First write up and only second race so go here goes,
It all started with waking up heading down to the primary school to number boxes on a couple of pieces of paper then, with that out the way I headed down to collie,
Leaving myself three hours to get down there and it only took two, I had time on my side, so after finding a car park saying hi to davina and waiting for registration to open, I was changed and onto the rollers once I had warmed up I headed to the start line, being a handicap race there where groups starting a different intervals, with stu and davina starting just before me with a 18 min handicap. with some words of advice from davina they were off, then at the 14 and a half mark it was our turn, knowing there was a group 1 min 30 behind us it was on, as everyone started to warm up the roll throughs got quicker and quicker, at around the 5km mark we had already lost two weaker or not they had decided to sit up and wait for the group behind or they just couldn’t hold on only they will know.
The pace started to ease up a bit when we started to realise the downhill to donnybrook was not as downhill as we had been told. We kept rolling through and in the distance we saw the first straggler off the 18 min group, I think we may have surprised him just a little bit as it took a bit of a sprint for him to tag on the back of us and quite a few k’s for him to start rolling though, at this stage we had caught 3 more one being davina. Closer to donnybrook the 13 min group had caught us and as we got even closer to donnybrook we had caught most of the riders in front.
As we entered donnybrook itself the group started to stretch out as there was a prize for the first into the town, after the turn around with all the groups from 13mins and above all together I believe the pace went through the roof with the call going out to keep the scratch riders off, the group started to split apart with the front riders getting some roll throughs going I managed to get a couple of turns in before I get stuck on the left and with a strong side wind and no protection I soon found myself with one other rider watching the front group of about 20 get further and further out of reach, taking it in turns we managed to keep a reasonable pace up then we were caught by a group of about 10 one of those riders being Stu, sharing the work with about the first five we were keeping a quick pace eventually me and Stu took off as we started the first climb back into collie, we caught another small group and they told us the front group was about four minutes in front. taking this into account me and Stu kept going as we were both enjoying the climb, well as much as we could, further up we caught up with Davina who had managed to stick with the lead group up until it got vertical. a little more working together and giving our legs a bit of a break along a slightly flat maybe even downhill section we started to gain some ground on the lead group. well as least that what I was thinking. we hit our next climb and I decided to take off with 15kms from the finish. Finally I started to see land marks than I remembered were close to the start/finish so I ground my teeth and tried to keep up the pace, seeing the main street in collie and hearing cars behind me I knew I was close to the line and there was someone close behind I gave it one last surge and pushed it to the line finishing in 13th position just behind me came A J with the fastest time.
All in all it was a great race well done to Stu and davina who finished 1st out of the women
the western australian state road championships are on this weekend. if you came out on sunday, you would have got a good taste for what the last bit of the course is like as we did the finishline twice.
this event is different as it doesn’t have a support or ‘b’ grade event rather a masters division instead. this means that the over 35’s can race in their own category and not have to worry about the young whipper-snappers. however, if you are under 35 then you will have to race with the “a” grade men instead.
being a state title, the distances are a lot longer too. open men is 157km while open women, u19 and masters men is 112km. masters women (over 30) and over 55 men do 50km, although last year the numbers were too low and poor john had to race the 112km with the younger masters. he did beat me though, so he didn’t do too bad. 🙂
so the flyer is linked below and you can register here before 7:30pm tuesday 24th aug.
for the masters it is usually a good turn out and i managed to get a silver medal here a couple of years ago and stu got bronze last year.
if you are entering, add you name to the comments so we know how much support will be in the races.
the pinjarra classic is on this weekend and registrations need to be in by close of business on tuesday. this is one of my favourite races and as per usual, i have caught a cold this week. nevertheless, i intend to be there and have a crack at the hills.
the event is basically 15km of flat, then a climb, some rolling hills, a 10km descent and 6kms of flat to finish off. check out the attached maps and profile for more info. for the open men there are two laps of the course but for the support men and open women, you only have to go up the hill once. the last few years they have combined the support men with the open women so the field is quite big for this event.
i have mapped the route in mapmyride but the map, event flyer and profile are also shown below.
registration is here but remember entries close on the 10/08/2010 at 7:29pm perth time.
there are no longer any day licences for open events so you must have a full racing licence to participate.
add your name to the comments if you are intending to be there.
