Race Report Thread

[Bluejay87]

Lol definitely not turning up then!

[jules21]

if you need club kit, just email your club and ask to borrow some. people always have old kit lying around. note: this won't work forever

[KGB]

Or turn up in plain kit. White jersey and black shorts are acceptable at state level instead of club kit.

[Bluejay87]

Hmm best I've got is black shorts and jersey, both with semi prominent red trim. Wouldn't want to risk getting turned back as it's a bit of a trek for me. I've asked the club who have put the word out on social media so hopefully someone will help me.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[Derny Driver]

Yes you can. They put you in A grade

A grade are all registered team kits. They are not club kits as such but are registered with CNSW (and the fees paid for the privilege). Even A graders cant wear whatever they like.

[Derny Driver]

Email or ring the Randwick Botany handicapper / race organiser and tell them your situation and ask for an exemption.
If you get it, print it or keep the sms on your phone as proof.

[vander]

Mate it will be fine on Heffron on Saturday, they dont like it but will let you race, I changed clubs and dont have the new clubs kit. Been there the last 3 weeks and will be there agian this week, just tell them your situation they are somewhat understanding as there is nothing you can do about it. If your LACC I have some kit you can borrow, Large I am pretty sure, racing starts at 3pm not 2pm also.

Thanks everyone for the kudos, happy with the comeback, now for RBCC A grade on Sat hopefully top step on the podium this time.

[Bluejay87]

Good to know vander.

Thanks for the offer. I am LACC. Normally a medium but I can have an extra helping of ice cream tonight

[fixedlegs2012]

Its good to be a winner. First win of the year. C Grade Club Championships and 6th Overall. Good to get this win before Bright. Stuck with B Grade all race and lead out the sprint from 400.

[foo on patrol]

^^^^ ^^^^

Foo

[Tarquin]

Raced OK today, I'm getting better but missing training a few weeks ago, plus I think everyone else has picked up their summer training made it hard.

Tried a few things, nothing really stuck. Sat up on the final climb and finished at the back of the group.

Got some more km's in after racing, Garmin registered temperatures up to 45c (in the sun, 38 in the shade!) I certainly felt a little unwell by the time I got home, despite drinking loads, just can't absorb it quickly enough I think!

[jules21]

SKCC d grade, last race ever -> c grade now.

never again. sat in for 35 mins. as the bunch rolled around. i launched 3 attacks, each 600w for 25-30 secs. at 50+ km/h. chased down every time, before returning to slow bunch format. I know it's D grade, but the people in there who can put that much power down (it's not that much, but i know it's more than most D graders can) are just making for negative racing. i'm guessing they're not necessarily the ones winning either. why bother?

[Cul]

Sounds like fun Jules!.. D Grade seemed to be all over the road and moving awfully slow today the few times we've come past.

[Xplora]

why bother?

I think it can be poor tactics for some, poor strategy for others, and poor culture from others. Many guys only see the Giro, Tour and maybe the Criterium Dephaune (sp?) so they misunderstand the strategy of hanging the leader's team out to dry chasing on a sprint stage. If you aren't specifically defending a GC, such tactics make no sense. So some guys will chase crap down with no realisation that the chase will ruin their race. With no reward either! Amateur means no pay check without a podium. Others chase but forget that they really should force the strong sprinter to chase, and create an atmosphere where the track sprinters always seem to win, but the weaker sprinters don't realise that dealt themselves out by working for the bunch and not themselves. Week after week, they get no closer to the front because they never create an atmosphere where they could shine.
I don't buy negative racing as much as dumb racing, because the chasers should be too tired to contest at the end if the smart riders are paying attention. Play your strengths - chasing breaks is not a strong suit, it's a weakness to be exploited by others.

[jules21]

Sounds like fun Jules!.. D Grade seemed to be all over the road and moving awfully slow today the few times we've come past.

it still somehow averaged 40 km/h, but a lot of those laps were slower. i don't want to sound like i'm trying to be a hero but the laps i attacked on were 45 km/h, then as i got caught we'd drop back to 30-something km/h. B grade came flying past us.

Play your strengths - chasing breaks is not a strong suit, it's a weakness to be exploited by others.

i know it sounds like sour grapes, but i just don't understand why someone would sit on the front, soft-pedalling, then push 500+ watts chasing any attacks down - unless you're working for a sprinter. i doubt it, in D grade.

