Tag Archives: dardanup

Dardanup Tour Cat 2 Race Report

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20130908_142556I had been looking forward to the Dardanup Open for almost a month, I’d heard nothing but good things about it, and after months of not racing I couldn’t wait to put the race wheels, pin on a number and get out there. I was a little nervous about the TTT though, not ever having done a timed event before, my usual race strategy is ‘hold on, then sprint’ I wasn’t really sure how to pace myself, but mostly I just didn’t want to let down my teammates on SPR1, Andrew Ballam, Stuart Ivins, Dave Manners and Sam Luccitti.

Finally the day was here and with Saturday’s temperamental weather I was thrilled to wake up to a beautiful spring day, a quick breakfast and as soon as the car was packed I was on the road for the 2 hour drive down to Dardanup. As usual Pete was there with the SPR tent providing an excellent meeting point for all SPR riders to catch up, talk tactics and have a well-deserved coke after the race and it was here that I learnt of our Director Sportifs (aka Pete) plans for today’s race. With a substantial numerical advantage over the rest of the field SPR 1 and SPR 2 would join forces and send riders up the road from the get go in an effort to make the other teams chase and hopefully tire them out, besides myself and Dave who were ‘protected riders’ we were to sit in an save ourselves for the expected sprint finish. No pressure!

I rode back to my car and jumped on the rollers for 20 minutes to wake the legs up after the drive for what promised to be a fast, attacking start to the road race. I couldn’t see much of what happened in the first couple of km’s, but it was pretty strung out and I remember seeing at least 3 attacks go clear before Andrew’s finally stuck, solo at first and then joined by a SWCC and BDC Drilling rider. At that point everyone seemed content just to let them go, everyone was represented so why bother chasing. From what I could see it looked as though John Gilbertson did the lion’s share of the work setting a nice steady tempo on the front for most of the race.

At the first hill the field split up a bit, I took the chance to move up towards the front and saw a small chase group form up ahead; again it had all teams represented and SPR had the numbers with Dave and another SPR rider (who’s name escapes me at the moment sorry [it was james – elPrez]) so no one was really keen to pull them back in. By this point Andrew was well out of sight and the chase group were just lingering in no mans land. After we turned off Furguson Rd the chase got so close I thought it was all over for them, but after our DS bridged across ‘to relay a message’ they were gone and Pete dropped back into the main peloton with the rest of us which was still being passed along nicely by SPR.

We soon lost sight of the chase group and I assumed that that was going to be the winning move and just hoped that Andrew could stay away or someone from SPR could still take the sprint. Coming into the base of the major climb of the day and the start of our return trip to Dardanup I was feeling fresh thanks to the work of my teammates and sat towards the front of the SPR and SWCC lead peloton hoping to conserve as much energy as I could now for the TTT, but as Pete launched an attack and I followed wheels the road opened up and I realised that the chase group weren’t that far in front. Stuck hovering only a dozen meters off the front I bridged over to Pete who had successfully strung out the peloton and dropped many rides as planned and that got the remainder of the peloton.

Still feeling good I tapped out a rhythm on the front until eventually others started to roll through. We put on a pretty good run down the other side and after Sam put in a killer turn we could see the front of the race, Andrew was out front all on his own with the chase group catching him. It was then that we decided to bring it all back together for the planned bunch sprint. It took longer than I thought, but everyone worked well together and gauged their efforts perfectly as we caught the chase as they caught Andrew and with 5k to go there wasn’t much time for those in the breakaway to recover before the sprint. Dave made sure he found me in the bunch and although he had been in the chase group for 20 odd km’s assured me he was still fresh and that he’d wind it up for me at about the 400m mark, again no pressure!