Well as per usual I was running late and didn’t really have time for a proper warm up. Just a few zips up and down the road would have to do.
Saw Pickle and fellow SPR riders Josh and Matt at rego. Josh was egging me on to have a crack at A grade but as mentioned previously, I think B grade is where I belong for now. Unfortunately for me this also meant that I’d have no team mates in B grade.
Both A and B grades were up for twelve laps of the four kilometre course. A moved off and the roll call for B grade was executed. Twelve punters on this sunny day. A few riders muttered about the inclusion of an A grade rider in our midst (some quite loudly!) and to rub it in the rider in question attacked from the gun and wasn’t to be seen until more than halfway through the race!
For the rest of us the first half of the race was fairly uneventful. I was sticking to the wheel of one of the stronger B grade regulars for most of the time, taking my turns but not doing anything more than I had to. Heading off on the seventh lap it was clear that we were pulling back the escapee and the call went out to leave him out there for a bit longer. It was going over the sharp pinch on lap nine that the group accelerated and went on with it over the top. They didn’t ride off into the distance but had a good gap. I popped off the back along with two other guys. I had to sit in for a bit at this point as I was stuffed and did the bare minimum work. I came good after a lap and proceeded to do my bit. The front group was five strong but one of those guys dropped off and we sped by him. One of my helpers popped around this time too and so our chase group was down to two with four in front.
We were catching them and going over the hill was within twenty metres or so – but then the elastic snapped and they powered down the back slope. My chasing friend (who won the handicap last week) also gapped me over the hill. I tried to catch him again but fell short by about five metres on the line. 6th for me. The front group stayed away by about 150m I’d estimate. The guy who had attacked at the start won the four-up sprint easily by all accounts.
Lessons learned and noted. Need to recognize when to dig deep and hang tough. If I can do that then I think I can be there at the end.
Time :- 1hr 17min
Distance :- 48km
Average :- 37.2kph
Further details here or here. Serpentine next week – hopefully I’ll put in a better show than last time there!
PS – Don’t forget to use the SPR Events Calendar to find out what racing and other events are going on. A few of us try to keep it as up to date and as accurate as possible. So check it out!
This would be my first handicap race. I didn’t really know what to expect. I had a bit of an idea how it works in theory, but not really in practice. It would be an interesting course; a 200m climb right of the bat, then a general saw-toothiness up to the turn around point just out of Dwellingup. I found out at registration that the organisers had put my in with the A-graders. Hmm. I wonder how this was going to go.
We all lined up for the race. Each group went off with a few minutes in between. Turns out I was in the last group, with, I assume, was all the A-graders. So after a long wait we were off. My gameplan was to stick with the group as long as possible and try to finish with them. Had a nice roll through going for the first few kms until we hit the big climb. I found myself at the front of the group doing my turn, but as I went to pull off, everyone followed. Hmmm. Fair enough. I was feeling pretty good, so I just sat at the front for a while. A couple of minutes later I looked behind, and there was only two other guys behind me.
After another couple of minutes, it was just me and another guy, Wade Longworth. We both started taking turns at the front, and to my astonishment we started passing people that had left before us. We were setting a pretty cracking pace, no one had yet jumped on the back of us two. One guy managed to jump to just before we passed Dave, but we dropped him at the next major hill.
Not far from the turn around point we noticed a decent sized group pass us in the other direction. Wade and I started chatting. He wanted a win.
I thought who was I to argue. The plan was to get onto that group and ride with it back to the start/finish line. After the turn around, we tried to keep the pace as high as our legs would allow. Each rider we passed we asked how far away the big group was. We slowly getting closer. About halfway back we spotted them at the crest of a climb. We both put all we had into getting up to the bunch, and managed to catch them just before the decent (catching them seemed to take forever).
