Race Report Thread

[vosadrian]

Nice one X. I have raced B there quite a few times and never seen a break stick (and I have tried a few times, but never with any real cooperation). Would have been great to see it go the distance. Well done!

[Xplora]

LOL cheeky bugger Rogan

Adrian, the GP circuit is MUCH more conducive to breakaways - that's why you have mark Pete M like a kid with a Crayola addiction Much easier with long flowing corners!

[toolonglegs]

Nice work X!

[MREJ]

Great job xplora!

[nailsaslegs]

I think you need a 27 at least for Hotham. I put a 29 on last year for my young bloke, just as a bail out gear. 27 or 28 would be good for the Meg and those pinches at the top.

New SRAM Red Black 11-28 will get me up Hotham this year Derny.

[skull]

New SRAM Red Black 11-28 will get me up Hotham this year Derny.

That should work. I ran a 28 with standard cranks and didn't use it with the exception of the last km.

[vander]

Had my first race back yesterday. Decided to race B grade didnt think I was ready for A grade quite yet and C grade probably would of been burgling. I felt very average on my ride there heart rate was through the roof for a low power. Had some intermittent rain and I really started to question my decision. Rain passed and the heat came right back. Chilled out before the start hiding form the sun questioning why I was there feeling the way I was feeling. The race got started and I felt OK. Heart rate was through the roof but didtn feel as bad as it said. There wasnt anything really happening in the race so I let a couple of guys sneak off the front and then jumped across to them, as I did the whole group chased and closed it down. The pace just stayed reasonable for a while after that, I started to think noone wanted to race despite the strong wind that would be great for breakaways.

Just when I thought this 2 guys rolled off the front, they built a solid couple of hundred meters gap. I thought this could be a decent break, so I decided to go across hard, I brought with me a fellow clubmate and we bridged across. The peleton was chasing hard, and we tried to get our little group of 4 working. We got it working quite well. Over the next couple of laps it ended up being us 4 vs a chasing group of 4. We had a few hundred meters on them. I was going strong in the break pulling big turns doing over 50% of the work. The group of 4 chasing started to dwindle. We kept going me doing more and more work. with about 4-5 laps to go there was only 1 guy left chasing but he was closing in on us. I was pretty spent by now I had been sitting at over 190hr the whole time cause of my crazy heart rate. One of the breakaway riders attacked with about 3-4 to go, I held on then made him do a big turn on the front to make up for it. I then had a little attack but I didnt have much left so got brought back quite quickly. This gave the guy chasing no chance, so it was just 4. We decided to just roll together till the last lap then do whatever then. There was no more attacks, I decided I would lead out the sprint I was confident I could take it. Cross tail wind finish, so had pre decided I would go early. I went early went hard, expecting to get a bit of a gap on the rest. Worked well gapping 2 of them but the clubmate hung on my wheel, I forgot I was chatting to him earlier telling him it was a day for the long sprint. He held my wheel well and came around in the last 50m as I blew up to take the win I picked up second.

I was happy with the sprint it just wasnt good enough on the day. Hit a new top HR ever of 203bpm. Held 192BPM for the time in the break well above my threshold but power numbers were well down on threshold. Not sure what was up but felt terrible all day, happy with the result given how I was feeling. Mentally did great and dug really deep just not enough on the day.

[Strawburger]

Welcome back vander, great effort on your return! Onwards and upwards from here.

[toolonglegs]

Nice work Van!

[donncha]

Ha Vander, after that race report I know who you are.

It seems we are to be club mates, so see you out on the bike sometime.

[cerb]

SKCC B-Grade Crit
39km, avg. 42.6kph

With basically a long weekend in VIC and a cold and rainy morning, I expected small numbers so was surprised when I got to the start line with a reasonable number of starters.

Started out sitting in the bunch. A ~5man break established after about 12mins but didn't look too threatening until started to make some good ground as the bunch slowed dramatically. So, I went to the front and did a whole lap at full pace to bring them back, leaving the gap at about 50m and letting the bunch finished them off. I drifted to the back, hurting!