From there it was almost a dead straight run into the finish, there were a couple of little rises that put a sting in the legs and a slight headwind coming from the left but with the whole peloton fighting for time bonuses the most critical part was positioning. Luckily for me Dave had put me in the perfect position, about 8 wheels back on the outside and to the right, I was out of the wind, could see what was happening and most importantly I could move. It was such a good spot in fact that I had a SWCC rider try and wrestle me out of it. I couldn’t tell you how long I was sitting there waiting to see something that would tell me the finish line was close but at about 1km to go John attacked in a solo move and the whole peloton responded, I just made sure I was glued to Dave’s wheel. This strung things out a bit more and gave everyone a bit more room to move an no sooner had we caught John than a SWCC rider launched an early sprint from behind coming around the outside on my right with about 500m to go. I was too slow to grab his wheel but Dave took off after him getting me up to speed and virtually on the SWCC riders wheel. Somehow during the ensuing panic someone rode into the side of me, from the impact I was sure he was going to go down and while I didn’t hear that unmistakable sound of bike and rider hitting the ground I did sense that it had slowed everyone around him and especially behind him but someone else will have to verify that because I couldn’t see. I started my sprint about 300m out and caught the tiring SWCC rider with about 250m, knowing that there was a traffic island at 200m to go I sat on his wheel until we were clear of it and then launched again for the line. Presumably without knowing it as I started to come past him the SWCC rider cut straight across my line and pushed me onto the wrong side of the road, but with about 150m left I was able to reset my sprint and get around him for the win.

That’s my first B Grade win and I can’t thank everyone enough, from Andrew with his 30km solo breakaway to Dave for his amazing work at getting me into the perfect spot to everyone that pulled a turn on the front so that I wouldn’t have to. Now normally that would be the end of the story, but not today, we still had a 39km TTT to race.

20130908_142512After the usual debrief and coke it was time to start thinking about the TTT, I headed off back to the car to jump back on the rollers and grab a fresh bottle then before I knew it was time to head back to the start line. You’ll have to forgive me as my recollection of the TTT is a little blurry, but that might have something to do with the 180bpm average HR, either way I remember we had a great start with everyone rolling good turns then we lost Stuart Ivins to a puncture just before the first climb and there was only 4 of use left. We all worked well together and there was very little need for talking, I felt good until halfway up the main climb where I started to feel my left calf cramp, something that I’ve never felt on the bike before, but luckily with a few downhill section on the run home I was able to sit on the back and stretch it out, have something to drink and it was fine until the end. Everyone gave 100% but I think that Andrew deserves a special mention after having spent almost the entire road race off the front by himself and he even managed to drop Dave and I with a couple of km’s to as he came to the front for his turn. We ended up taking out the TTT too ahead of SPR2 with SWCC coming in third. This saw me claim the overall with Sam 2nd SWCC’s Joel Hodgson 3rd Dave 4th and Andrew 5th, I’d be interested to see how the time bonuses work/what they are for a SWCC rider to split us like that when they were nearly 2 minutes slower than us in the TTT.

I want to give a special thankyou to SWCC for organising the event and ATTA for the timing as well as the SPR race committee for organising the teams, Pete for organising the tent and refreshments and everyone that was out there racing. The highlight of my day was standing on the podium with everyone else from SPR that had won a gnome for a photo; I hope to see you all there next year.

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dardanup open

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to the winners, go the gnomes

the dardanup open is on next weekend and our sister club, south west cc, has changed the format to make it a combination of road race and cyclo-sportif.  there will be 2 separate races on, a road race, then a cyclo-style time trial.  the winners will be those with the best combined time in the two events including bonus’ for the place getters in the road race.

the road race is only 40kms and the time trial is also 40kms.  there are no tt bikes, sperm helmets or disc wheels allowed, so it will be just like a cyclo.  for those with a recreational licence, you will be able to enter D grade which is just the team time trial.  this provides a much cheaper alternative to the bwa events.

registrations close midnight on tuesday 4th and are only $40 for A-C grade and $25 for D grade.

i recommend that you get on board to support this event as the swcc put on a good race and this year they are trying to cater for the recreational membership.  their club is very similar to ours and comprises of about half recreational members.

