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Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 9:04 pm
by mikesbytes
Div 3 - All photo's by David Lane of Action Snaps

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Anthony and I collide in the 250 screamer

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Anthony well positioned in 3rd wheel in the combined 3/4, I'm on the front

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Anthony makes his move for victory in combined 3/4, I get swamped on the line

PS, can you guess why I have number 112?

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 5:43 pm
by foo on patrol
It's your lucky number! :mrgreen:

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 7:13 pm
by mikesbytes
I'll have to see how the season goes to answer that one.

Try again

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:26 pm
by mikesbytes
On Sunday I took the Focus out with the clip-ons still on, rode with the bunch up to Waterfall, then let them go and then did a solo attack of the Mad mile in the clip-ons (no aero clothing). By halfway I had almost caught the bunch but then they put on a bit more speed and got away from me, though they were still within view when they hit the sprint mark at the end.

Anyway it's off with the clipons
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And on with the 130 stem
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Cos this weekend is Mudgee, but I'm no softie.... so I'm gunna race RAW on Friday night.

This weekend
RAW - Friday night Track Racing at Dunc Grey Velodrome
Mudgee 90km Mark Dwyer Handicap - Saturday
Mudgee Pieter van Gent Graded Scratch Race - Sunday

Think I'm on the same handicap as last year

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 7:09 pm
by mikesbytes
Hey, my 90 seconds of fame, I'm in the news. Click the picture to go to the newspaper

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Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:16 pm
by foo on patrol
I suppose you won't want to talk to us common folk now? :wink: Just don't turn into a diva! :mrgreen:

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:22 pm
by mikesbytes
foo on patrol wrote:I suppose you won't want to talk to us common folk now? :wink: Just don't turn into a diva! :mrgreen:
Only for 90 seconds.

Didn't get to the velodrome tonight :cry:

Mudgee tomorrow

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:36 pm
by mikesbytes
Mudgee 90km Mark Dwyer Handicap Midday Saturday 11th July 2010

Drove down Mudgee in the morning and decided it was warm enough so I donned my skin suit and had a short warmup before hitting the road in the 27 mins (Limit + 10:00 mins) group, third group to hit the road.

First 25 or so K's
Pace started out pretty slow and then steadily picked up. The paceline was working well and then we hit a hill and it broke up. About 10 went off the front with me but I was spat towards the top of the hill and rolled on solo for a little before being picked up by another rider then 3 more. We formed a paceline and worked well together, picking up more and more dropped riders. The new paceline was working really well, for a while I was thinking we could pick up the 10 riders that had gone off.

23 mins (Limit + 14:00 mins) bunch
Then we were caught by the bunch behind, we sped up and almost all of us got on. This bunch wasn't rolling, so I took the opportunity to sit in. Eventually a paceline formed at the front and I joined in. The bunch was quite large and it was spitting the odd rider here and there, about the same as it was gathering.

The home run begins
Not far from the turn to head towards home, the bunch is stretched into single file, I'm quite a way back and the alarm bells sound, I pull out and throw on some effort, launching myself to about 10th. Feeling safe again I join the restarted paceline. Then all of sudden we take a corner and the bunch blows apart. I was in the middle of taking an energy gel and I cease, holding the gel in one hand while and put in all stops to stay on, but after about a k, I'm spat.

19 mins (Limit + 18:00 mins) & 15:30 mins (Limit + 21:30 mins)
After a couple of solo k's along comes the remnants of the next 2 bunches combined. I jump on but only last a K, the pace isn't that bad, I'm just spent. A couple of other riders from the same bunch are also spat at the same time, so perhaps the pace was a little hotter than I'm giving credit for.

