the state road championships are on next weekend and are being run by both rccc and spr. as such we will need a few volunteers to ensure that the day runs smooth. i intend to be racing on the day, so we will need people to step up and take on some responsibility. daniel, the president of rccc, will be race director on the day, but he will be roving around checking on things. hopefully we will have people racing in all divisions and as the shorter races finish, they can then help out at the finishline.
so, bill darby has volunteered to take the tents, etc to the event and to drive a support car on the day. we need people for the following positions –
3 finishline judges – there will be electronic timing but we will need to still get the top ten positions. we will also have the gopro slo-mo camera, but someone will need to operate it. other tasks include lap counting (as the lead car goes by), and marking off dropped riders so they don’t get positions. we will also be selling refreshments on the day. [volunteers so far – Iain, Shirley, Michelle, Anke, Craig, Gareth]
5 lead cars – DOME are supplying 3 cars and drivers, but we still need 2 more. if you have a branded car that you want to give some airplay, then let me know. [volunteers so far – DOME Troy, DOME Judd, DOME Travis, Concept Music Graham, ???]
5 spares cars – usually a ute or station wagon we can put wheels in. drive behind the group and help people with mechanicals. [volunteers so far – bill darby a grade, rccc masters, nathan b grade, heiko/suzie c grade, ??? women]
registration will be at a separate location to the finishline, but rccc will be manning that with help from cathi dixon.
so, please help out if you can. this is the first time we are running this event as no other club wanted to do it this year. we have a huge membership base, so we should be able to provide a few volunteers to ensure the day runs well.
this year, rccc and us are running the state road championships. it will be held on the 3rd of november around a lake in wanneroo. the basics are below, and this year there are separate races for the different grades. these are the grades that you have been assigned to via the cwa grading system. the exception is the masters category which you can only race in if your licence is specified as a cycling australia masters licence. no day licences are available as this is a state champs.
as we are co-running this event, we will need to provide some volunteers. i am hoping to actually be racing, so will not be available on the day. we therefore need volunteers to take tents etc to the circuit, setup, line judge, sell refreshments and packup. we also need drivers for lead vehicles. DOME have kindly provided 3 cars for the 5 lead cars needed. we also need support cars for spares vehicles. if you are available to help, put your name in the comments. for those that are looking at racing, the circuit is basically flat with a long rise to the finishline.
date: sunday the 3rd of november 2013
where: city of wanneroo council chambers 23 dundebar road wanneroo
cost: $50 (plus transaction fee)
program:
a grade: 150km
b grade: 85km
c grade: 65km
women: 95km
masters: 107km
all riders must sign in by 8.30am for a staggered 9am start
flyer can be downloaded here and more info can be found on the facebook event site here.
Inspired by the hardcore winter racing all around the world, Greg has developed a uniquely Aussie track to be raced as the state championships on the 18th of August at Garvey Park Belmont.
Cyclocross is a mixture of road and mountain bike racing, incorporating obstacles which must be dismounted and run past, and fast open sections. The courses are excellent for spectators, and you’ll be able to see the whole race from the comfort of your camping chair, not to mention getting some beers and cowbells out to cheer or heckle.
The elite and support categories are restricted to those riding a Cyclocross bike. That means drop bars, and tyres no wider than 35mm. Yes, that means your road bike is also a cyclocross bike! All the courses will be able to be ridden on a road bike, although perhaps not as fast as on a specialist machine. Dont have a cross bike? Never fear, bring you mountain bike down and race a dirt crit in the open class.
If you have a Cycling Australia Licence, please email Greg Murison – gr.murison@gmail.com with details and what grade you would like to race, and I will allocate you a number based on you showing me your licence on the day. You do not need to buy a day licence if you are registered with Cycling Australia.
This race is the final race of the Superwestige season, and doubles as the state championships.
Enjoy riding as part of a team? Enjoy some mild discomfort on your bike? If yes, you’ll love the upcoming State Team Time Trial Champs October 7.
