Race Report Thread

Row-D
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby Row-D » Wed Sep 02, 2015 3:21 pm

Thanks Trek and well done cleaning up the bunch in Goulburn - I heard Ed had a good ride in the break.

I'm not sure who the sprinter was - maybe Justin? Trent certainly proved he could hurt himself coming over to us. He must have put in a HUGE effort getting across. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to do it and he did tell me a couple of others tried and failed before he went.

I'll see you at the Specialized Cup.
R

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jules21
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby jules21 » Thu Sep 03, 2015 1:56 pm

saw a couple of guys sharing hits from a ventolin inhaler before a race recently. cool or not? (it's possible they both suffered from asthma)

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby cerb » Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:34 pm

jules21 wrote:saw a couple of guys sharing hits from a ventolin inhaler before a race recently. cool or not? (it's possible they both suffered from asthma)
Ventolin? Personally I go for a bit of paint in a plastic bag...

Seriously though - it does seem a bit strange. They could both be sufferers, but typically you have your own inhaler?

If not asthmatics, is it really going to give them much/any advantage amongst a bunch of club racers? We're not exactly talking about elite athletes who are all at the limit of physical capabilities! Most of us could get much better improvements just by training a bit more, eating better and/or losing some weight!

...I think they're only kidding themselves!

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jules21
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby jules21 » Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:37 pm

I'm not so sure Cerb. I believe they include corticosteroids, which are explicitly banned and can have a reasonable impact on performance (no idea if an inhaler delivers much of a dose though).

as you said, they could both have been asthmatics so I'm not jumping to conclusions...

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby cerb » Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:01 pm

I was prescribed an asthma puffer over winter to try and assist in getting rid of a 2-month cough, so I did a bit of research on them.

Typical asthma inhalers 'like ventolin/asmol/epaq etc. don't have steroids. They are 'relievers', which help to open the airway - this may have some immediate benefit to a non-asthmatic, but probably very marginal at club level.

The 'preventer' inhalers (flixotide, pulimcourt etc.) are the ones with steroids. But, I don't think they provide any immediate improvements to performance - they would only be beneficial to your cycling if used over extended periods of time to improve the strength/condition of your lungs. Taking it at the start line is unlikely to do anything for you though...

check out http://www.asthmaaustralia.org.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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jules21
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby jules21 » Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:17 pm

ah, OK, thanks Cerb. I've never tried them.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby jules21 » Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:27 am

Pop Stewart handicap, off 14 mins., 104 km, Balliang, Vic.

Pop was president of Brunswick CC for a long time. his daughter (I think she was 90-odd yrs old) was there at the race, which was nice.

a big group set off in the 14 minute group - 15 or so riders. we pushed a good pace, with everyone working well together. I found the 1st of 4 laps pretty tough. we had a couple of experienced hands offering advice - particularly to some of the younger whipper snappers to not smash it up the hills! there were a few dirt sections on the circuit and those who'd recc'ied the course got us to slow right down at the corners where we turned on to them - it's so easy when you've been pushing hard to get in that rhythm and suddenly find you're way too hot on the gravel and crash.

the pace was high again for the 2nd lap, but I felt good. by the 3rd lap, a few people started to miss turns as the pace took its toll. but we still had a decent group with most original members in-tact. we'd also picked up a couple of riders from earlier marks. we were gaining nicely on the leaders too, judging by the gaps being offered by corner marshals, so I started to think "we could win this". the finish wasn't my thing - a flat, bunch kick finish - so I didn't hold high hopes for myself, but there's always the chance of getting in the money.

by the 4th and last lap however - i was starting to feel properly tired. I wasn't alone, I noticed. I was still rolling turns, but there were points at which the group's cohesion broke down and fell back into single file. to their credit, we got working again without any permanent passengers. we could also see the lead bunch ahead - they had only 1-2 minutes and we were closing. the pace came back on a bit as riders smelled victory. I was suffering by now on the rises, but still rolling turns on the flats.

but as quickly as victory appeared to us, it was whisked away by the rumbling noise of deep carbon rims in the form of the scratch group who caught us. we weren't 15km from the finish and just about to attack the last climb. we jumped on the back, but my legs were dead and despite giving it everything, the group slowly gapped me up the climb. i chased with a few others, hoping to bridge back on the downhill, but there were a few rollers before the downhill proper and slowly they pulled away. I kept chasing with those riders, but after 10 minutes gave it up - we weren't going to catch them.

the dirt section looked like a warzone with riders nursing punctured bikes on the side. I checked the Strava files of those who clung on - 47 km/h on the dirt section of ~2km! I don't reckon I'd have hung on. I rolled in gently with a few others, pretty shattered.

