Golden Spokes – The B team race report by Judd

Or: Where has my sprint gone?

This was my first race in a while so I was nervous for a full week beforehand. Rather than try to make up for months of not training in the last few days I was determined to try a new race approach, recovering for a full week in the lead up after a few weeks of heavy training. This unusual procedure has lead to a mild state of panic and self doubt: I feel flat, I have not done enough, I am going to get spat out for being lazy, this is going to be so embarrassing and so forth and so forth. I start researching UCI Cycling rules to find out if I can use aero wheels, engines or kite surfing parachutes. I am willing take any advantage I can get. Unfortunately it seems I have to resign myself to my training wheels.

5am race day: Text from Nico saying he has had to cancel race as Jody has gone back to hospital after crashing the car (I have since heard Jody will be OK). Planned race day routine stuffed already. Panic continues. I know what will help, coffee!

Pack Bag, Pack Bike, Pack car. Car is full of every conceivable cycling tool/spare/clothing item known to man but still my brain keeps telling me I have forgotten something. Panic continues.

Arriving at Armadale it was good to see a reasonable crowd and that the weather was looking to be brilliant. Facilities here are great and the course is my favourite kind, flat with a short section of flat followed by a longer section of flat, an occassional corner. Fantastic!

A few early arrivals meant that SPCC base camp was set up early and the green swarm began to gather. A race so close to home seems to have helped the numbers, we were going to have a good showing in Mens A & B and the Ladies. Knowledge and strategies were imparted on the inexperienced (mostly Matt telling me not to follow my original plan because everyone is thinking the same thing). Great, now the panic is really building. I start to wonder if five trips to the gents in half an hour is a sign of a larger health concern.

A few of the non-racing types (excuses detailed later) were off to help set up. The rest of us took off for our short warm up before the early start. I did a quick lap of the course to confirm the exact nature of the course. Flat with a few tight corners, I start planning the run home.

I get to the start line, There is a good sized field for the A grade and it looked like the whole of B grade was SPCC. Well not quite but of maybe a field of 40 we had almost a quarter. In attendance we have Pete, Mr B, Jarrad, Dropped in Dalkieth (name soon to be revised), Daniel, Brettski, Bruce & Toby. All round a strong group, things are looking good. Group tactics began. I look around, lots of deep dish aero wheels…..I feel jealous/daft, suppress the need to hyperventilate and head off to the portaloo again. This is getting beyond a joke now.

After five or ten minutes of nervously sitting around we were informed that the roads had not quite been closed yet so start would be delayed another ten minutes. I start feeling need to visit the gents yet again but ignore this thinking that it must be nerves, it can’t be possible and will simply go away when we get underway.

The first lap is a neutral lap to allow reconnaisance of the course and a few troublesome corners.  Eight laps of 10km including the neutral lap.

It is at this point I should point out that my plan of attack is stay with the leaders but not do any work and try a breakaway at about 3 laps to go and then again at the 1km mark if that fails. For some reason my sprint has gone to poo lately and I decide that if I sit and wait I am simply handing the race over to everyone else. For the first 200m I listened to my new found friend from ADCC (eventual race/sprint winner) in the peleton tell me about all the sprint finishes and sprint races he has won lately including the World Masters.

Should have gone to the gents….

Neutral lap is very sedate. My only other experience of a neutral start was the freeway bike hike and that was anything but sedate. We come around for the first lap of racing and rather than an immediate attack the group does nothing. I decide that this is simply not acceptable as it will take an awfully long time to finish the race at 25km/hr and move to the front to start the pacing. We soon gather speed.

The next three laps of actual racing go past as a series of serious attacks that the bunch is not happy to let go. There develops a recurring theme of culprits and the pace rarely seems to come down below 45km/hr. The bunch seems to hold together although the attacks and the hairpin turn were taking their toll on the guys at the back and took some effort from the culprits as well. Mr Bonner, Dropped in Dalkieth and others all put in attacks which were closely guarded by the bunch, a sign that we are being taken seriously now. A couple of solo efforts were allowed to go but didn’t last.   Over the next one or two laps the pace settles down and becomes a steady pace with a few half hearted attacks, it seems the initial rush of adrenaline is done and everyone is setting up camp for the sprint home.