Distance – 50k
Nominations $35 Each Senior Rider $20 Each Junior Rider
You ride a set (flat) course in a team of 4 men, 3 women or 2 juniors.
There is a choice between Elite or Masters including a masters >50 age group.
Being a state championship, you need to have a full racing licence. So, sign-up if you haven’t.
Last year SPR had a great showing across a variety of grades with 8 teams competing and a couple taking home some silverware. Its a tough event, you work for your team and manage the speed to suit everyone….the upside is you get to ride with people you know and the club will do its best to place you others of similar ability.
Don’t let a lack of equipment stop you from joining in. Last year we had a full spectrum of riders & gear …some on full TT setup’s with disc wheels, whilst other had their standard road bikes, some with clip on aero bars.
Add your name in the comments section below (dont register yourself yet) with an indication on your preferred grade. Registrations close 2 October so get in quick.
this coming weekend the state masters championships will be held in conjunction with the pickering brook race series. expressions of interest were low for the masters men 1-3 category so it will be run with the b grade race and the masters women’s race will be with the c grade race. the masters men 4-7 category will have it’s own separate race.
now this is short notice and not the most ideal situation for a state championship, but if we want more events held for the masters category, then we need to support it as much as possible. for those that haven’t ridden the course before, it is not too hilly and will suit most of our riders.
the cost is only $20 for those in the masters which is pretty cheap for a race, so i encourage you to have a go. entries close midnight tuesday night.
so i woke up at 4am and listened to the thunder and wind and rain and more wind. thought, “wow, it is going to be an interesting race”. i had packed the car the evening before and thought about the nice deep carbon wheels that were sitting on my bike. probably not the best for a windy race with some quick descents. a few other negative thoughts before drifting back off to sleep. finally awoke to more wind and rain and a quick check of the radar showed more fronts coming through. luckily the race was close and didn’t start till close to 10am. it looked like the worst of it would pass before kick-off. i grabbed a low profile front wheel and chucked it in the car just in case.
we had a few riders in today race. jono doing it solo in the open event. dianne in the women’s race. myself, bonner, julian (regular), andrew (mr rice), morrison (mr flexible), paul o (DiD) and jerry (mr “i won’t ride if it is too wet”). it was only 4 laps of the carmel, repatriation, observatory circuit and made up 65kms. fairly short for a state champs, but after last years debacle, we were just glad it was on. the course had a number of climbs in it though, and more than made up for the lack of distance. at the end of the day, the four circuits meant that we will have climbed 1,200 vertical metres, probably about as much as a normal sunday hills ride.
i drove carefully out to the start, noting all the water running over the road, the debris scattered by the wind and the amount of gum nuts everywhere. it was going to be great. i pulled in to the carmel school and expected that the place would be teaming with people as it was when the peter clark was held here earlier in the year. however, i was surprised to see very few cars around. maybe the rain was keeping people away. i quickly caught up with a few guys and we got the tent up so we had some shelter in which to get prepared. the rain and wind had eased off a bit and there was a strange calm up in the hills. smaller showers came through, but nothing like the mornings weather events.
mr bonner eventually showed up after catching the start of his daughters hockey grand final, but he didn’t look prepared for racing. he said that if it didn’t stop raining before 10am, he wasn’t going to play. last weekend he endured similar conditions in belgium and was fearing a deja vu. jerry had heard the rain and decided against racing, but the others were all set to go. well, as set as could be expected. there had been much debate on what to wear. some were worried about getting cold, while others were worried about overheating on the climb. there was a fair variation of vests, jackets, arms, knee warmers and big gloves through out the peloton.