there are prizes to be won and golden gnomes on offer.

registration can be found here.

more info can be found on the flyer.

the map can be found here. 

dardanup open – “inter-club championships”

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as i mentioned before, the dardanup open is on this weekend down in….dardanup.  this is just a bit passed bunbury and is run by the south west cycle club.  there is an “a” grade (100km), “b” grade (72km) and a “c” grade (60km) being run as well as a participation event (24km or 39km) so there is pretty much something for everyone.

now, we need to support this event for 2 reasons.

firstly, we have a very good relationship with south west as their club is very similar to ours (ideology and rider-type) so we can see that they are also trying to grow the sport.  we are also in direct competition with them as far as memberships are concerned.  even though we have cracked the 200 member mark, they have managed to stay ahead of us and are growing as well.

secondly, the gauntlet has been thrown down after the pinjarra race, to see who is the “better” club.  by this we are looking at having a small “inter-club championship” within the dardanup open whereby the first spr or swcc rider to cross the line in each grade receives a perpetual trophy.  this is returned back to next years dardanup open to again see the “better” club.  there has also been some “sledging” happening as this challenge has already been mentioned in the south west newsletter where we were refered to as “kermits”. 

so, support the south west club, as they go to the effort to put on this event, and also support spr as we kick some southwest butt.  we also need to come up with a good nickname for these guys if they are going to keep referring to us as kermits.  mexicans, perhaps???  but maybe that is offensive to real mexicans. 🙂

flyer for the event can be found here and registration here.

participation event info can be found here and registration here.

registrations need to be in by midnight tuesday and day licences are allowed in “b” and “c” grade.  add to the comments below if you are coming and see you down there in the spr tent.

 

PMBC XC Series Rnd 4 – Pile Road

Well last Sunday saw the MTB crew head south to Pile Road near Dardanup for round 4 of the PMBC XC series. AS with the time trial on saturday we did not have a big turnout for SPR, maybe its the distance that turns people off.

As always Lorraine’s son Nick and myself were flying the SPR colours along with Bernie who also made an appearance after a bit of peer pressure from a mate of his who was in town (and happened to take 2nd in their field). Arriving later in the day was Chris Browne & Peter Gill, hopefully they get some kit in the next order 😉

The turnout for the day was 115 riders who had made the trip down and even a few who had raced the time trial on the saturday. With the weather coming to the party we were set for a good day of racing.

The 1st wave would see most of us setting off in short succesion. Nick was the 1st to head out with the under 17s and soon followed by Bernie in Vets. Myself in Sport was soon after this. Each group started fairly steadily due to the deep gravel and nice long uphill start to spread the field out, although Sport was a bit more competative after Tony Tucknott thru down a challenge for me to make the 1st corner ahead of the field. A few others heard this and had a go as well. Needless to say I hooked in off the mark an blitz the corner and halfway up the hill before almost crumpling in a heap. Last time I do that again as it killed me for the rest of the race. It did win me a monster KitKat & bragging rights though.

After that it was back into the riding rhythm to punch out 3 laps of the ~7km course. About halfway thru my 1st lap I past young Nick going hard. Thanks to rain earlier in the week followed by 2 dry days the trail was in fine form. Nice and firm with not too much slip in the WA pea gravel. The Majority of the course was single track with a few connecting sections of fire trail. The 1st half was in a generally upwards direction, which meant a nice downhill ride for the finish. Apart from being downhill the 2nd half of the course had some really nice flowing single track with plenty of fast berms, a few jumps and the odd hairpin to keep you on your toes.

Course

After all was said and done the 3 of us finished near the back of our fields with both Bernie & Nick not up to race fitness, and me never really ever race fit, but a fun day was had and thats the main thing. Both Chris & Pete finished about a second apart in there category, trading places as the laps past.