[Xplora]

I hope I covered that - it's bad culture, strategy or tactics. It's always dumb in D grade, just depends if it's long term, medium term or short term dumb I mean we all make mistakes, and it's quite an art, like fishing, letting attacks run and then bringing the tired marlin back towards the boat at the right time... but if you don't let any attacks go, you aren't in the right grade. Keep the teamwork to A grade.

[jules21]

I understood X. i would feel better if it was teamwork, but i suspect it was just 'dog with a bone' syndrome.

it's not because i couldn't win either - more that it discourages anyone from attacking, so we roll around in the mid-30s. i'm thinking "i got out of bed for a bunch ride around an industrial estate?"

[toolonglegs]

That's the problem with such short races... Everyone can survive for your average Aussie 45-60min crit... I find at my punter level that peps don't really start to suffer till your up around 90mins at least. So for 40 mins on a flattish circuit in D grade it is always going to be a mess!, even more so where you are with such big numbers competing!. Better off in C if you are coming away discouraged.
Our big problem / advantage ( depending where you sit in the pecking order ) is that even though our club races are much longer (1h45m to 3h ) it can be all over after 10 minutes because you race as a team always, once the right bunch forms it will never get chased!.

[zill]

jules, I feel your pain.

From my experiences so far, I feel that the best time to attack is early in the race (at least 10 minutes before the final 3 laps). Most likely, the attacks will be chased down in which case you will still have time to recover before the final 3.

Only attack late (within the final 10 min) if the group had been chasing an early breakaway for most of the race or if the group had been riding hard for the entire race for some reason such as chasing many small breakaways.

[vander]

That's the problem with such short races... Everyone can survive for your average Aussie 45-60min crit... I find at my punter level that peps don't really start to suffer till your up around 90mins at least. So for 40 mins on a flattish circuit in D grade it is always going to be a mess!, even more so where you are with such big numbers competing!. Better off in C if you are coming away discouraged.

I dont believe that some of my toughest races have been 30-40min with less than half the field finishing its all about how hard its raced with lots of hard attacks everyone will struggle and its easy to drop people

[Xplora]

Something I'm definitely mindful of Jules.
Funny though, when I started racing a year back, everyone complained about breaks never working in B and lower, always ended in a sprint - I think that's the Culture in action. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. I'm pigheaded enough to not care, and I've done quite well as an attacking breakaway guy. Quite a lot of breaks work, quite a lot result in wins - the answer from the bludgers is that you can't catch the break, it's too far up the road.

You can see the irony there - breaks never work, so don't attack, breaks always work so don't chase. Reality is that it's REALLY hard work attacking and rolling turns for 30 minutes, and it's REALLY hard work chasing down an established break of 500m. I think some people don't want to do the work and they want any excuse to make themselves feel better about it. I think the culture doesn't reflect what I was told when I started - definitely don't feel a break is a waste of time.

[cerb]

Jules - I think the issue is that there are a lot of strong people in D grade these days. While they are strong, they're not strong enough to go out in a break with a small group for 30+mins, which means there are a lot of people who want to try their hand at a sprint finish rather than 'risk' a break. Agree that people do chase things down 'just because' in D though... D-grade does tend to be less about tactics and more about brute strength! I seem to remember that only about 1/10 races was won by a break when I was there!


SKCC B-Grade Crit
39km, avg. 42.1kph

Very easy race for me yesterday, but no results. The pace was off and no-one really wanted to do any turns on the front, so we basically cruised around for 55mins!

I was very relaxed and feeling comfortable, despite having done only one 35km spin and a 20min trainer session in the past 2 weeks. A break of 4-6 went up the road after about 15mins, but it didn't have the strength to put any real gap on the bunch and they dangled about 50-100m ahead of the bunch for about 10 laps before coming back.

I cruised around and had a chat to a couple of people including one of the top local women's riders who was doing the mens B race after her Women's A win just prior. I was a bit shocked when she told me that someone had just told her to stay out the way and ride at the back of the bunch... This woman is a seriously good rider who could race professionally if she didn't value the job (and $) she got from her degree. I'd definately feel much safer racing against her than half the other people in B-Grade! I didn't catch up with her after the race, but I hope she crossed the finish line ahead of that douchebag...