we lined up and waited for the “gun”. spr made up close to half the field and the aim was to control the race rather than allow it to be dictated to us. julian and i got on the front to start and lead the field out. the pace was moderate and i said to jules to only go as hard as you need to get warm rather than wear yourself out. the group tucked in behind and we meandered our way to the base of the patterson climb. jules peeled off but i said that i wanted to stay on the front. we weren’t going hard and i wanted to make sure i could react to any attacks. andrew replaced jules and we continued the main climb to the observatory. i was listening to andrew breathing and it didn’t sound that good. i eased the pace off a couple of times to make sure he didn’t blow too early, but he eventually peeled off the front. we were 3/4 up the climb by then and paul prottey attacked the group. i responded and jumped on his wheel but no-one else followed. i wasn’t sure if i should work with him or not so i sat on his wheel till the top. on the descent i did a few turns, but by the time we hit the base of the final climb to the finish, the main group was with us. by then we had already lost a few but i wasn’t sure who.
i should probably say now what my plan for the race was. simple really. get mr bonner a state championship title. the course suited him to a tee. lots of climbing, descents that weren’t too tricky and no flat sprint finish. my aim was to control the race for at least the first 3 laps and then let him go and smash everyone else up. easy really.
up past the finishline, it was clear that paul prottey wanted to thin the field a bit more. i asked jules to drag him back and he did, even though it meant that he popped off the back afterwards. the field had thinned and i had a quick chat to paul prottey. he was worried about a couple of riders and wanted to thin it a bit more. between the two of us, we set the pace and dragged the group around to the observatory climb again. this time i eased up on the climb as bonner moved to the front. i drifted back to see who was left and was surprised to see a gap start to open almost instantly. i jumped around the other riders and sat in a group of around 5 or 6. as we came to the slightly steeper section, there was a touch of wheels and jamie from rccc went down by himself. there were now 4 of us left on the front with jules trailing about 50m or so behind. paul wanted to work again, so it was going to be hard to convince him to allow another spr rider onto the group. all that was left was myself, bonner, paul prottey and paul lamond.
we crested the top and i hit the descent as hard as i could so that we could put more distance into the chasers. prottey wanted to work, but lamond was a bit reluctant. my plan was to do double the work and let bonner stay on the back. this way he would be fresh, but the others couldn’t say that spr hadn’t contributed to the workload. we climbed to the finish, and i threw my wind vest to andrew who had not enjoyed the first lap. the efforts were starting to take their toll and i was getting hot. even the brief showers didn’t really cool things down.
starting the third lap and it was clear the lamond didn’t really want to work too hard. a few turns between us and then i jumped on the front to lead us through repatriation road and back to the observatory climb. this time bonner got on the front and set a pace that was just too much for me. i watched them head up the road as i lost more and more ground. i waved the commissaire and spares car through and tried to find a rythmn. about halfway up, i noticed that bonner pulled off the front. i guessed that he noticed my absence and wanted to slow the group down. i kept my pace and by the top there was only 10 sec between us. i bombed down the descent and managed to catch the convoy of cars. there was a non-race car behind the group and he started moving to the left. it was not the best move but i managed to jump around the cars and catch the three riders. knowing that they would have me on the next climb, i kept smashing passed them and took off down the road. my theory was that they would then need to chase and bonner could then just sit in. i was caught by the final climb to the finish and that was my race essentially over.
i was going to finish anyway, so started the fourth lap knowing that it was going to hurt. as i continued along, i thought, well i am still 4th, so maybe someone will get a flat and i can pick up third. then another rider caught me and passed me. i couldn’t hold his wheel so the chance of a medal went out the door. another guy came by soon after and also went straight passed. hmm. not good for me. my legs were shot. i started the observatory climb and jules caught me on the lower slopes. he asked if i wanted him to wait for me and i said that there wasn’t much point as i was shot. i tapped away the remaining kms and started the final climb to the line. was caught by one more rider and the cramps in my thighs kind of put paid to any chance of even keeping him at bay. i finished 8th.
for the front runners though, they sped ahead once i was dropped at the end of lap 3. prottey was a bit worried that i would get back on so he drove the pace all the way to repatriation road. on the long drag of an incline, bonner attacked and set his normal high pace. lamond went straight off the back but prottey tried to hold on. he said that he stayed on wheel for about 600m but all the while watched his heart rate climb higher and higher. he was pretty sure that bonner was going to slow down but no such luck. prottey blew and bonner kept going for the win.
this race and the dardanup open last week were the best two races i think i have ever done. it wasn’t the finishing position that i achieved, but more the work that i did was for a result for spr. it makes it more exciting and brings about a totally different race when you race as a team and are prepared to sacrifice your own race for others. congratulations to mr bonner as he is a very deserving masters state champion. well done to the others that also fronted up in conditions that were far from ideal.