I was happy to sit at the back of the pack for a bit of breather, but Wade definitely wasn’t. He marched straight up to the front. Bugger, I can’t let him have it this easy. So off I went after him. The tempo increased down the hill, a few other riders dropping off the back. I made a half-hearted attack but was quickly caught by Wade and another guy. Suddenly the finish appeared (where the hell did that come from?).
Crap. Sprinting, how do you do that again? Come on legs! Wade and two other guys got up for the sprint as well. I just didn’t have enough in me to catch two of them, but I manage to just come in a wheel length ahead of the third guy. How anyone can pull off a sprint like those other two after riding that course is beyond me.
Turns out another group had come in around a minute before us. So I ended up with 9th overall (Wade got 7th). Wade and I had the fastest time overall (well he was a second or two quicker than me) which was pretty sweet. Best of all, I came in 2nd of the A-graders.
I must give Kudos to Wade for the awesome breakaway we had going. He’s one hell of a rider.
The next race at Parklands is flat, so its going to be very interesting to see how it all unfolds.
A lovely overcast day in the farmland on the outskirts of Serpentine provided a dramatic backdrop for the second of my forays into the PDCC racing events. I was joined by Toby and Dave in cat B. After all the pre-race formalities, we were off and going in a group of about 15. The first lap and a bit (of seven) was reasonably sedate, we even had a nice bit of rain to cool us down. Someone started to push hard at the front, and before we knew it we were pedalling along in the low 40s. The group lost a few of its members off the back. Toby and I tried to cool the pace a little to allow Dave to jump back on, but the rest of the bunch were having none of it.
After another lap or two, the rider in the blue kit started attacking.
Toby was keeping a very close eye on Blue man and followed each and every of his attack. I was a little bit slower, but managed to find Toby’s wheel most times. These attacks kept going on, but none were successful. The rest of the bunch seemed keen to not let anyone get away, but no one looked particularly enthusiastic about launching an attack themselves.
On the last lap, I found myself at the front of the bunch with about 3 km to go. Blue man was behind me, so I thought he might be keen for a bit of a quick breakaway before for the finish. So I took off expecting him to be on my wheel, and Toby right behind him. After a little bit, I looked behind to make sure everyone was still there. No one was. Thats a bit peculiar I thought. For a second or two I thought of waiting up for the others, but then I decided I might as well have a bit of a go at it myself and took off again. Toby told me later that the bunch were fighting a bit about who was going to chase me down. They looked at him, and he said no way. Thanks Toby 🙂 I hit the final straight, looked over and saw two riders after me; Blue man and his accomplice. One of them dropped off after a little bit, but the other powered on. He was slowly catching, but I managed to cross the line with a good 100ish meters to spare. Managed to grab first place again. Toby came in 3rd (or 2nd according to the official results, I’m not sure). What a fine day of racing!
I’ve been meaning to go to a PDCC road race for a number of weeks now, so I thought it was about time to get off my ass and actually go. This weeks was a lovely seven laps of a 9ish km course in Casuarina. Lovely weather for it too. I decided to chuck myself into B grade, cos thats where all the cool kids were hanging out.
With 15 of us setting out, the first few laps were pretty tame. A couple of attacks here and there, nothing too threatening. We dropped a couple of riders somewhere along the line. The action started just after crossing the start/finish to commence the 4th lap. The pace was right up and someone in the middle of the bunch decided to start going a little bit off vertical (tyre rub?). I don’t really know what happened next, it all went by really fast. I think the first guy knocked someone else over and it went from there, domino style. Dave has a lot better write-up of the incident here. Unfortunately someones handlebars got lodged in his nice new rear wheel. Luckily neither he or the bike was badly damaged.
Those not involved in the crash waited for a little bit to see if anyone was going to jump back into the race. I thought I saw Dave making a dramatic comeback, but it turned out to be a Cat C or D rider. Anyway the pack (now at 8 riders) was back together and off we went. The next 2 laps were reasonably docile, I know I was a bit worried about a repeat of the crash.
Things started to heat up on the last lap. The pace increased a bit.