Soon after recovering, another group of 3 went off the front. They didn't look particularly strong, but included a strong rider I knew so I kept an eye on it and just rode top 5-8 riders for most of the rest of the race.

With ~15mins to go, the break still had a solid gap, so I started pulling some big hard turns to ensure it was shut down with enough recovery time afterward. It took longer than expected as there weren't too many contributors and the remaining two team mates from the strong guy up the road kept trying to block us.

Eventually got the break back with about 3mins before 3 laps to go and I was already feeling spent... I dropped back a bit and then the 3 laps to go went and the pace lifted. I was stuck ~15-20ppl back! I had the a couple of very good wheels (guys who regularly podium) just in front of me, so I took one of their wheels and followed him up the bunch. With 2 to go I felt good again and ready to sprint. However. on the final lap, with about 400m to go, the guy I was following squeezed a small gap which closed instantly behind him and he was gone - leaving me behind a wall of riders 8-wide!

About 100m from the last corner, people were spread across the road front of me and coming toward the final corner, the inside line was on the anchors as they approached. I had a big gap to my right, so I cut across the road to the outside line (was plenty of space, but I think I scared some people... definately not my best move ever) and came round the outside line.

At the exit to the corner I still ended up with a line of guys in front of me, no clear line to the finish and in about 12th position, so I just sat up and rolled across the line.


From today's race:
- Think I did too much work too close to the finish. There were plenty of sprinters in the race who would have done more work if I'd not started working when I did.
+ Feeling strong. Easily rode at the front and helped control the race.
- Changed line very close to final corner. There was space to do so, but it was an agressive move and still pretty bad form...
+ Need to position myself rather than follow people in the final laps if i'm too far back. I had opportunities to move further up, but stayed on the wheel, then lost it.
- Positioning, positioning, positioning! Inside line for the final corner = win.

Get to race out at Essendon Fields tomorrow as it's a public holiday. New course - only the second crit that's been run on it.. should be fun!

[jules21]

nice work Cerb. doing hard pulls on the front will only make you stronger. good job not taking anyone down

[Cul]

SKCC Crit - B Grade

Not really a lot to add to Cerb’s race report – I really struggled this week, I missed the warm-up so it took a while to get into it and just generally didn’t feel good; I spent a majority of the race just hanging on before getting dropped about 45mins in. I pulled the pin and drove home thinking Say What just happened, I’d done well the past few weeks, and even last week punching out PB’s all over the place… Today, nothing!

Anyways I got home and started to feel pretty ill and did for the rest of the day; obviously I was just feeling off!
Feeling ok today, 2hrs of easy stuff this morning.

[cerb]

Sunbury CC Cup Day Crit
29km, avg. 38.6kph

Tough race yesterday on the new Essendon Fields course - only the second crit that has been raced there! The start list featured a number of strong riders I knew and a number of others I didn't.

The course is quite technical. Corner 1 has rumble stips leading into it and is a narrow (1 car wide) 90 degree turn with a tight finish. This immediately leads into a ~2% gradient for 400m before another sharp left with a tight finish. Both corners made much more interesting with a strong northerly blowing and grabbing your front wheel as you come around the corner! The final technicality is a speed hump (fairly smoothed out) on the final straight, within 100m of the finish - right in the middle of the sprint!

The race was 55mins + 3 laps with 2 sprint primes at approx 1/3 time, or to the race directors discrecion.

After 1 lap neutral we were racing and it was chaos through turn 1, then full sprint out of it up the hill for the first 3 laps. I was hanging on up that hill for dear life... at around 95kg I had a lot more mass to accellerate out of the corner and take up the hill than many of the other riders. Thankfully, the pace let up a bit and my body started to conform to the requirements I was placing on it... I got comfortable and sat in while a couple of breaks tried to go up the road. There was such a strong headwind up the back straight that any breakaway was going to struggle... and they did, with most being brought back within a lap or two.