Time for some fun
Cruising back to the finish line, I come upon a limit rider who's trying to do his PB, so I give him a bit of a tow for a while, keeping an eye on him not to drop him. Then Scratch come past on an uphill and they are moving, there is no chance of me getting on, I'd need to have been caught on a downhill to have got on. So back to helping mr limit with his PB. We pick up some more riders including some spat scratch riders and cruise in like a Sunday ride heading for the coffee shop. One of the riders is happy with doing the 90k in 2h5m, which I think equates to me doing the 90k in something like 2h30m.

Post Morton
Not my best performance but as bad as it is, it was better than last year. About 36kph average, well down on my 39.5kph average at Ken Dinnerval. True I've lost some fitness since the Ken Dinnerval, but the reality is that I'm not going to be consistent on the road without some real road K's in my legs. Just as important, I need to get better at climbing hills, I'm fine at doing 1 or 2 as I can use my strength to get over them, but I need more hill climbing consistency to deal with the open road.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 2:11 pm
by mikesbytes
Mudgee Pieter van Gent Graded Scratch Race - Sunday 11th June - I'm in Div4 - 40k

While the race is only 40k, the first part of the race is the same section as yesterday, which is the part I traditionally have trouble with. However this time the pace is really slow as no-one wants to take the initiative. Its really crowded as with the slow pace its seriously bunched up. Finally we hit the first hill and the pace is strong on the hill, dropping a number of riders. The next hill drops a few more riders and then we do the sprint prime hill, dropping a few more, I guess we are down to about half the field.

I think the race is also part of the NSW elite womans championship, could be wrong. BUT there are several aggressive females who each have goes at breakaways. Each time its pretty much ignored, except by the other females, which raise alarm bells while the blokes ignore it, we know we can reel it in whenever we want.

I decide to up the pace and go to the front and sit on mid 40's for a while. I didn't see the impact but was told later I was dropping riders. However I think a lot of them may of got back on later.

Just before the final major hill a female attacks and gets about 50mtrs off the front. Once again no one reacts except another female, I think to myself, "no way there's a hill coming up" and sure enough we hit the hill, about 4k but not very steep and she looses the ability to gain and distance. With 1/2k to go on the hill, I decide to do my attack and up the pace to about 32kph. Unlike when females went off the front, this time the pack responds and chases me. I feel a little sorry for the breakaway female as I go past and then the pack screams past her too, catching me just at the top of hill, but I continue my attack downhill, pushing the riders to the limit and then halfway down the hill on a short piece of flat I break them and get away, I know I can descend quickly and build up about 30mtrs by the bottom. I push hard but so does the pack and the catch me after about 2k, my breakaway has failed. In hindsight I should attacked harder, its a skill I need to work on.

The pace is hot for the final 15k, but I'm comfortable, but this is where I made a tactical mistake, I wasn't far enough up in the pack. Come 500mtrs to go I'm in a good position but I get caught behind 2 Bathurst riders who roll off to let their sprinter go for it. Once I get around them, there's no gaps to go thru, I'm not going to take risks to win so that's that. Just to be cheeky I roll past the remaining 2 DHBC riders to be first DHBC rider across the line. There's a wall of riders going over the line, it must of been a tight finish, I roll over in about 15th place. The finish sprint is pretty slow, could of easily taken it if there was space, but that's my a fault for not being up the front in the first place.

Average speed is a measly 35kph, which is due to how slow we were going in the first part of the race.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 6:04 pm
by foo on patrol
Mike can I suggest that you attack the last 100mtes of any hills you come across when out training! :idea: I was taught by some old school blokes, that were Australian champs, that you should always ride the top of a hill harder, than you would at the bottom. Just a thought from my experience! :)

Foo

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:44 pm
by mikesbytes
foo on patrol wrote:Mike can I suggest that you attack the last 100mtes of any hills you come across when out training! :idea: I was taught by some old school blokes, that were Australian champs, that you should always ride the top of a hill harder, than you would at the bottom. Just a thought from my experience! :)

Foo
Yeh, that's exactly what I did, problem was I was seen as a threat and the pack took off after me. If I had been a chick I would of been ignored LOL. Anyway I got myself off the front on the downhill and had a go at a breakaway, so got my fun :)

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:45 am
by foo on patrol
Oh well, you just need to make them hurt a bit more next time!! :twisted:

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:21 pm
by mikesbytes
Menangle NSW 2pm Saturday 17th July 2010

MCCC 17k Individual Time Trail

After getting lost in Campbelltown and driving towards Wollongong for a while, I eventually decided to chuck a U'ie and go back to Campbelltown, this time I managed to find the road to Menangle.