Once racing was out of the way it was pack up the tent and head up the road to the Wild Bull Brewery for a feed and a pint. before the long drive home. Being a sunday the the place was pretty busy and we had a bit of a wait for the food. This gave us time to enjoy our pints (Cider, Stout and Ale) before the burgers arrived and discuss how we went.

Also thanks must go to Lorraine and Gaby as support crew, photographers, mum, wife and any other task they had to do. Next race will be Rnd 5 at Boddington on July 4th. Closely followed by the 4hr to be held at Pile road as well but with a different course (with over 50kms of trail available it should be interesting to see what htey come up with.) We hope to see a few more SPR riders there, to give Ryan & Johnny a run for their money.

2010 XC Series – Round 4

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No sooner has the 6hr finished and the next round of the 2010 XC series is upon us.

Round 4 of the series will be held at Pile Road near Dardanup on Sunday June 13th.

Rego is between 0800-0930 and racing kicks off from 1030. All the regulars will be attending and hopefully a few of the other lurkers will make an appearance.

Full details can be found on the attached flyer.

Online rego can be found here and closes on the 10th. Entry on the day is available

but will be an extra $10.

This race will also be a great opportunity to scout some of the trail that will be used for the upcoming 4hr Enduro in July. The area is well signposted and has enough trail to keep you going for most of the day. And when you’ve had enough time on the bike pop into The Wild Bull Brewery just up the road, for some food and

a light refreshment.

Register your interest in the comments so Lorraine and I know who to expect and have enough supplies for the day.

state time trial championships – dardanup

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race report by peter.

 

like most things, time trials are something that you have to practice and compete in to be really good at them.  there are lots of opportunities to do this as atta runs events across the whole year and you could basically be doing one every second weekend.  my last time trial was the team time trial around sept/oct last year. 

one benefit is that i do have a time trial bike harking back from my triathlon days.  since those days are not that long ago, the bike is still quite modern and was a lot better than just slapping some tt bars on the road bike.  i was originally setup by budgie and taking into account my crap flexibility and the fact that i would have to run off the bike, it was very high at the front.  in the week leading up to the event i made some adjustments to the height of the handle bars.  (it is always good to change your position come race day, right???).  effectively i dropped the front end down about 7cm while leaving the saddle pretty much the same height.  there is a fine line here as the lower you are, the more aerodynamic you are but you start to lose power as you are in a more cramped position.  not only that, there are parts of your anatomy that don’t really like to get squashed against a bike seat.  i have scope to lower the front about another 2 or 3 cms, but may need to either get a smp cut away saddle or a visit to one of our urologist to get it all chopped off.

anyway, i do actually take the time trial bike out about once a week and managed to get a ride in on the new position.  it didn’t seem too bad in the efforts that i was doing around the river.  unfortunately my nice clean, ready to race bike was now filthy as it rained last wednesday when i took it out.  a quick hose and chain lube and i was almost ready to go.  i managed to borrow chris’ deeper dish cosmics to try to get some form of aero advantage, but i was sure that i was grasping at straws by this time.

so, race day comes around and i made the loooong trip down to dardanup with judd.  i am sure that we can find a nice circuit closer to perth for the state championships.  also signed up for the day was stu, rob, lorraine, nicole and the fleet girls.  paul o had also signed up, but bloused it as he had a flight to catch… the next day.  the event was scheduled for a 2pm start which gave everyone lots of time to make the trip down and not having to get up at 5am was a nice change.

stu, rob and myself were in the masters division and our course was only 25kms.  the women did the same course, while judd, being the young buck, had to compete in the open division over 39kms.  this was the same course that we did at the dardanup road race not so long ago and had a few sharp climbs in it.  the open course had a few sharp climbs as well as a big hill.  glad i am an old man now.

with no atta results or previous form to go off, rob and i were to leave quite early, while stu was going off with the big boys.  the pointy end of the start list looked like an atta results page with a bunch of the regulars making the most of the state champs in their preferred discipline.  the women were next to leave followed by the u19 and open men.  judd’s start time was almost an hour after mine and he was doing a longer course.