Toby told me to keep an eye out for Jelly Belly man (there were jelly beans on his jersey) as he was looking pretty strong. Halfway around the lap another rider was dropped. Soon after the guy in the pinkish jersey and his mate had a crack at breaking away from the rest of us, but to no avail. I found myself at the front of the pack with Toby and I thought, if it comes down to a bunch sprint I’m not going to do too well (with my little legs). A little hill was coming up so I thought I’d give it a crack and break away up the hill, and then somehow make it to the line before everyone else. So I took off up the hill and down the other side.
After a few hundred meters I saw the pack was gaining on me, so I got up out of the seat and had a bit more of a go at it. I reached the last corner and almost clipped some traffic furniture going around it. Got up out of the seat again to get down the finishing straight. I had a look around me and the bunch had backed off a little. I was pretty sure I had it in the bag then. I didn’t let up though just to make sure. Crossed the line to grab first place! YAY! Toby outmatched everyone in the sprint to grab second. 1st and 2nd for SPR, pretty nifty!
SPR had five club members racing on the track for the Winter Grand Prix. The three ladies Anna, Bec and Lisa and two first time GP riders Chris “Daisy” Ainsworth and I fronted up for some hardcore-leg smashing-lung busting racing.
I arrived a little later than I would have liked. By the time I got there the tack was just closed for practice as the junior sprint qualifying rounds were just about to get under way. Dammit. I wasn’t overly stressed about missing the warm-up, I’ve been out at the track 3-4 nights a week for the last few week so I had plenty of laps under my belt. Just condemned myself to warming up on the rollers.
Chris arrived about 10 minutes later and we set up camp in the corner with a good view of the finish line. There was already about 100 riders in the infield all going through their own routines and warm-up rituals, including Anna Meares who has an interesting ritual that involves walking around kicking the air above her head for about 15 minutes. Maybe that’s the secret… air kicking…
The first race of the day for Chris and I would be a 20 lap scratch. Our normal B-Grade field was bolstered by a few A-Grade ring-ins who had been bumped down by the International riders arriving to duke it out in A-Grade. Chris and I had heard that Jack Campbell and Jarred the ‘Motorpace Champion of Tuesday Night’ fame would be riding with us. As such we had already written off our chances. An ass kicking was on the cards – something which Peter – our ever confident Presodento confirmed on Saturday by saying that we were going to get ‘spanked!’ Thanks Pete – cheers. Confidence is high.
So Daisy (not to be referred to as Chris henceforth), and I decided that conservative racing for the scratch was the way to proceed. Just keep our noses clean and stay out of trouble. With that decided we rolled up to the fence for the start. The first 10 laps or so the pace was on pretty high. The group was stretch out with no real jostling for position going on. Fearing my lurking cold was going to kill my at the half way point I was happy to still be with the group. As the race developed I was just focusing on keeping Jack’s wheel in front of me. With 5 laps to go I was starting to feel pretty happy to have legs left. I was feeling ok – and to be honest really surprised not to be in the hurt box. With 3 laps to go the race really played her hand. The pace came off as people became consigned to the idea that was coming down to the sprint. We all gassed off and spread out across the track with 3 to go. I hate these moments of hesitation in the pack. Someone – usually a kid with massive lungs – will jump and go for it and leaving everyone to chase. Hate chasing. So as we moved into the bend I jumped down and gunned it for about 100 meters to get the pace on again. But it was a feigned attack – as if I was going from 3 out – so I looked under the arm as saw Jarred there as we hit the back bend. I swung up and let him take the pace and sat about 4th wheel behind Jack as we came around with two laps to go. Jack went hard with two to go and put himself into the front as we came around for the bell lap. I have a bad habit of leaving my moves to late so with 200m to go I hit it as hard as I could as jumped past Jack in the back straight. At this point I was totally freaking out that I was in front. I was just waiting to get rolled by Theo or Jarred, or even Daisy! But as we rounded the last corner into the finishing straight I was still in the front. I pushed my massive sack of disbelief aside, put my head down and went for the line. To my complete surprise I won. I beat Theo Yates by about half a wheel. I even let out a gasp exasperation such was my shock. WTF? I just won!