The State Championships are on this Sunday 3rd October and the course is one of the best XC race tracks in WA. Having raced this area just over a week ago with the Dwellingup 100, I can tell you the trails are pretty sweet. Directions to the course and course profiles are provided on the event flyer attached below.
Online registration can be found here.
There will be state championship specific plates so make sure you allow enough time to get yours before your race.
I won’t be able to make it unfortunately due to other commitments but hopefuly we can get a few of the MTB crew down to this for a bit of a showing and a few placings.
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.
when you think of a team time trial you think of the old team postal boys in the tour de france. all power and grace and all working together like a well oiled machine. and then… there is the wa state champs. i’m not saying that there were no well oiled machines out there today. the plan b men’s team smashed the course and looked to be doing it well as they flew along the other side of the road from us. however, there were a lot of teams that didn’t look too oiled and i am guessing that ours was one of them.
the conditions today were nothing short of atrocious. the only thing that would make it unbearable would be a lot more rain. basically the wind was so strong, it tried to blow you off the road at every opportunity. the closest weather station that i could find on the net was mandurah which reported 61km/h average winds with gust up to 87km/h. as you expect the coast to be a bit windier, drop about 10km/h of those numbers and you still get crap riding conditions. what made it worse was the course was three sides of a square, so you didn’t just get a headwind/tailwind combination, but rather a very bad crosswind/headwind/tailwind/crosswind combination. i know i put crosswind in there twice, but it played such a big part to the day.
so, in the lead up to the event we had a choice to make. which division would we race under. as ryan is the only one in our team that does not qualify for masters, it would depend entirely on whether he wanted to race. in the end it was stu, mark, jerry and i that formed the team and we signed up under the masters 35-49 division.
the course, as previously mentioned, was loosely the three sides of a square. see attached. the first part started straight south before heading in a se direction. back south again before turning directly west to the turn around and back the way we came. the course was pretty much flat so was ideal for a team time trial and ideal to get those well oiled machines all working together. as i said, the wind through all of that out the window.
we were scheduled to start at 09:51 and would be the fourth masters team off. the open women’s riders would already be on the road before us and the open men would be following behind. there were only seven masters teams so we only had to beat four teams to get a medal. the aim was to at least get a medal of any colour.
as we prepared our gear, the rain began to fall. hard. everyone just left the bike against the cars and jumped inside to wait it out. the rain wasn’t too bad and i could live with it. after the rain stopped, however, the wind really started to blow. we kitted up and headed out for a warm-up ride. in the process of borrowing chris’ ridely road bike, i managed to also get his cosmic carbone deep dish wheels. being a time trial i decided to give them whirl to try to grab whatever advantage i could. as mark and i headed out for a warm-up, i decided that i had made the wrong wheel choice. we got as far down as where the road swings to the south-east and the crosswinds really came into effect. i found that i was having trouble keeping the bike straight and really had to fight it. we turned around and made the tailwind assisted run back to the car. i had bought my real design wheels with me which had a lower profile so swapped out the front wheel to try to gain some control. during the warm-up we could see lots of guys running full disks on the back and deep dish rims on the front. i hoped they had better control than me.
our start time approached and we discussed team tactics. basically we would straight line it doing 30 sec turns on the front. we would all stay together till the turn around but then could drop a rider on the return as we only needed three to get a finish time. if anyone got a flat they would be left behind, except if they were the third rider remaining. all good we thought. just a matter of staying in formation.