we arrived early enough to pitch the spr sunshade and set up underneath to start our warmup.  with a 25km race, i was going to need about an hour of warmup as, unlike a road race, there would be no cruisey start to proceedings.  stu, judd and myself were stationed on our trainers under the shade and spun out some k’s.  i am sure that i was still not fully warmed up when all of a sudden i saw rob take off from the line.  i grabbed the bike off the trainer and zoomed up the road a couple of times to make sure the biek wouldn’t fall apart on me.

pretty soon i was on the startline with john holding the back of my saddle and a lady giving me a countdown.  5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and i was off.  damn the bars are low now when i am holding onto the bull horns.  i quickly settled into the aero position and made my way up the gears to get up to speed.

we were being set off at minute intervals so i had rabbits to chase and wolves to be chased by.  once i cleared the town the road straightened up and i could actually see my minute man up the road.  time is a really deceptive thing when you are riding a bike in this situation.  you assume that as you can see the other rider, you mustn’t be that far behind.  if you actually pick a landmark and count the seconds that it takes for you to also pass it, you soon realise how much time you need to make up.

the wind was low but i am still not 100% sure of the direction as it seemed to spin around during the event.  i was in the big ring and powering along but soon realised that my hammys were not that warmed up for big efforts and had to ease back a bit.  longer efforts needed during warmup.  i kept the pace up as best i could but started to worry about the guy chasing me.  i didn’t dare look behind just in case i could actually see him.  our course was supposedly flat with a couple of small bumps and a power climb.  turn around and head home over the same bumps.  at the end of the day it is actually uphill on the way out and downhill on the return, but not enough to make it really count.

as we started to tackle the small bumps, i realised that i was actually making up some time on my minute man.  he seemed to be struggling a bit on the ups but still doing ok on the flats.  at about the 9.5km mark we hit the main climb and i was catching him fast.  i left it in the big ring and powered past him before we crested the top.  i was now a bit worried that i would get past as the road flattened out so i kept the power on going down the other side to stay ahead. 

a couple of riders were now heading the other way as i approached the turnaround and i was still ahead of my rabbit.  i tried to work out how far ahead the next guy was and set my goal to catch him before the end.  within two kms we were on the power climb again and i hit it hard to catch and pass my two minute man.  congratulated me as i past him, but i was maxing out at 189 bpm, so may have just grunted an acknowledgement.  it did make me feel better though.

homeward bound and i was now looking at my average speed to try to get it up as high as possible.  i knew that it would not be in the 40’s but i was disappointed to see it around the 36 mark.  as the return was flatter, i was determined to keep the bike over the 40 mark as much as possible.  i couldn’t see any other riders in front of me, so now i was riding scared and making sure i stayed ahead of the chasers.

the faster pace and new position began to catch up with me as my left upper calf started to feel tight.  basically from there to my hamstrings were feeling the pinch and i started to feel the onset of a cramp.  bugger.  just keep pushing.  

putting more power through my right leg, i managed to stave off any real cramp that would have stopped me in my tracks.  the final run into town was tough but fast and i could just see a rider up the road as we approached the town.  he managed to stay 30 sec in front of me as i crossed the line.

a quick cool down and then back onto the trainer to spin the legs out again.  rob started in front of me but was a little slower.  he out it down to stuffing up the turn around and having to turn back around again.  i was worried about his time as he recently did the half-ironman so had some form leading into the day.  stu came through next and took about a minute and half out of my time for a great ride.  as we waited for the women to finish, judd was still warming up waiting for his start time.

all the girls came it with anna suffering from new bike syndrome and taking second overall with holly third.  i had to give holly crap as she beat me by 1 sec.  bec came in 5th, nicole 8th and lorraine and jill came in the exact same time in 9th and 10th.

we had a long wait for judd, who did a respectable 1:03:31 to come in 12th.  with two fleet girls on the podium the spr hats made another appearance as we packed up and made the long trek home.

results can be found here.