At 15mins I moved up toward the front in preparation for the sprint prime. Lap after lap went by and it wasn't called... at about 30mins I ended up on the front of the bunch into the headwind up the back straight. I pulled a decent turn then flicked the next person through and pulled to the side. Everyone followed my wheel. I flicked and moved back to the other side of the road again. Everyone followed. I slowed until I was very comfortable and everyone just sat in on me... I hit the left and cut across the top of the course still going slowly. With no-one keen to come around I clicked a few gears and gave it a kick out of the final corner. One guy came with me and as we passed the line with a ~40m gap on the bunch... you guessed it... PRIME lap! *bugger*

I pulled hard for the main straight and flicked the other guy through up the hill. He flicked me through up the back straight into the headwind and I flicked him through once it was almost over... except he was done. I kicked again but was caught by the bunch on the final corner and ended up coming across 4th.

I went back to the bunch and quickly recovered, preparing for the next prime. We did another 4-5 laps, then as we went past the finish line I heard 'B grade 2 laps to go'! I looked down and we had done ~40mins and only one prime... there was a lot of confusion in the bunch and I was well out of position - sitting mid to rear of the bunch. I moved up about 6 places on that lap and another 8 or so on the next, but couldn't get back into position in time for the sprint.

I ended up coming across in about 10th and was pretty cooked. This was one of those races where you had to be up the front the whole time and just ride strongly - it rewarded the strongest riders, instead of the more tactical riders like myself. Slightly annoying that the race wasn't as it was supposed to be, but I was just out horsepowered and i'm ok with that...! Still good racing and good fun.

[jules21]

nice work again Cerb. i believe Cam won that race and he's won a fair bit in his time..

[cerb]

Not sure of his name, but he was HCC!

[Xplora]

Marconi Eastern Creek Short circuit - B grade

A learning experience for young players all around. Breakaways don't work in brutal headwinds unless the breakers work together.

Blasting headwind in the opposite direction to last week meant screaming down the main straight at 60kmh every lap. Trek_Arty and I had a bit of a dig right from the whistle and put 150m on the bunch over the next lap, but no one came across. This became the story of the race, Parramatta's riders continually shutting attacks and of the 4-6 strong breakers, only 2 ever worked together for more than 250m at a time, and Mark C was feeling a bit gun shy after being used as leadout last week. I think I attacked 2-3 times, but nothing stuck. Rogan had a crack too, with a good effort. I think us breakers were all a bit frustrated but that's racing. Reality was that our first attack on the first lap was THE moment for a breakaway. Next time next time

I managed to have mechanical issues all race, it was horrible. Dropped to the little ring on the final corner 4 times, and my number tried to fall off early. I'm glad I didn't stab myself too much on the pins or get tossed from a chain, but it definitely robbed me of some power later in the race.

Hopefully we can get some more commitment together in the break, reality is that even in crushing winds 5-6 guys will leave the pack for dead - they are in the pack because they don't want to work, so you have to use this against them. End of the day, it's a trust issue and the best way to ruin your chances in the break is that you don't actually commit to the break. Next week

[cerb]

Agreed X - if you get the right group when it's windy and work together, it's a perfect opportunity.

[rogan]

Re X's report...

5-6 guys... maybe. It's very easy in the peloton in those conditions, with 40+ riders. So there will be fresh legs back in the pack, and with some clubs doing some rudimentary teamwork for their sprinters, it'd better be the right 5-6 guys. I'm invariably the only rider from my club in the Eastern Creek Tuesday races, so I'm free to do whatever...

Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not going that well and don't think I was going well enough to break, but throwing a couple of counter efforts after a tough lap caused by others is just the way I race. You never know what can happen... and the way that race was playing out, if you don't attack, you're not even getting a tough workout. As for the timing of a break, well... all breakaway attempts are doomed to failure, except the ones that aren't. Legs are freshest at the start, and I'd guess they might be watching you and Arty.