Met my mate Lee Smith who rode me over the first half the circuit. It was a series of undulations with one decent hill thown in. Lee gave me some tips, it seemed that the major trick was to take the power from the dips to power over the hills. The other thing that was interesting was the surface, the tyres seemed to stick to it, as soon as you lost focus you immediately slowed down.

Riders were 1 minute apart and I was 22nd off the line, I immediately found good pace up the false flat uphill, possibly too much pace. My breathing came hard and I was watching my speed'o carefully so not to loose focus and therefor loose pace. Not long and I catch the rider who left in front of me. Down the hill, hitting 60.9kph at the bottom. By half way I'm loosing pace and really need to focus, I'm closing in on the next rider. I catch the next rider at the top of a hill and fly past him, I'm beginning to wonder why no one has caught me and then I hit the hill, I know I need to focus on powering over it, but I'm suffering by this point and by half way up the hill, I'm spent. Finally at the top, its time to fly - not many K's to go and mainly down hill, I find the zone and I'm off. The final straight and I wind it up to 47kph, but I can't hold it and cross the finish line at 42kph, the Speed'o shows an average of 36.1kph. I'm thinking that's pretty slow, I didn't manage to power over the hills, but not so bad when I see the results;

http://www.macarthurcycling.com/Race%20 ... verall.htm

45 recorded times;
1st Brodie Talbot MCCC 24.57
2nd Joshua Lester DHBC 25.50
....
12th Lee Smith MCCC 28.30
13th Michael Clement DHBC 28.39
....
21st Kevin Fisher MCCC 30.13 aka Kev365428
....
45th Jamie Dinh MCCC 37.52

Note: Kev365428 did his time the previous week as he couldn't do it this week, so its hard to compare as conditions would of naturally been different.

The winner averaged 40.8kph, that's 4.7kph faster than me, that's huge.

What I learnt from that race was that I was quick on the flat and downhill, but slow on the hills. Time to return to hill training and that's exactly what I did this morning, adding RNP to my Sunday training route.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:46 pm
by mikesbytes
My legs are toast. I've been calorie loading today, so hopefully my legs will be back for tomorrows NSW ITT champs.

Any suggestions how I can beat Eddie Sales :wink:

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:51 pm
by sogood
You always performed better with "toasted" legs! :mrgreen:

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 10:12 am
by Vipul
Hey Mike! Is that Focus you're new bike? I remember you riding a Giant before.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 3:15 pm
by mikesbytes
Sure is. I brought the Focus late last year off a Dutch guy at the UCI world master track championships. The OCR is now my training bike and the Focus is used for racing.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 6:41 pm
by mikesbytes
NSW Individual Time Trial Championships - Sunday 25 July 2010 - 19.3k

For masters and females, the start location was a different location to the finish location. I drive to the start location only to find out that sign-on was at the finish. I jump in my car and scream down to the start, sign-on and scream back to the start. change my clothes and vola, the zip breaks on my skin suit and I don't have any other bike clothing, so its lucky I have a innie. Wheels on the bike and ride straight over to the start line. My slot has long gone, but the last rider in my category is on the line, so they let me go 1 minute after.

