Race Report Thread

[skull]

Waratahs Age Race at SMSP 30 to 39yo

Short and sweet. I was dreading this one, you get exposed to a few A graders and maybe A++ so the plan was sit in a bit and see how we went. I ended attacking hard several times and this was the pattern of the race. Basically a D grade surge fest except with very strong A graders lol

I dropped my bottle after 5 laps and hesitated. 6 seconds later I was dropped. I am Never racing in humidity without two bottles after that. I had a chance today but not without water. A backup bottle would have solved that. I am definitely feeling like I could handle A grade now. Hopefully a result tomorrow!

How long was the race?

[KGB]

With a 40-60min crit you should be right to get by without a bottle. Just down one bottle before the start and another after you finish. You wouldn't be able to use one for a points race on the track.

Possible but not necessarily very comfortable!

[Xplora]

I don't normally drink much but it was incredibly humid in Sydney yesterday, 75 minutes of surging combined with four hour sleep and my hardest race to date. I need water!

[Parker]

Women's B Grade - Claremont - Perth - Wednesday Night

I went, I lined up, I didn't get dropped straight away... okay it's a 30 minute crit +1 or 2 depending on whose officiating... I think.

Got dropped after 10 minutes, but didn't get passed by the first chick until 22 minutes in and then the others at 27 minutes in, it's my best last place.

Averaged a whole extra 1km/h this week compared to the previous week. So my coach must be doing something right

[Xplora]

Extra speed despite clearly being solo is good. Your legs will thank you if you can keep the chin up!

[Parker]

Chin is up

[foo on patrol]

Women's B Grade - Claremont - Perth - Wednesday Night

I went, I lined up, I didn't get dropped straight away... okay it's a 30 minute crit +1 or 2 depending on whose officiating... I think.

Got dropped after 10 minutes, but didn't get passed by the first chick until 22 minutes in and then the others at 27 minutes in, it's my best last place.

Averaged a whole extra 1km/h this week compared to the previous week. So my coach must be doing something right

Baby steps first.

Foo

[Parker]

I'm looking forward to this Wednesday, legs are gonna be fresh from this week (big week), I've got a rest day on Monday, recovery spin Tuesday and race Wednesday... Legs shouldn't be so fatigued for a change!

[jules21]

had a fun hit-out at Coburg B grade this morning. fast race (41km/h) in breezy conditions. a fair bit of animation, i felt tired so i sat in and decided to wait and see how i felt as the race progressed. my legs settled in nicely and with about 10 mins. to go i bridged to 3 guys 100m up the road. i caught them with a big effort 1/2 lap later, recovered for a bit then commenced rolling turns. 1 guy dropped off, leaving 3 of us. we started building a bit of a lead - a few 100m - but got held up for a few seconds by a turning truck at the roundabout. on the bell lap, the bunch re-appeared in our rear view mirror and we gave it everything to stay away. sadly, got caught with about 200m to go - the headwind down the finishing straight was too much. oh well.

[Ignoto]

First race back for the year and it was an exciting one. Both A & B Grades were capped off (thankfully I snuck just in before the B-Grade cut off of 60).

Anyway, we get around 13 minutes into the 50 minute race where A Grade had just finished. Turns out, there was a nasty stack in the blind S-Bends. Someone how gone completely off the track and ended up in a ditch. Naturally this caused a screeching of brakes, thankfully everyone had their heads switched on and it didn't result in a pile up. Marshall's had us pull over for around 10 minutes while the on call nurse patched the A-Grader up and took him back to the club house. So, we're pretty much at the half way point of the allotted crit time (with two crits still to come). Away we go again, but C1 has just been allowed to race, somehow they have a massive stack on the long straight right in front of us and a guy hits the deck.

B-Grade pulls off the side to wait further treatment to the injured rider. Takes another 10 minutes to clear him so we're sitting around the 35 minute mark of the race. Off we went again knowing things come in threes I was a bit apprehensive about restarting again. Anyway, primes come and go, I had a bit of fun at the front trying to get a break to stick, but with fresh legs and a head wind, we weren't going anywhere. I pull off on the last lap as I knew I wasn't going to contest the sprint and stayed out of trouble.

Glad to have finished the race upright, although I may tell the coach that arriving at the race with 122 TSS makes for a sluggish start!

[Parker]

Raced last night at Claremont Showgrounds, I didn't get last this time, average speed went up again... see, getting heaps better, didn't get lapped until 25:50 minutes and then was pulled off

[Parker]

Speed was up to 34.6km/h average and the week before I'd only managed 33.something

[Parker]

The winner averaged 35.1... I'm getting there if I wasn't training for this TT on Rottnest I'd be heaps faster in surges and sprints!!!

Sorry... should've put it all in the one post...

[kb]

The winner averaged 35.1... I'm getting there if I wasn't training for this TT on Rottnest I'd be heaps faster in surges and sprints!!!

Sorry... should've put it all in the one post...

Dunno, posting in laps too seemed to fit

[cerb]

SKCC A-Grade Crit
avg. 45kph when I popped!

I made my return to racing after 2 months off (less than 150km total ridden since end of November due to a new bundle of joy!) and went up to A-Grade all on the same day... I knew I was in for pain.

The opening laps were at an easy pace and I was feeling good, though was working a little too hard for the pace due to my positioning in the rear 3rd of the bunch. So, I moved up the bunch into the front 6-10 guys in order to reduce the power output required from each corner and reduce the fatigue I expected later on. Despite pulling off behind a few people who had just done turns on the front, I found myself on the front so figured i'd pull a decent turn and see how I pulled up.

