UWCT Perth 2013, 50 – 54’s race report

Sunday 14th of April 2013 was one of the biggest cycling days seen in Western Australia. Club SPR members were dispersed widely – El Prez and some mates joined the 1500+ riders heading to the hills for the 3 / 5 dams rides, a few did the regular club hills ride, a group of our top guns lined up for D4 of the Tour de Perth, some even turned up for the swim / ride / runny thing at Mandurah (won’t use the ‘T’ word in a family-friendly blog like this). At least 30 other riders, myself included, lined up in SPR club colours, lined up to contest the 3rd (and last) running of the  UWCT Perth 2013 UCI world cycling tour race.

I was almost a non-starter. A bit nervous already (this was to be my first race after breaking my wrist, collar bone & scapula in December) I was very disheartened to get up to the sound of light rain on the roof in my suburb 10 km south of the CBD. The Bold Park circuit has a couple of fast left hand turn corners, with the Oceanic Drive onto West Coast Highway turn having the added bonus of a very slippery painted lane to contend with, so I was not looking forward at all to trying to get round in a big pack in the wet. To my relief, I arrived at the course to find dry roads –  down south  continued to get some drizzle but we stayed dry all morning.

The 50-54’s were one of the largest groups, with 55 registered for the event and 49 riders lining up on the starting line. We had the other oldies (the 55-59’s) as company. The beginning was a bit disorganised – we were just told to ‘line up in your groups – OK 1st group goes now, 2nd group off next…’ it was a matter of finding people with tags the same colour as yours and hoping for the best. Stuart G, Greg, Dale, Mike B, Mark S, myself and a few others made up the SPR numbers. No reminders were given at the start as to how many laps of the course for each age group (we had 12, some groups had younger 14), not that the reminder would have done much good, as we were shown a ‘3 laps to go’ sign at the beginning of our last lap…!

Mike in control, SPR cheer squad in the background
Mike in control, SPR cheer squad in the background

The first few laps were relatively gentle. The pace started to warm up a bit on lap 3, with a few riders attacking on the flat, only to be caught relatively quickly by the group. On lap 5, Hilton McMurdo managed to sneak away at the end of West Coast Highway and Paul Miller was the only one who was able to get across with him. There was an attempt by a few of us to bridge the gap but there was not enough organisation to maintain the momentum and the two leaders rode very strongly together to the finish, with Miller taking out the sprint at the end (not surprising, given that he has tricolour hoops on his sleeve in honour of his status as an ex Australian road champion).

The rest of us maintained a fairly steady pace, with 4 sub 12 minutes laps and a few others close to the 12 min mark. It is a bit hard to work out the times given the different distances but, to put it in perspective, some of the top finishers in the 45-49’s  only did 3 sub 12 min laps, none as fast as our fastest (11.24).  (The pace this year was in complete contrast to our age group’s effort at the Kings Park circuit last year, where we dawdled around for 4 laps and almost got caught by the other age groups.) As per usual, Mike B did a lions share of the work up the front, Stew & I tried to help out as much as we could and another SPR rider (sorry, forgot his name) was very prominent for most of the race.

Trying to split the field, Malcolm Miller on my tail
Trying to split the field, Malcolm Miller on my tail

Our pre-race tactics had been to try and push the pace up Oceanic with the aim of gradually dropping some of the bigger riders on the climb. Unfortunately the hill just wasn’t long enough for this – on at least 3 laps a group of between 6 & 8 maintained a fairly aggressive roll along West Coast Highway and I was sure we had split the pack, only to roll down Rochdale, left into Stephenson and onto Perry Lakes Drive to find that the stragglers had caught up +/- held on. We were back to a group of 30 – 40 at the bottom of Oceanic again… And again….And again….And again….

the SPR train chugging up Oceanic Drive
the SPR train chugging up Oceanic Drive

The pack did get a bit thinner as the race rolled on but there were still at least 30 at the beginning of the last lap. The work I had done during the middle laps caught up with me and I really struggled on the last climb up Oceanic. It felt like being on the training laps again with Jonno driving the pace; I turned last into West Coast Highway 5 metres off the pack. Head down, thrash myself as hard as I can, exhausted, 500 m down the road, legs screaming with pain – still 5 metres off the pack. So near, sooo far. Try again for another 500 m – same result. I was just about to throw in the towel when I realised that the tail of the pack would have to slow a bit on the left into Rochdale and I took the corner fast and just managed to get back on about ½ way down the hill to the Stephenson corner. Not sure who was driving, but it was a fast finish down the straight. I finished at the back (20th in my age group), unfortunately Mike B had done too much during the race to challenge the sprinters and finished 14th, 1 spot (and less than 1 second), I think, out of the qualifying the group. Stew was strong at the end and grabbed 6th spot, should be a Q, I think (last year the 25% were on registered riders….)

Congratulations to all who completed, especially those who qualified (a bit hard to work out, I know Jerry got thru, I think Ryan did, I am sure there are others).  I know a few road really strongly but just missed out.

It hurts!
It hurts!

Special kudos to Queen Amanda Nabi, who took out line honours in her age group in both the time trial and the road race, and also managed 4th and 2nd overall in the 2 events.

We were all very appreciative of the loyal SPR members who turned up early to set up the tent, yell support and encouragement, hand out drinks en-route and offer a place to meet and greet after the race. Thanks heaps Nathan,  Rhian, Toby, Mark deC and the other hardy souls (apologies, didn’t get your names) for their support.

6 thoughts on “UWCT Perth 2013, 50 – 54’s race report”

  1. Many of us know how difficult it can be to comeback following a major incident on the bike. Kudos to you Jim for working hard to get your mojo back and compete in the UWCT. It’s fantastic to also read of the team approach taken to your age group…just another demonstration of the camraderie that exists in the club.

  2. Just as it happened on the day, Jim. Big thank you to you and Dale in particular (although other SPR regulars chimed in at various times) for keeping the pace as strong as possible and giving me a friendly wheel to rest behind. We made it as hard as possible for the conservative bunch.

    It was hard to keep a positive mindset after missing the McMurdo/Miller break when Hilton jumped during lap 5 (that was my best chance of getting a decent result – if I’d been able to work with them off the front). Not quick or strong enough I guess; perhaps lacking the confidence to try to go with them that far out.

    It was great to see so many SPR riders in our wonderful green and white out there on the day. So many produced really fantastic rides (some of which were qualifying performances): Matt Seale, Jason, Ben O’Brien, Jerry (bouncing back from the TT) and of course our ever developing female riders. Awesome stuff by all.

  3. Well done Jim for riding so strong after your recent fall, great stuff. I really appreciated the support of Toby, Nathan,Gilbo and the other SPR support crew – nice to see fellow club members so supportive.
    I was very close to go with the 2 riders that got away but hesitated and missed the chance, a lesson to learn for the future.
    Special kudos to Matthew Seale who I thought rode very well and finished strong, well done Matt.
    Hope to see you all in Trento!

  4. Opened the can on your 2013 racing calendar now Jim!

    It might only take the body 6 weeks to mend a bone, but it takes the mind a lot longer to trust the bike again, let alone racing a UCI qualifier.

    Good to hear there was a bit of SPR team work going on. Fingers crossed Mr Bonner gets his Italian call up.

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