I head out a little too quick, especially considering that I hadn't warmed up and the broken zip didn't exactly help, with my chest and abdominal's exposed to the elements. I'm finding good rhythm and roll over the first few hills pretty good, but with each successive hill my performance is dropping off, while my flat and downhill speed works well. Hit 69kph on the bigger downhill, but the final hill I completely blow up hitting 16kph. I know its not far to go and gather myself, find that final burst of energy and finally its over.

1 SALAS, Eddie 27:11.88
....
7 SIMMONS, Alex 29:48.06
....
10 BAXTER, Geoffrey 31:24.77
11 CLEMENT, Michael 31:26.33 - 36.8kph average
12 LACEY, Mark 31:29.12
....
16 WAI, Andrew 34:19.21
17 Meeham, Paul DNF
About 4 DNS

While I wasn't happy with my performance, I was happy with my result. Pretty tight around my time ah, 2 seconds behind Geoffrey Baxter and only 3 seconds in front of Mark Lacey.

The race confirmed what I already knew, that I suck at climbing at the moment. Today I rode thru RNP as prep for next Sunday's race Kurrajong Classic Sunday 08 August 2010. Those who have ridden it know there is a dirty big hill that we need to go up twice.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 6:59 pm
by foo on patrol
Mate don't let it get to you!
Just work on it at training and it will get better. Not saying you will be a world beater but, you will improve some. :wink:
Then read my sig line.( after fools)

Foo

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:35 am
by mikesbytes
Kurrajong Classic Sunday 08 August 2010 - 66k

First lap I got 3/4 up the dirty big hill then I blew. At the top I managed to ride my way back on in about 4k.

Just before half way I hit a big bump landed on the seat and it slipped vertical. I had to stop to fix it. One of the cars stopped with me and then I slip streamed it back to the motorcade which I rode thru to get back on.

Second lap I got 3/4 up the dirty big hill and blew again. This time there was no getting back on, I rode solo for a number of K's and then got caught by a group of 4 riders. We chased the bunch but I blew again and rode a number of K's by myself before getting caught by another bunch of 4. We worked together and with a few K to go, we could see the bunch of 4 (now 3) that I was riding with before, we worked hard to catch them and got it down to 20mtrs on the line.

My speedo stopped working for a while so I don't have my data, I'll have to wait for the official results but I'm expecting it to be slower than last year as the first lap wasn't that hot.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 2:12 pm
by mikesbytes
Yours truely rolling over the finish line. Photos from cycling@cochinos.us

Anyone know who the MCCC rider is?
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Was looking for one of strawburger but didn't spot one
http://www.flickr.com/photos/velocityme ... 678885238/

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 7:13 pm
by rogan
Anyone know who the MCCC rider is?
From the results, it would have to be Andrew Jackson.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:12 pm
by mikesbytes
Results up already, that's quick. Thanks Rogan

OK heaps slower than last year
2009 - 1:45:46
2010 - 1:48:35

Almost 3 minutes slower

This year I've got the lap splits
Lap 1 - 53:10
Lap 2 - 55:25

As you can see from the splits, I lost most of my time on the second lap, which isn't surprising as I did a fair bit of solo riding and the rest was in a group of 5.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:15 am
by rogan
It's a tough course. I rode the Parramatta Open, as it then was, in B Grade, in 1991, when I weighed 60 kg... 3 laps... I remember absolutely stone dead roads, deader than the old West Head surface, rolling up and down the whole way and the entire bunch being chased by a hell hound up Blaxlands Ridge Rd somewhere. This happened every lap, and I assume the same canine was also chasing the other grades... nice workout for it. I distinctly remember someone emptying a bidon on its head on the third pass. To little or no effect. I got dropped the third time up the hill but got back on with some Others. Stayed with the bunch but came nowhere.

Re: Tour de Mike

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:48 am
by mikesbytes
Definitely a course for weight wenneis. At 80kg I was good for 3/4 of the hill, but I couldn't compete with my fellow club members weighing in upto 13kg less than me.

Having said that I'll be back next year, but I'll get more hill climbing in before.