Unusually, at the end I managed to get an OK position, although on the outside on the final corner. The top 5 were 20 metres ahead and they fought out the places, but I "sprinted" anyway and got 10th.

[Xplora]

Mark C, rogan, Trek_Arty, Xplora, Adam F, couple other likely characters - no question we'd stay away. That said, if my FD kept dumping the chain and I kept trying to play gymnastics with my safety pins, I would have been dropped in the break Anyways, team BNA is like a subteam ala NRV, we just don't have the official uniform

Apparently Parra took the whole podium, so our postrace thoughts about their tactics to ensure a bunch sprint were misplaced.

[thelittlebattler]

Sorry if I'm not sposed to double up races in one go:

CCC Wednesday D-grade

After a week away with work, I half worried about dropping off the pace. Surely a 16min crit can't be that hard, just cruise around then have a sprint... Spurred on by the thread about attacking, I went solo 4 mins in (half to avoid the shenanigans going on, and half to just mix up the race a bit). I prayed they would just catch me again quickly, or someone would come across but no luck. 10 long minutes solo, then I got eaten up REALLY quick! Oh well, it was a good ride

VCC D grade tonight (35 mins)

Seeing as last night went so well, I put in a speculative effort with 25mins to go... I got joined by 2 others, and we worked pretty well together and got 1/3 lap. A few good turns from each of us, and we had half a lap with 10 to go. Somehow we kept getting further ahead, and had enough time to play cat and mouse on the final lap. Yeeha another podium for the battler! Just when I thought breaks would never work in a crit...

[vander]

LACC B grade today, I havent ridden much due to not feeling great but I am on the improve so decided to race. First time on the new Newington course. Its a short race 30min + 2 laps but a good fun race. Early on I tried attack a bit, pushing it out of the bottom corner up the hill a few times trying to get the race going. A few almost breaks but they never really gave me much space. About 15min in one guy got away and the race settled. The race just kept consistent he never really got too far away, He dangled for about 10min and was eventually brought back in. A few laps later another guy went out of the corner and went hard. I was on his wheel, we pulled away but over the hill (pimple really) he pulled away and I couldnt hold on. I slipped back into the group which had been shrunk a lot and tried to recover. After a few more laps the guy that was away early bridged, I wasnt in a position to try and go with him so I let him go. Those two joined up and we chased pretty solidly as a group but we werent really closing the 50-100m gap. The last lap came around quickly and I was in a decent position 4th or 5th wheel, coming into the corner before the sprint a guy came around who had been strong all race I jumped on his wheel and was second wheel into the corner, I gave him a gap in the corner and took the corner faster and pushed out of it. I ended up picking up 3rd about 50m off the back of first and second. Happy with the race, the 2 guys that got away were just too strong. Some big numbers for the race, bit of a NP buster, 31min (AT) 360W normalised and the last 8 and a bit @415W NP. It was a great fun race, good quality racing strong field and fun course.

[Xplora]

Great job, looking forward to having a crack at Newington this summer. Scary stats though, I hope you weigh 90kgs vander

[ft_critical]

Some great reports of late. Vander is back in the game, by the time your form comes back they might just find a way to run the Tour of Canberra? A bit of luck and I can see Cerb getting a win.
It is really interesting when you have followed the thread for a while to see people improving and learning; nicobec, Jules and X for example.

Won't be long now X, I will say hi at one of the Cups when you make the jump up to A - which is likely to be soon. I expect you are gagging to find out what it is like

[rogan]

415W for 8 minutes, on a few weeks of training... so... I can't do that.

X - vander is in the 85-95 class on strava, FWTW.

BTW, those strava weights are dodgy, mine fluctuates, but I'm consistently 74-75 kg, only occasionally hitting 76. And trying to get lower, 68 kg would be good. But on strava, you will find me in the 75-84 kg class.