our time came and we got our count down to go. i was on the front and had trouble clipping it and had to give it a second go before it clicked. not a good start. then as we wound up the pace i went to put it in the big ring and it didn’t want to shift up. not good at all. it was working fine before, and now i was worrying about a broken cable and whether i could do the whole thing in the small ring. i eased the pressure off the pedals and tried again. this time is shifted smoothly, but i really didn’t need the extra stress.
the first couple of k’s down to where the road swung around were ok. we had a head wind, but you could get a good draft on the wheel in front and we were swapping out turns often enough for everyone to get a rest. as the road turned, we came up over a railway crossing. this is where i got my first real fright. as the bike lifted over the crest of the crossing, a gust came in from the right and gave my bike a thumping. i now was wishing i had even lower profile wheels on.
this stretch down to the right hand turn was pretty bad. we managed to organise ourselves so that we echeloned across the road with the lead rider as close to the centreline as they could be. however, we were still being hit by gusts that would move your bike to the left and everyone had to be extra careful as we were now overlapping about half a bike in order to get a draft. i found that most of the time i could not actually get down on the tri-bars as it was too unstable in the gusts. i just grabbed the bullhorns and hung on for grim death. the wind had also spread lots of dead branches on to the course and we also had to avoid them to save us from getting a puncture.
we hit the right hand turn at the 10 km mark and i was glad that we now had a headwind. before we reached the turn we could see two teams in front of us and we knew that we could make up some more ground now. one was the masters team that started 2 min ahead of us, while the other was one of the women’s teams from about 10 mins earlier. i looked back and could not see anyone after us so i guessed that we were doing alright.
i was now pulling longer turns at the front as i didn’t have to fight the crosswinds and could get into a better rhythm. unfortunately this section only lasted for 5 kms and we turned right again to cop the full brunt of the crosswinds.
the 6 kms along this stretch to the turn around was the worst conditions that i have every ridden in. i hardly got down on the tri-bars as i found the bike uncontrollable. and even when i did, i was watching up the road to see where the bushes acting as a wind break finished, so i could get ready for the gusts to hit us again. most of the time we were riding so close to side by side that we hardly formed a line at all.
about halfway down this stretch, i noticed my polar speed mount had come loose and was now precariously hanging at the end of my forks against the quick-release lever. if it swung around it would go straight into my spokes and would probably make quite a mess of either me or the bike. i kept a watchful eye on it and tried to work out how and when i could rectify the problem. as we approached the turn around i told mark and he said to sprint ahead so i could fix it without losing the team too much time. i ended up just stretching it around the skewers as well so the it could move anywhere. unfortunately it meant that the end of the cable ties was now playing a delightful tune on my spokes as they turned past. it didn’t matter. you could hardly hear anything over the wind.
we now had the same problem with the wind but now from the other side for the return trip. big gusts and hard to hide from it. being an out and back we also got a view of some of the teams that were in front and behind us. some were all over the road and others were just powering along. i was hoping the powerful ones were all in the open men’s division.
about halfway along this stretch, we lost jerry. he didn’t lose too much ground and he said that he almost made it back on, but the wind was too much and resigned himself to riding home on his own. he was not he only one to do that today. up ahead i saw an aussie crates rider who turned out to be steve, who often come out on the sunday ride. he had been dropped by his team and was now finding his own way home by turning around early.
we took the left hand turn and now had the wind on our backs. again the turns got longer as without fighting the crosswind, you could spend more energy going forward. i was very disappointed to come to the end of this stretch. we turned left again and started to negotiate the last crosswind section.
i was starting to struggle now and was having trouble holding position in the line. i couldn’t get on the bars and power along, so didn’t feel like my riding was very fliud. we echeloned to the right and as you were overtaken you had to swing down and all the way around the others to get back onto the right hand side out of the wind. we now also had steve and another lost rider hanging onto our draft to help get themselves home.