After this I spent 15 minutes on the ground trying not to die. Really hurt the lungs bad.
Our next race was the Westral Wheelrace heat. Daisy and I made the final comfortably. And a big thanks here to Zac and my Dad who discharged their pushing duties most faithfully and with a great deal of ‘heave-ho!’. It’s been a decade since my old man pushed me – and I must say it was a totally nostalgic blast from the past. He still gives it some stick!
The Westral Wheelrace has been running for nearly 100 years. Chris and I were both happy to be part of the final. But these things are made for the scratch markers to win in a blaze of glory. That’s why they are so entertaining to watch. Aware of this, and very aware of the talent behind us Daisy and I only had one option – we had to go from the gun and give it everything. Daisy hit it hard from the gun. It took me about half a lap just to get on his wheel. I yelled at him “On!” when I was there and in the next corner he swung up to take his turn. At that point we had about 4 laps to go. I yelled out “lets go!” and laid down the watts. Unfortunately I gave it too much and blew Daisy off my wheel. By the time I got to the bend to take my turn I looked back and he wasn’t there anymore. At this point I only had two choices 1) sit up and wait for Chris and hope that we didn’t get gobbled up by the big boys in the process; 2) Go for it. 3.5 laps solo. I took option 2 and went for it. The last 500m were the longest 500m I have ever ridden. I laid myself out so hard and dug so deep I couldn’t feel my legs. The only keeping me going was the SPR voices from the fence willing me on. I tried as hard as I could but I died a million deaths in the last lap. I held the field off until the last bend when they all came flying past. I was crawling at that point… destroyed. Scratchies got up for the win, and young Theo Yates got up for third which was good to see.
The last race for us was the B-Grade point score. I hate point scores. They are too much like interval training. 20 laps, sprint every 5 – double points on the last sprint. As my fitness is usually at the crap end up the spectrum I usually have one plan for point scores – win the first and then wait and see what happens. We rolled away from the fence and the first thing that happened was I got in a fight with some big unit for Jarred’s wheel. We probably both assumed that the fittest guy in the pack was the best guy to be behind. The big unit in the Katusha kit started trying to push me off the wheel. Now, I’m not usually one for contact on the track, but this guy wasn’t going to give. So I dished out a few sharp elbows to his leg and eventually he yielded the position. Daisy was behind me at this point – probably shitting himself. Anyway, I did when the first sprint, walked it in actually by about 10m. After that I sat in and tried to recover. I got boxed for the second sprint so didn’t really contest. As the bell went for the final sprint I was totally smashed from a tough day of racing, but I was in a good position. I did what I could but couldn’t bring back Theo who had jumped early. He took the 10 points and I got the 6. Overall I got second place on 11 points to Theo who I think got 15 or 16 total. We think Daisy stole some points in the 2nd sprint too.
I will let the girls and Daisy fill in their accounts of the day, but all in all I think it was tops. Daisy survived his first race carnival and we bought home some results. What more could a club ask for?
Thanks to everyone for coming out. Thanks to Brett for the skewer, Yas for the gluing skills, Zac for the rollers, Mark H and Daisy for the training and everyone else at the club. And thanks heaps for all the cheering and yelling. It really makes a difference out there when you are hurting. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.
Going to the front in the scratch race
Attacking the line for the scratch
The calm before the storm – 3 laps to go in the scratch race
hmm. time trial. the race of truth. just you and the bike versus the road. no wheels to sit on and no last minute sprint to claim glory. i was pretty realistic though as the last time trial i did was…about this time last year at the state time trial championships. so, i knew that i would be rusty and realising that my training would not include any actual time trials, i convinced ryan to make every spin for the last 4 weeks or so, focus on doing tt efforts. then to get used to the road, the tuesday and thursday morning rides i managed to take the tt bike out and just hang off the back of the group.
