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WCMCC Criterium Kewdale 1-Feb

Race Report

By Chris

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A club record turn out of 102 racers and a significant number of ladies too made for some good racing across

all 5 grades.

B and E grades were up first with myself and Bruce racing in B grade I can’t really comment too much on how things progressed in the E grade race.  However the podium had particularly feminine tone with ladies taking out 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

A, D & E saw attacking races although the only break to survive to the finish was in A grade with Eddy Hollands initiating the deciding break and earning the victory in a three up sprint.

The B grade race was reasonably quick with an average of 39km/h and plenty of attempts at breakaways. Aper our usual tactic I suggested Bruce just sit in and let me cover any moves and if my legs were up to it see if I/we could stay away. I wasn’t too sure how I’d go after a couple of heavy weeks back on the bike after a virus. Bruce and his extra mass were concerned they wouldn’t be going to well either, after his performance last week (3rd in a point score criterium) I figured he must be going alright.

The race was pretty typical, but I can’t help thinking why the rush to close down breakaways some times, and it looked to be coming down to a bunch sprint. With the time approaching the 45 min limit and the pace slacking off somewhat I thought I might be able to sneak off the front. Bruce had found my wheel in anticipation of the 2 to go board and followed my attack, he kept going and I eased up in a vain attempt to cover the bunch. As we came around we then got the board for two laps remaining and Bruce had some 50 metres on the bunch by this stage. I figured he had a slim chance of staying away and so stayed near the front of the bunch with the intent to launch another attack if/when we caught him.

Sure enough we caught him with about 3/4 of a lap to go, Bruce kicked and managed to keep himself near the front of the bunch. I was swamped by the bunch all aiming to position themselves for the sprint and aimed to simply finish safely. Bruce through skill and experience and by using the guts of Christmas ’08 hung in for the sprint and scored himself a 7th place and enough winnings to buy a couple of celebatory cokes.

Nice work mate, here’s hoping we can both get a leave pass for next weekends event at Wangara.

Another well organised event and a thanks to the club volunteers for allowing us to race safely.

Also a congratulations to Mel Davies who received an O.A.M. during the Australia Honours for amongst other things services to the sport of cycling.

For those interested in racing with the Masters, you can find more info here:

http://www.wcmasterscycling.asn.au/

WCMCC Criterium Kewdale Sun 16-Nov-08

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Bruce gets the winners cheque
Bruce gets the winners chequeRace data

Race Report by Chris

 

 

 

 

A pleasant breeze blowing assisted me with my warm up on the way to the race at Kewdale. That is to say it was pretty windy and I had to push into the breeze the whole way out.

With B & D grade off second we had the chance to watch the A & C grade boys and girls duke it out.

A grade was on from the gun with a bunch of 6 or 8 getting an early break and they were never caught. The remainder got strung out and were pretty decimated by the finish, in fact they were lucky not to get lapped by the leading break. Ed Hollands took out the win from George Miller.

I didn’t witness the C grade finish but gather they were also pretty strung out on the last couple of laps.

Bruce and I were back for another crack at B grade and given the wind we knew it was going to be tough. We figured as per A grade you would need a group to get away and work together but neither of us were up for initiating this. Since Bruce had finished with the better sprint than I last week we agreed that we would look after ourselves and I would try get Bruce good position on the last couple of laps.

The pace was on from the gun which was as expected but things settled down after a couple of laps. We soon learned that there wasn’t really anywhere to hide in the wind and even with a tail wind there was no respite from the hurt.

Similar to last week the pace remained solid throughout the race with continual attacks, most coming along the back straight with the assistance of the tail wind. None of them stuck and it looked to be coming down to a bunch sprint when the sign for two laps to go was shown.

As discussed, Bruce had found my wheel and I started working towards the front of the bunch. Half way around the second last lap one of the guys launched a solo attack. Having seen him win previously using this tactic I wasn’t prepared to let him go and since no one else looked to be going after him I launched after him. I was thinking the bunch would chase and with Bruce on my wheel he would be protected.

Bruce saw that no one was chasing and decided to launch as well thinking if that the three of us could work together and stay away. I ran out of legs but Bruce managed to get across. Being stuck in no mans land I kept the pressure on thinking I could at least kick back into the bunch.

The bunch conveniently caught me at the bottom corner and I did what I could to make them have to work a little

harder to close the gap. Once they were passed I sat up realizing there wasn’t much more I could do. I counted about 4 seconds gap from the break to the bunch and figured they had it and it was now down to Bruce.

As I came around to the finish line I learnt that Bruce and done the job and Team SPR had notched up its second win of the season.

Well done Bruce.

 

For those interested, here is my race data. I’ve added a dashed line showing the average speed, you can clearly see the run into and out of the wind on each circuit. Nasty!

Race data