I was feeling it when I pulled off, but joined back in near the front again when a gap opened near me. Same thing happened again and I was pulling another turn... this time I pulled a shorter turn, but still felt it afterward. I drifted back toward the rear of the bunch as I was paying for the couple of turns in quick succession and didn't want to be so close to the front anymore!

I sat in comfortably for the next 10 mins and moved my way to a comfortable position in the front 3rd again. Soon after, a team mate ahead followed a strong rider trying to break along with 4-5 others. As it was strung out, I was next in the line behind those going for a break and as I had a team mate in there, I soft pedalled a few strokes to help the gap open, then pulled off to the side.

I sat up and watched the break qucikly disappear into the distance. I was just ticking the pedals over watching it go, then looked back to the bunch coming past me and realised that the last rider in the bunch was now just ahead of me... and doing a much faster speed! I sprinted hard to catch on and made contact again about 1/2 a lap later but then had burning legs and lungs. I held on ok and started trying to recover, but a lap later the pace kicked up down the back straight and my legs just wouldn't follow... I chased the bunch for a lap, dangling 20-30m off the back but couldn't get back on, so I pulled the pin just before the 30min mark (halfway through the race).

Turned out to be a great race to watch anyway!

Goal for next week is to a) finish the race, b) be more attentive and c) not to pull big turns again until I'm comfortable with the new pace for a whole race!

[jules21]

well done Cerb. the obvious question though is: why?

[cerb]

Can't make B grade race times with the baby... Had enough results in B to go up a grade - no way they were letting me go down!

Hopefully i'll just take a few weeks to adjust to the new pace. Will probably fit in some trainer sessions to build FTP a bit as well! Not expecting to see the podium any time in the foreseeable future though...

...unless I pull a Steven Bradbury! haha

[nickobec]

Lara Devenish Memorial Criterium
PDDC D grade
8 February 2015

This race was personal, when I started racing almost 3 years ago, I was racing with Lara. In her first race, she attacked on the climb on Bodeman Road on the final lap at Wandi. I chased, caught her, we swapped turns until the final corner. When I like a gentleman, I launched my sprint from the front and early as we rounded the corner. Only to be caught on the line, with Lara winning by 0.02 of a second.

The next two years I spent racing Lara, hanging on the back of D grade, with both of us cornering badly and launching ill timed attacks. The best thing about racing Lara was at the end of a race you ended up with a smile on your face, she was one of the characters that made racing fun.

Unfortunately, last year Lara chose to end her life. Her family, friends and the club organised the D grade race in her memory. I was not the only rider from C grade participating, Scott one of the five riders from that wet and windy day in Wandi 3 years ago was there, along with Dani and Rich.

I was not racing to win, I was there to participate, the best result I could imagine was to lead out a D grade rider in the sprint and finish second. After a lap as ticket collector and finding out there are many more riders in D grade who corner worse than me. I went to the front with a plan to control the pace and make sure nobody launched a successful attack.

I just rode at a pace I was comfortable with, apparently a little faster than D grade was use to. There was a single attack in the first 25 minutes and I dragged the bunch back to Dani’s wheel fairly quickly. I spent most of the time on the front, Scott did his share and Clint was the only D grader to put his nose into the wind.

After 25 minutes Dani launched another attack and got a gap. I was sitting at the back and saw the bunch pick the pace up a little, but Dani maintained the gap. The attack this far out, reminded of Lara, so I decided it was time to go help. One of my issues when racing D grade was my lack of top end speed when sprinting, I could not hit 50kph. Well I launched my attempt to bridge gap as we turned onto the start finish straight, I peaked at 52kph and averaged 47kph for the length of the straight, including easing back as I caught Dani.

I did not ease back enough, as Dani tried to kick to get on my back wheel she promptly blew up. Half a lap later, Dani was back in the pack and I had a small gap. I had plenty left in my legs and could of easily kept going. I did not want to be seen as dominating the race, so I eased right back. Got onto the front of the bunch and tried to stretch the bunch every corner. After a lap of surging, C grade came past. They had just past us when the bell went.

I hit it hard, flew past C grade and turned onto the back straight and into the wind. It felt like a hit a brick wall, got caught, managed to hang on as fifth wheel, behind one of the better sprinters in D grade. Out of final the corner, the D graders who had been sitting in, accelerated hard and I was gone. I finished mid pack. But that did not really matter, I was there to race for a friend.

As the winner said in his speech “We would rather being racing with Lara than racing in he memory”

[foo on patrol]

Chit that's sad, Nickobec but I know remember you talking about that tragedy.

I'm curious, why do you think you that you couldn't give it your all but try and control the race?

Foo

[jules21]

nice report Nicobec.

[nickobec]

I'm curious, why do you think you that you couldn't give it your all but try and control the race?

Foo, I did not want to win the race.

I got kicked out promoted out of D grade, almost 12 months ago and have improved since then. It would of been easy to launch a few attacks, destroy the bunch and solo TT to victory. But I did not want to be seen as dropping down from a higher grade to an "easy" victory

[foo on patrol]

Fair enough, Nickobec, someone with morals, that's rare!

Foo

[Xplora]

Fair enough, Nickobec, someone with morals, that's rare!

Foo

Not at all, he's lulling them into a false sense of security when he moves to B next year and sprints off the start line for that solo victory

Great post nick. Winning isn't as important as people, sounds like you have a good club there.

[foo on patrol]

^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^

Foo

[nickobec]

Found out we are having a "realignment" of the grades.

I understand I am still in C grade, but a number of the stronger D graders I raced with last Sunday are being promoted.

So no Mr Nice Guy this week, it is racing.