we battled along, but both those lost riders eventually passed us to act as a carrot for us to chase. unfortunately, we weren’t that hungry and i think it was actually harder to ride in formation that it was to rode solo. on your own, if a wind gust hits you, then you can easily just drift across the road and back on track. in a team time trial, you really needed to control the bike at all times as there was someone relying on your position.
finally the road swung north and we hit the final tailwind stretch for home. stu and i were stil powering along, but mark was starting to struggle a bit. i guess this is where the triathlon background of the two of us comes to the fore as mark recognises that it is an area in which he has not done much training. we powered up to the finish and mark was calling for us to ease off as he was losing the wheel. we were yelling at him to go harder as it was only the last km and he needed to give it everything. stu and i rode side by side to try to give him a bigger draft area and we managed to cross the line in 1:08 for the 42 kms. i was so glad that it was over. the wind and the openness of the course made it one hell of a tough day.
we waited for jerry to finish before we headed off to the cars. a team from bikeforce southern river was behind us and a couple of those guys were the ones doing all the work at last weeks cyclo-sporitf race. they said that they got 1:10 or so, so we knew that we had at least one team down. three more to get a medal. we got changed but left the spr gear on just in case we actually reached the podium. unfortunately the presentations didn’t start till about one o’clock after there was some delays in getting the timing for the juniors organised. this gave us an opportunity to wander down into pinjarra and grab some food etc before hand.
after a two hour wait we still didn’t know if we got a place or not. i was already over my expected home time and had to ring and explain that there was a good chance that we got a medal. i was hoping that we didn’t all just sit around and wait for a fourth place.
state team time trial silver medal
in the end our time was good enough for second place and my second state masters silver medal for the year. we were pretty happy about it but would have a lot of work to do to make up the 6 min the first place guys managed to get. the first open men’s team managed to clock it in under 1 hr and blitzed the next team by six minutes as well.
steve’s team came in third to get him a bronze medal in the open division, while mel, josie and sarah managed to narrowly hang onto first place by about 10 or 15 sec. bec’s team took out third in the open women and took home a bronze.
so, a good result for an absolutely awful day on the bike. we were all pretty happy to get a medal and it made getting out of bed this morning worthwhile. i doubt we would have made the effort for just a sunday hills ride.
the road state champs at roleystone had a few changes this year. for one thing they were in may as opposed to august last year, and this year they did not have a support race. instead you had to enter to what was on your licence. in my case this was the masters 2/3 race as it was my birthday today and i turned the ripe “old” age of 36, making me well qualified for the category.
so this was to be my birthday present to myself. a 114km race, in potentially crappy weather, along undulating roads, with a bunch of guys that would try to hurt me and the worse uphill finish that i know of. sounds like a wonderful day…. for a masochist.
six of us had registered for the day. this was not without a lot of badgering, abuse and guilt trips from me. initially, when the registrations closed, i was the only one from our team entered. after they extended it by a few days, we ended up with mike, stu and mark entered. however, those three are all in the masters 4/5 category so it meant that i was still riding on my own. luckily, bruce and jerry had last minute entries to provide some company for me in my division.
so the day rolled around and i found my way to roleystone high school. i made a point of getting there early as i knew that parking would be a premium as this was a similar course as we did for the tour de perth. registration was fairly painless, but they couldn’t tell me what order we would be starting which seemed a little disorganized for a state title. i had time to catch up with a few people before i got ready, but is still hadn’t spotted any of my team-mates. as mentioned on saturday, mike had decided not to ride due to medical reasons. this still left another four guys that i was keeping my eyes out for.
as the start time rapidly approached, i finally caught up with bruce, so at least i had one team-mate to ride with. we later found out that jerry had to operate on some guys doodle instead. they joys of being a urologist. stu and mark rushed to get registered but we at least had two more in the other masters division. ryan was not racing today as he would have had to ride with the open men. it probably would have been good for him to see what the next level up was like to play with. i was glad that i was that little bit older.
