and hit the flatter part of the course where we could get the roll through happening a lot smoother. about halfway back into town there was a yell from behind as the scratch group had caught us. there was a sprint to jump on board the train then i we were all content to sit in and let them dictate the pace. we came back through town and headed for the hill again. davina dropped off after the feed zone as the group rolled through the lower slopes. the pace was not extreme as we started the hill, but picked up with a couple of attacks which dislodged me, crates guy and mat from melville-freo who we picked up from the 4min group. just prior to that the crates guy had apologised for earlier on, but that’s just racing in the heat of the moment.
the main group slowed a bit on the plateau and i managed to claw my way back on. mike was still in that group as were a few others that we were originally riding with. the scratchmen kicked again and it was all over for me. i set a tempo to the top and worked with mat and crates guy (who never did a turn on the hill) to get over the climb. once at the top we started to the descent and started my cramps. the higher pace started cramping my calves and i had to ease off and let the other guys go. i made my way down the hill and actually stopped for a call of nature that i had been wanting to make since the 2nd lap. as i got underway again, davina along with three other guys picked me up and i joined in the roll through. i only lasted about three or four turns before my hamstrings began to cramp and i fell off the pace. the 45km/hr was too much for me that late in the race. i fell into damage control mode and made my way home.
it’s times like this i think i need some oakley thump sunnies that have the built in mp3 player. i get a bit bored riding the rest of the way by myself. there were two things that kept me interested. a huge lizard ran across the road in front of me. i hadn’t seen one that big since i lived in the plibara. and within 300m of the finishline, as i past a yellow car on the side of the road and three kids jumped out to frighten me and scared the utter crap out of me. lucky i didn’t fall off. i was glad to be finished.
no idea where i came except the crates guy and mat came in 8th and 9th so i think i came in 14th, but not sure until the results come out. post race i chatted with mike, to find out that he got dropped on the last pinch when the scratchmen attacked again. but he kept going and should have got a top ten finish. brendan pulled out with a coughing fit and has since been told by the doctor that he might have a sinus infection. steve avoided a massive crash at 60km/hr by locking his brakes up so much that he wore a hole right through his tyre. me, i got changed and headed home, tired but satisfied that i held on to the last lap and finished the whole thing.