With four laps to go I start considering if I should attack sooner than planned but resolve that I simply don’t have the legs to go forty K’s at 45km/hr. I decide to stick with the plan and attack before the hairpin with three to go. I am hoping for an attack to go which I can launch from. I am assuming that the culprits will come as well but at least we may get a small group away from the bunch. I have a chat to Pete and go to the back of the bunch to fetch Jarrad who has been sitting quietly in the pack. Although I am sure I said come to the front and sit in I started to wonder if I said “come to the front and smash the s@#t out of everyone”. A couple of surges later I conveyed the concept of energy conservation. In a very short period of time I think we will all be chasing him a bit more often!!

On the last run into the hairpin before my planned attack there are no surges or attacks, I knew this is not good but cross fingers that the group needs a lap or two to recover and there is still hope of launching from an attack on the next lap. I am so busy considering the options I almost run over the poor bugger on the front who went down on the hairpin. It was an odd crash at low speed which looked like he tried to turn in too sharply and locked the front wheel. Anway, I didn’t run him over and listened to him cursing himself. I am pretty sure he got back on and finished.

Coming around to the hairpin with three laps to go there were still no attacks, bugger. I am feeling unsure but resolve to stick to the plan. About 100m out of the hairpin I attack passing some of the culprits on the way which I was sure would get attention, when I turned around at the hair pin I realised I was on my own and started to think I am going to have to do this alone which is not part of the plan. Anyway I bury myself for 500m and realise I haven’t made a lot of ground on the group and this is a failing exercise, I sit up and rejoin the group. Being somewhat embarrassed by the lack of execution to plan, I proceed to waste a lot of energy pushing attacks off the front with Jarrad. They all get marked.

About this time one of the culprits from Glen Parker sits in next to me after my last useless waste of energy and says something like, I am not going to let you get way. My head was pounding and I wasn’t exactly sure what he had said but asked “Why? Do you want a sprint?” GP replied “It’s not for me” and asked how much I want it. The only reasonable answer I could think of was “I want it more”. It was at this point I am pretty sure GP said something Like “I bet you fifty bucks……the Golden Spokes and you can post that on the blog”. Now I wasn’t actually sure what the middle of the sentence was and what I was being challenged to do. Anyway I was reasonably sure I was being goaded into being silly so I didn’t respond and put it out of my mind. I probably lost whatever the bet was anyway but here it is, posted on the blog anyway.

With most of the group still together there were no more attacks until the last lap. Pete got in first as soon as we crossed the line for the last lap. Soon after came Dropped in Dalkieth (name has to be revised to something short) and a whole series of attacks but no-one was really trying to get away. It was more like last lap nerves and the pace kept rising as everyone tried to secure their launch position for the finish. After the hairpin the pace really picked up, I had a good position sitting in around 4^th or 5^th wheel, Jarrad was just behind but unnervingly all of the culprits were present. Two McMurdo guys went to the front looking to secure a position and got held out there with the group refusing to come around. I started to get boxed in as the group gathered up behind.

I decided to leave the run a little later but go at the roundabout at the entry to the venue and try to get into the finishing turns in front, hoping it will be hard for the sprinters to get up and chase while turning. So as we come up to the roundabout a gap opens up on the inside and with track running out I decided to go for it. I yelled “inside” at the poor bugger on the front (who must of crapped himself because I was only 3ft away) and took off. This surprised everyone (possibly for it’s stupidity) and I quickly opened up a gap. Under full power while turning through the roundabout I decided it was time to change gears (just seemed like a good idea at the time). There was a short slip on the crank, the bike seemed to jump into the air and there was an almighty bang as the rear wheel came back down earth about a foot from where it started. I paused, looked down to see if I still had a rear wheel and then started pushing again. Jarrad tells me it looked quite spectacular from behind. Not something I plan on doing again though.

I pushed into the corner off the straight and started running out of steam. I had maybe 20m on the Riders Choice guy and 40m on the group. With 250m to go speed started dropping, the sprinters wear baring down and my goose was cooked. I cursed my ego for pushing the surges after the failed breakaway. I sat up and started my warm down while the group swarmed past. My only consolation was that the Riders Choice guy did the same 20m after passing me. Maybe he thought I would be a better lead out?

So as it turns out all was not lost, Daniel managed to pull in fifth which is an awesome result given the big pack of sprinters who were in the mix at the end.

A couple of quiet moments were held in the SPR camp after the race to reconsider our efforts. A lot of planning went on here that might have been better placed before the race but so be it.

I didn’t win, had fun and will be doing it all again soon.  

Spud.