now i actually have a tt bike. about 5 years (2 yrs bc – before children) ago i was doing triathlons, so managed to get a proper tt bike. these things are awesome and a must if you want to do tt’s or triathlons. the straight line power that you can put out in the right setup craps all over that of a conventional bike. they suck on hills and are twitchy on descends, but cut through the wind like a plate of baked beans.
so the state ITT was always going to be a fun affair. luckily i am in the masters division so only had to do 25kms. the open men did 39kms and the open women did the same as the masters. at least i would be able to know if i got “chicked” or not. last year, holly beat me by 1 sec. and she was the third fastest women, so i got multiple chicked.
we didn’t have a big sign up for this event. in open men there was dannyboy and a couple of new members, jonno and michael. in the open women’s we had the entire field. davina, lisa, anna and bec. unfortunately that was not enough for a championship so the masters women was combined with the open women to allow a champion to be decided. in the masters men, there was myself and paul o. on the day, michael, anna and paul o (understandably) were a no-show so we were pretty light on spr-wise. we grabbed the new smaller tent and still set it up as it gave the few of us a place to park ourselves before and after.
so, tt bike – check, skinsuit – check, tt sperm helmet – check, adequate/appropriate training – ummm fail. let’s do this. regardless, i wanted to support this event anyway and south west tend to put on well run events so i knew it would be good.
a bit of time on the trainer to warm up and soon i was slipping into my skinsuit. first time for me in a one-piece and first time with the sperm helmet too. nothing like trying out your new stuff at your biggest event. snug fit for both, but hopefully that means i will slip through the air a lot quicker.
the women were off first and lisa had requested that she be first so that she could quickly head back to perth as she had tickets to some little rugby match that was going on. the U19 men were next and the masters men after that. open men took the stage last as their course was different and went well past our turnaround point.
so lisa was off first, the masters women in between and bec and davina off last. after that there was a bit of a wait till they set the U19 men off but pretty soon it was my turn. there were 6 guys off in front of me so i had a few rabbits to chase. with 7 guys behind me though, i was going to be running scared the whole time. at one minute intervals you can sit there and just watch this guys disappear down the road and wonder if you will ever make it up. hope the guy behind me is thinking the same. with john holding my saddle, i was clipped in and ready to go. bit late now for anything i had forgotten. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 hello world of hurt.
i had decided not to go out too hard, especially as the wind seem to be on my back for the first bit. i needed to have some in reserve just to keep me from being overtaken. i found a rhythm and tapped out a bit of hurt. it was feeling pretty good and the tailwind was pushing me along at well over 40kph. i could still see the guy in front of me when the road allowed and i thought i was making up some time.
after about 4 kms, the road changed a bit and headed ever so slightly uphill and was slightly rougher as well. i suddenly felt sapped and my legs didn’t want to play anymore. it wasn’t even a hill, more like a slight bump in the landscape. i was flicking down through the gears like a car radio, trying to find something that i liked. i stated to worry that i was about to get overtaken but didn’t dare look back. the sperm helmet works to give you the best aerodynamic advantage if you are in the right position. that is, body down but head facing forward. not the most natural position, but i have been forcing my head up at spin for the last month. my chiro certainly noticed when i went to see her on thursday.
anyway, my aero helmet said “no turning around” so i just pushed on despite my legs arguing otherwise. my minute man was still just up the road, but all the gains i seemed to make on the nice smooth section seem to be disappearing fast. there are a few slight undulations in this section and i thought i could gain some ground on the climbs, before the only real hill on our course. it came at the 10km mark and i remembered this from when i was dropped at the dardanup open race a few weeks back. as we got closer i thought i was going to be within stinking distance but i suffered on the climb a bit and didn’t make up any ground. i did manage to pass holly’s dad who started about 5 min in front of me so i kind of got to avenge the 1 sec drubbing i received from her last year.
a quick descent that took me a bit by surprise when the bike felt like it was about to leave the road due to the bumps and we were almost at the turn around point. at least here i could see the rest of the masters men as i had already waved (not very aero) to lisa and davina heading the other way. i could see that most of the guys i was chasing were pretty bunched up and weren’t that far in front.