the start list had out division at around 16 riders, so i expected that a break my get away, based on the previous few races that i had contested. it seems to be that in the smaller groups, there isn’t that incentive to chase. however, we would have to wait to see what happens. this was a state title after all.
a few non starters put our field at just under 15 riders for the roll out. the open men had a five minute head start on us and the masters 4/5 men would be leaving after. the last race at dardanup had a field that would not even roll through just to share the load. i was wondering if that’s what would happen again.
we headed out along brookton hwy where the road would undulate for an expected 55km before we would retrace out steps and head back to roleystone. the guys didn’t roll through, but everyone seemed content to do a bit of a turn at the front before peeling off and dropping back. this at least meant that the pace would not be as pedestrian as the last race, but not too hard that we would all be struggling early.
i was trying to take note of the terrain as we headed out past karagulen as i thought that it would be important as we headed back towards the finish. my game plan was to sit in the pack, do the appropriate amount of work on the front, and keep the group together as long as possible. after an aborted attempt to get in the break at dardanup, i found that i didn’t have the legs to keep a break going. i needed the numbers around me to get me to the end of a 100km plus race. therefore, i would chase down breaks in preference to trying to create them.
about 10 or so kms into the race a guy in budget forklift kit (budget-boy) got a flat and had to drop back to the support van. i didn’t take any spares as i thought that if i flatted, i probably would be able to get back on anyway. luckily this guy got a good draft from the support ute and made it back into the pack, though, not without serious effort.
about 20km into the race the first attack went out. i really couldn’t believe that this guy was serious as he tried to go out by himself. the group reacted well and quickly pulled him back. for such a small group there was not much team tactics and besides bruce and myself, the only other guys in the same kit were three elite cycles guys. those guys did play the team game a bit and would not chase if they had a team-mate who attacked. it was a bit strange though, as everyone jumped to get on the break, the two other elite guys would end up behind the pack and would have to chase to get on anyway.
all the way out to the turn around little attacks would head up the road. the main antagonists were bikeforce-boy, csc-guy, glennparker-boy and multiplex-dude. these guys would all try repeatedly to break away on almost every hill and small rise. however, they would only try to go by themselves. if they had worked together, they might have got away with it. at one stage, one of the four headed up the road. i turned to one of the elite guys and said, “lets leave the bugger out there”. he agreed and we didn’t chase but left him to suffer about 50 metres in front of us. he eventually got bored and came back to the group.
at the turn the group was all together, but three guys tried to go hard out of the u-turn to try to get away. everyone had to go hard but we all caught back up before the next hill. about then, glennparker-boy attacked and got a little way ahead. no-one really panicked and we left him out for a bit. it seemed the thing to do now and we would often leave them ahead to burn themselves out a bit. bruce was starting to suffer a bit as his new young baby has contributed to his lack of training/sleeping/fitness. he had done some work earlier to bring back some breaks and was now paying for it. however, he was about 25 kms further along than he thought he would get.
a further attack on a hill and bruce said farewell and dropped off the back with one of the elite guys. i managed to get back on the group but was also feeling it as my quads were starting to cramp whenever i got out of the saddle. bugger, i thought. i could now see myself getting dropped on one of the attacks if i couldn’t go hard at the appropriate time. i fell into damage control and sat at the back of the group and tried to get as much fluids into me as possible. i usually run quite dehydrated during rides but this was one of the side effects if i ran too dry. any climbs from now on, i needed to stay seated to keep the cramps at bay.
the attacks kept coming and at one stage we managed to drop a couple more guys. they managed to get back on but everyone was starting to feel it a bit. i had managed to drink most of my powerade and half my water and was feeling better in the legs. as we came towards karagulen servo the hills may have shaken a few more guys off the back. i wasn’t really concentrating on anyone else by then as i was trying to just stay in touch. as we came up the hill past the servo and headed towards the turn off, i saw the csc-guy and another rider have a quick chat and then the other guy went to the front. so, there seemed to be some collusion in the group that i didn’t know about. it didn’t seem to matter as multiplex-dude took off and put a few more into distress.