With about 10mins to go, I thought about moving up but the pace started to lift and it became harder to do so, so I bided my time and just tried to move up when there was a lul in pace. One of the strongest guys went solo off the front, but I figured at this point he wouldn't be able to hold on against a bunch racing to the finish. I'd moved up to about 20th and we'd just caught the guy off the front when we were given 3 laps to go (about 5mins ahead of schedule), so I had my work cut out for me. Over the next couple of laps I moved up to about 15th, which is further back than I'd like to be on the bell lap, but still possible to get on the podium as I was feeling good and had plenty of juice left to burn.

As we started the bell lap there was a squeeze through the fist corner after heaps of people tried to dive down the inside, leaving the bunch about 6 wide into the corner. I'm usually pretty good at seeing whats happening and staying out of danger, but as I started to turn into the corner, the guy on my outside leant hard and fast into my bars as he cornered, knocking them about 20 degrees off straight in an instant. Not even completely sure how it happened... guys on the inside were getting squeezed outward so it was probably just that all the inside lines corrected their lines slightly to avoid an incident as they initiated the turn and the (faster) outside line wasn't aware of this and took the same line as previously. Either way, I went into 'not crashing' mode and managed to stop a some manic wobbles, bring the bike upright and control my position enough to make sure I didn't take anyone else down... I moved off the race line, then off the course to let those behind me filter through, then span out the rest of the lap with a mate who was caught up right beside/behind me.

After that, having no-one go down and all skin in tact was as good as win in my books! Everyone gets to go home and race another day...


Lessons leart from yesterday - 1. Move up earlier to stay out of trouble. 2. Move up earlier to stay out of trouble and 3. Move up earlier to stay out of trouble!

[Cul]

Similar sentiments here Cerb; Sunday’s race was quite easy going with only a few breaks one of which I chased down and really not that much more excitement. I wasn’t really feeling it yesterday, just couldn’t get my lines right and seem to be working too hard out of the corners. With a few laps to go, I started moving up, was chaos on the bell lap with the whole field vying for position, I ended up finishing mid pack somewhere!

On getting home and looking at the PM data, I only expended 80% of my W’bal compared to >95% previous SKCC races, so quite an easy one. It was a beautiful day for a race anyways.

Re the Woman racing Men’s B, I can imagine she coped a bit of grief as there a few arrogant pricks racing. I was a few wheels behind her when she was offering advice to the rider beside her; she certainly seemed a lot more comfortable than some of the regulars.

[Parker]

Smashfest Criteriums - Women's C Grade - 2nd Place

I said I'd place this week and I did. We raced with D grade as well because only two of us showed up for C Grade which was super disappointing, so we could have just rolled around and gotten first and second but we decided we may as turn it into a TT session and went hard from the moment we clipped in. We had dropped D grade by the time we came around on the second lap, we strung them out on the first lap to be honest and then just started pushing harder and harder. Even though there was only two of us in C grade, my biggest fear was that I'd get lapped by my mate Nat, she's an A grade quality rider, but she's never raced crit's before and has to start somewhere, she's moving up next week to B. I had to work my butt off to stay in front of her and managed to do that, lapped about three D grade riders in the process who came of the back. My corners improved in a big way, I've been practicing heaps and it's coming together.

Averaged the same speed as last week, 33.7km/h, smashfest finishes in two weeks and I'll go race some masters after that, although not doing the last smashfest crit of the series as I'm in busso cheering for the BF as he does his ironman.

My cornering in the drops has improved and I'm coming out of them a lot faster...

[jules21]

Jules - I think the issue is that there are a lot of strong people in D grade these days. While they are strong, they're not strong enough to go out in a break with a small group for 30+mins, which means there are a lot of people who want to try their hand at a sprint finish rather than 'risk' a break. Agree that people do chase things down 'just because' in D though... D-grade does tend to be less about tactics and more about brute strength! I seem to remember that only about 1/10 races was won by a break when I was there!

honestly if they were thinking "there goes that jules guy - he's a threat! better snuff him out quickly!" i'd be flattered. but let's face it, they're not thinking that. what chance am I really of lasting 10-15 mins. off the front, solo? i'm just there for a hit-out as much as anything, but when i'm forced back into the bunch and rolling at 150w i'm sitting there fuming, thinking this is the antithesis of what racing is supposed to be - i.e. hard work.