i came towards the u-turn and totally stuffed up the deceleration. i had down-geared and started free-wheeling way too soon and probably lost a few seconds spinning out to keep moving. 18min 32 sec at the turn and i was now homeward bound. i was going to make the effort to chase down the guys in front of me. i was heading home so had managed to get past that fear of blowing up before the halfway point. the wind was a bit erratic through here as it seemed to swirl around the small hills we were circumnavigating. i came past another guy before the hill and could see a couple more on the actual climb.
i decided to try to pull back as much time as i could and hit the climb pretty hard. this is harder than it sounds as the tt bike isn’t that good out of the saddle. the upright position means that my arse is still pretty much on the seat, but now my knees are hitting the bar extensions. i made it to the top and started to power down the other side. there was that awfully familiar feeling of a hot flush when i realised that the double push had sent me into the redzone. i tried to settle down, but to no avail and next thing i know i was dry retching and had a couple of small vomit/burps. nice. a flush out with the drink bottle and a few second of easy riding to settle back down before i could make chase again.
ok, no more hills, just a few more rabbits and a finish line. i found my rhythm again and began to tap out a nice pace. the next 2 riders were pretty much on top of each other, and i passed them both as one had just overtaken the other. now i kind of lost track here and am not sure how many guys i passed. i just remember the last one had a car trailing him with hazard lights on. i assumed that it was the commasaire’s car but i wasn’t really thinking about anything but getting home.
i passed this final guy just before the road opened up and we hit the farmland again. the wind picked up a bit and i was now scared that i was going to be overtaken by someone. still wasn’t game to look behind so i just concentrated on the road ahead and thought of the long efforts that ryan made us do. i could see the town up ahead and was willing my legs to just keep going. i needed jens there to tell my legs to “shut up”, but i was coaxing them on with the promise that it will all be over soon.
1km to go and i tried to keep the pace on. 500m to go and i increased my effort and tried to hold it to the line. i could see the finish, it was hurting, i can just remember ryan at spin making us push harder for the last 30 sec of a 5 min effort. i gritted my teeth and kept stomping on the pedals until i was finally there. amazing how much 25kms can really hurt you. glad i am too old for the open division.
my intended warm down of an hour on the trainer was replaced with a lap of the bock and a need to just get off the damn bike. my return time was 18min 32 sec. exactly the same as the way out for a total of 37min 04sec. i wasn’t really aiming for a particular time and just wanted to go as hard as i could. i was pretty happy as my average was 39kph and i was exactly 1min faster than last year. if this trend continues, i will win the masters division in three more years time.
the women were back in and davina took out the title in a faster time than me (chicked again), so now we were just waiting for jonno and dannyboy to come home. they were on a longer hillier course that me and were aiming for around the 1 hour mark. dannyboy was just on his road bike so was doing it tough in comparison to the new swish looking giant trinity that jonno was astride. they both came in at 1:02:34 for jonno and 1:09:54 for dannyboy.
Pos
Lap 1
Lap 2
Lap 3
Total
Speed
Comment
Open Men 39.4km
13
Jonathan Bolton
0:18:40
0:25:20
0:18:34
1:02:34
37.8
17
Daniel Berry
0:20:41
0:28:18
0:20:55
1:09:54
33.8
Open and Masters Women 24.1km
1
Davina Summers
0:18:33
0:18:11
0:36:44
39.4
2
Bec Halliday
0:19:17
0:19:08
0:38:25
37.6
PB
4
Lisa Wood
0:20:24
0:20:25
0:40:49
35.4
Masters Men 24.1km
7
Peter Mah
0:18:32
0:18:32
0:37:04
39.0
PB
the rest of the results can be found on the atta website here.
it was a good day and well run by swcc and atta. i actually enjoyed myself despite the way that i wrote this report and can see myself actually doing a few more of these events in the future. jerry is our club contact if anyone is wanting to have a go at the atta events and he can answer any question you may have about time trialling.
photo’s thanks to luke.
beaten again by davina. smiling because it has finished.