by the time we hit the turn onto chevin road, i was counting the amount of riders left in the group. wow, i thought. i have made it into the last eight riders. i was quite happy at that stage, but was still worried about the last couple of k’s and how they would pan out. the open men had already entered the circuit and it started to become interesting as we now had one or two of them dispers
ed amongst us.
i took the hill on chevin well, didn’t cramp and stayed with the others. i started to consider my options for the finish. at the tour de perth, i was just happy to be in the group at the end of the day, so didn’t really even sprint. today, with a few more races under my belt, i felt that i should actually do something. still not sure what that was going to be.
we turned off peet rd and on to the final couple of k’s up to the finish. i changed to the small ring to make sure i wasn’t over stressing my quads as the last bit was almost all up hill. i was sitting on the back and suddenly realized that there was a gap to the front. i sprinted around csc-guy and another rider as they had no more to give. you could actually see the finish from here and i was surprised that you couldn’t find anything else. all those previous attacks took their toll in the end. i looked around and realized that i was in the final six.
through the round-about and heading towards that last damn climb and i was waiting for someone to make a move. glennparker-boy was on the front and the others were all hanging off him waiting…waiting…waiting. the climb started and still no-one made a move. the group was actually sitting in the middle of the road, so there was room on both sides for the sprint.
at 200 to go, i decided that i better do something and started to sprint. i saw the multiplex guy start his sprint from the right just as i started mine a bit further back on the left. just as we were about to come past the from guys everyone reacted. the glennparker-boy stood up and crunch, his bike didn’t want to play and something went wrong at the worst possible time.
i didn’t care by then as i had committed myself and gave it all i had. 200 metres doesn’t seem like much, but the road just didn’t seem to want to stop and i was running out of legs. both quads had started cramping again, but i didn’t care by then and pressed on. i felt a rider come past me at speed and thought, bugger, i stuffed it up. i sat down but kept pushing letting out a bit of a scream as my thighs rebelled on me. the line was coming and so were other riders. i kept pushing and through the bike to the line, not sure whether i made it or not. i was not looking at the other rider and i swear there were black spots in front of my eyes as the blood was sent to the legs.
i knew i didn’t win, but did i hold on to second or not??? i rolled up the road a bit to get my heart-rate back down to something resembling normal. normal for finishing a bike race anyway. i headed back to the finish line to try to find anyone i knew that may have seen the sprint. mel’s mum amanda thought she saw me take second and clare also confirmed it for me. i now had to check with the judges. two had me second and one had me third. majority rules and i held onto second but not by much.
the guy that came third was bikeforce-boy who did quite a few attacks during the race, while the guy that won had the same strategy as me. conserve energy and wait to see what happens at the end. the discussions on e-mail during the week between the race team had been about training hard and racing smart. was i smart going when i did??? maybe, maybe not. i may have started a bit early as i ran out of puff before the end, but if i had waited a bit longer, would i also have to negotiate the other riders to try to get to the front. it didn’t matter, i was happy with a silver medal at the state level, even if it is for the old man division.
the masters 4/5 men were coming in after us and we had mark and stu in the group. when we saw them at the turn-around, they had a bigger group that seemed to be working well together. it also came down to a sprint and stu managed to hang in for a very respectable 4th not far off getting third. mark also finished in the pack which was a great effort considering how much time he has been spending off shore on oil rigs instead of the bike.
so a good day for us and it is only a matter of time before one of us can crack a first place. no money for 2nd but a nice medal instead, so i am off to kalgoorlie this week for a crack at the menzies race.
i got home after the race and was wearing my medal. my wife asked whether everyone got one (like a participation medal). yea of little faith in my ability on the bike. i had to set her straight and she was very surprised. not enough to let me buy a new bike though.