37 km/h avg., down to 36.3 km/h inc. rolling in to finish over last 10 km.

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toolonglegs
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby toolonglegs » Tue Sep 08, 2015 1:21 am

Another race for me... with only really 3 more road races left in the season I thought I better do something!. Only aim was to finish in the bunch. 65k's at 37'ish average... won't say I found it easy because I didn't!. Wasn't the climb that did it ( even at 103 kgs :( ) ... just the lack of punch in the legs out of the corners.
Cat 4 is sketchy as well... and it wasn't the young ones being the idiots, the old crusties were attacking down the gravel on the side of the road all the time, also lots of wheels getting chopped up.
So only 2 more races left... they are both pancake flat but I won't be going for the win in either. Happy to stay in this grade till next year ;) .
Only real aim is a couple of C grade open races back in NZ in Nov / Dec ( maybe Taupo as well, not sure I can do it the day after a 40 hour trip ) ... got to do some training though!!! ( and lose a 1/5th of my body weight :mrgreen: ). Less than 3 months to go... I seem to remember saying that for TT season which is in full swing right now and I won't be dusting off the chrono bike this year :(

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby cerb » Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:12 am

Well done Jules & TLL! I don't know how you guys push 37kph on rolling courses with proper hills - neither of you are tiny hill climbing specimens! Whenever I get to the hills I get dropped like a sack of the proverbial...

It's funny to hear talk of only a few races to go, where-as i'm looking at only 4 weeks until my season STARTS! Bring on crit season! :)

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby jules21 » Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:18 am

cerb wrote:Well done Jules & TLL! I don't know how you guys push 37kph on rolling courses with proper hills - neither of you are tiny hill climbing specimens! Whenever I get to the hills I get dropped like a sack of the proverbial...
well scratch were rolling along at 41 so 37 just didn't cut it :(

i'm still almost 20kg lighter than TLL too, it appears, so I'd hate to see his power figures..
cerb wrote:It's funny to hear talk of only a few races to go, where-as i'm looking at only 4 weeks until my season STARTS! Bring on crit season! :)
I'm no good at crits. will use them to help prepare for Tour of Bright :)

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby Cul » Tue Sep 08, 2015 2:33 pm

cerb wrote:It's funny to hear talk of only a few races to go, where-as i'm looking at only 4 weeks until my season STARTS! Bring on crit season! :)
I know right; I can't wait!!! 8)
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toolonglegs
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby toolonglegs » Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:28 pm

Being aloud to drop down to Cat4 is the only reason I survive... the difference between that and Cat 1/2/3 is about 4-5 kmph difference!. Plus there is another Cat 1/2/3/J above that grading if you want to race FFC :lol: .
I am 46 now ... but the drop off in the last few years has been very noticeable. Although I did hold 460w for over 10 minutes earlier in the year :mrgreen:

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby toolonglegs » Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:33 pm

cerb wrote:It's funny to hear talk of only a few races to go, where-as i'm looking at only 4 weeks until my season STARTS! Bring on crit season! :)
Yeah... our season is very rigid, no racing all year round, no evening racing apart from the odd Fri / Sat night crit.
Basically end of Feb till end of Sep is road season. TT is Sep / Oct. Cross is Oct to Mid Jan.
When I first arrived in France it was tough... everyone in my club hung up their bike end of September and didn't touch them again till boxing day :roll:

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby cerb » Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:48 pm

460W for 10mins? That's serious impressive! I think my 10min power is about 100W short of that. *you're killing it*
Does that mean your FTP is about 400W? Man, I hope I can ride like that in 15 years time...! :)

I guess we are pretty lucky here with racing possibilities. Crits: October-April with some sporadic winter crits as well, Road: April-September, Cross: Various weekends through winter. Pretty sure you could race almost every weekend of the year and many weeknights through summer as well if you so desired...


BTW. Nothing wrong with not touching your bike for the whole 5 months of the off-season... is there? :roll:
I'm waay up at a grand total of 1700km of riding in total this year - including trainer calculated kilometers and the few races I did in Jan-Mar! :lol:

Should be an interesting start to crit season, but will be enjoyable no matter how much it hurts!

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby toolonglegs » Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:06 pm

FTP always sits around 350-360 ... not that I have done a full hour hard. This was earlier in the year though. At the moment it is probably around 320 :oops: . When you weigh over 100 kgs it is not all that impressive :lol: .
If I hang up the bike for 3 or 4 months I might never get it down again! ... last full week off was in March 2013 ( but that week was all about bikes ... soigneur at Tour de Maroc ).
Sux's being at the suffering end ... instead of dealing it out :P ... now if I lived in the good old US of A I would be able to compete against my peers quite happily in the "Clydesdale" ( 200 lbs plus ) categories. Here I am an odd ball :mrgreen:

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby jules21 » Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:12 am

jules21 wrote:i'm still almost 20kg lighter than TLL too, it appears, so I'd hate to see his power figures..
i said I'd hate to see them! bam! those are big numbers..

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby g-boaf » Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:18 pm

cerb wrote:I think my 10min power is about 100W short of that. *you're killing it*
460w for 10 minutes is incredible. :shock: :shock: :shock: And I'm about 35w behind your numbers. Don't ask me about 30-60sec, because I'm terrible at that. :lol:

I can't believe how some people can just be off the bike for ages and then come back and get back fitness and power really quickly.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby warthog1 » Wed Sep 09, 2015 4:33 pm

toolonglegs wrote: .
I am 46 now ... but the drop off in the last few years has been very noticeable.:
Snap.
And correspondingly the motivation.
Down to about 100k a week if that this winter. Cbf ed
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Row-D
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby Row-D » Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:43 am

Specialised Cup - Eastern Creek

Not my finest hour all round. There was the usual healthy turnout in A grade with a lot of big hitters. I got involved in some of the early skirmishes but missed the crucial break when it went. The break of 5 slowly got whittled down to 3 but never really looked like they were going to get caught. There was not a lot of organisation in the bunch to chase and so when the 75 minutes was up and we headed into the last lap I was happy to go with one of my mates when he attacked. Only problem was I had been convinced it was the last lap as we were over time. I didn't actually hear a bell!

A couple of others came across to us and despite wondering why none of the real sprint contenders were up there, I jumped with the rest of the group and managed to clean up the sprint - for the bell lap. Doh. After that I was pretty lucky just to hold on for the final lap. I guess I'll regroup for racing at the Dragway on Tuesday.

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queequeg
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby queequeg » Sun Sep 13, 2015 7:45 pm

Row-D wrote:Specialised Cup - Eastern Creek

Not my finest hour all round. There was the usual healthy turnout in A grade with a lot of big hitters. I got involved in some of the early skirmishes but missed the crucial break when it went. The break of 5 slowly got whittled down to 3 but never really looked like they were going to get caught. There was not a lot of organisation in the bunch to chase and so when the 75 minutes was up and we headed into the last lap I was happy to go with one of my mates when he attacked. Only problem was I had been convinced it was the last lap as we were over time. I didn't actually hear a bell!

A couple of others came across to us and despite wondering why none of the real sprint contenders were up there, I jumped with the rest of the group and managed to clean up the sprint - for the bell lap. Doh. After that I was pretty lucky just to hold on for the final lap. I guess I'll regroup for racing at the Dragway on Tuesday.
I was in A Grade there too. Only my second race with the big boys since getting promoted. I saw the break go early, but I was mid-pack when it happened. Not knowing who they were, I relied on the seasoned racers to decide whether to chase or let them go.
As I found out, half the guys in the grade didn't want to work.
I gave it a crack pulling some turns on the front, and even got told off for going just a tad too quick...but you know what, if everyone had been willing to work we would have got them.
For most of the race I was just watching Eddie Salas and Peter Milostic, but they had two Penrith guys in the break so they were not going to do much chasing.

From my point of view it was a success. I survived 90 minutes of A Grade pace and finished in the top half.
I too noticed the overtime. I was expecting the bell but we got another lap before they rang it.

Looking forward to seeing if I can hang on at Marconi on tue night. This week the weather is not looking promising, but we'll see. I'm training for Fitz next month and don't want to overdo it.

Waratah's have some pics up. I'm showing the pain face on the front

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Row-D
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby Row-D » Mon Sep 14, 2015 6:38 am

queequeg wrote:From my point of view it was a success. I survived 90 minutes of A Grade pace and finished in the top half.
Nice one queequeg.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby trek52 » Mon Sep 14, 2015 10:11 am

I was out there as well :)

Spent the first 3 laps messing around with Pete and when the break went I let it go thinking I will go across after the prem lap with Peter. We all missed Mark Crawford go across, Mark is so strong its not funny and is still riding NRS so I knew the race was over when he got there without us.

Eddie and Peter were not going to chase as Al (who coaches Peter) was in the break with Wakefield so it was race over when they got to 30 seconds as there was no one in the bunch that was strong enough to bring back that break without Peter, Eddie, myself and Mark Keefe (he had his SU bloke in the break) helping.

To be honest I was on an awful day and prob couldnt have done much anyway, so waited for the sprint and managed to have pretty solid kick to the line with Eddie, I held on by about a length no worries.

Been doing a fair bit of training lately and I am just tired and cant come out of this hole, will push on for another month and then should get some form back.

When Paul learns to race we are all in trouble :)

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby Xplora » Mon Sep 14, 2015 11:43 am

I was on the sidelines, and the Masters Opens are actually pretty frustrating at times. For a bunch of wise guys, they really despise using that wisdom at times. The regular Tahs racers do some predictable things but I'm assuming it is the outsiders like the out of area guys like CCCC or RBCC or NSCC who just shut everything down, unless there are some powerful legs in the bunch and they get away (as A grade showed us). Let the breaks go, then roll some freakin' turns to bring them back slowly!

NWSCC picked up the bunch kick in Div 4 (maiden victory for Cam!) after some strong teamwork, and a controversial 2nd in Div 3. Des sat on the lounge chair all race after his team mates drove the pace and shut everything down. We knew we had the gun sprinter, and the legs to shut down attacks, but Crafty snuck off... I struggle to believe there was the same coordination in Div 2 despite the same result, a bunch kick. Div 1 could have picked up the break, but why would 40 blokes just accept defeat like that? Surely they know a Smithson/Salas bunch kick is certain defeat and only 6th place is up for grabs?

It's really hard to see it in the heat of battle, but a little planning could help a lot of guys out. Penrith took 5 of the top 6 positions in Div 1. Yes, they have the top riders, but that doesn't guarantee victory!

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby trek52 » Mon Sep 14, 2015 12:12 pm

mate to be honest there was no one in the bunch that could have brought that break back, thats the problem when we get younger NRS guys like mark there. They are on a different level to the average masters A grader.

Hope the spring was entertaining :)

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby Derny Driver » Mon Sep 14, 2015 12:57 pm

Xplora wrote:.... Div 1 could have picked up the break, but why would 40 blokes just accept defeat like that? Surely they know a Smithson/Salas bunch kick is certain defeat and only 6th place is up for grabs?
Maybe they didn't want to tow Matt and Eddie up for the victory?
More likely is that 80% of the bunch are not actually racing, they are just making up numbers. Probably don't have the ability to influence the outcome of the race. I don't know, Ive never been to those Sydney races.

We had a good club race Saturday, a few hitters turned up, including 2 Avanti (Law and Donnelly), GPM (Walsh) and a couple of ex NRS guys. Young DD just starting to get some form after returning from the Tour of Tahiti. Cant upload the GoPro footage unfortunately, technical problems.

Anyone going to the Canberra Tour next weekend??

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