Race Report Thread

[brawlo]

Also, do not allow anyone or anything within 30 cm of your front wheel, either at the sides or from in front. Even/especially at the sharp end of the race.

Pretty simple advice there. The thing I always work on in my head is that you never know what the person in front is going to do. Leave yourself room to move, if not for anyone else but your own self preservation.

MOST people in my club are pretty good at following a wheel. What I am finding in the first few weeks of our season is that quite a few riders can't do corners, and I think that can be just as bad, if not worse. The first few weeks for us are spent around a local racetrack, so great surface and some tight corners. I hate riding into corners and hearing people on brakes unnecessarily. Unless someone in front of you slows down, there is absolutely no need to use brakes on our course at all! I had a couple of moments last week where riders taking the inside line aren't confident in their cornering and run wide, even at lower speeds FFS!! I struggled going up the hill, but could always make back a stack of spots by riding the outside clear line at speed because of all the slowing in the corners. We have some new riders this year. They're strong enough to be in our grade, but they have some bike handling to brush up on. This week's crit is going to be interesting......

[vander]

This is not specifically directed at Vander.
I have taken it on the chin where it is warranted, and I am not embarrassed about it. This is precisely why I wasn't keen on going to a higher grade - but I've gotten curry for that too! It is easy to have a negative opinion, it's harder to justify. I stay in the low grade because of inexperience. "Sandbagger". I have a crash because of inexperience. "Should have known better".
Just make sure you leave some room for someone to do something right. It is impossible to push the limit without increasing your risks.

For those interested, my knee was cleared by the doc today, and the bike should be back on the road fr less than 50 bucks, praise God! Going to jump on the trainer tonight to wind the pedals over.

Glad to hear all is OK. I do not think you are a sandbagger, I dont really mind what grade you ride in, I do however feel you will learn more and faster in the higher grades, because you will be forced to. Also you will be surrounded by better bike handlers so you can learn off them. One thing that I find works is in a race follow someone that looks like they can handle a bike, follow their lines around corners, start pedalling again when you get to where they are, generally watch them how they get through gaps and control their place in the peleton. In C grade it sounds like you are riding easy enough to do with without too much hassle. If you race down a grade because you dont have the handling skills/know how this should be what you are working on, not trying to break away and win (how are you going to get better at bike handling in a bunch if you are not in the bunch). Think about your race priorities, winning should be a lot lower down.

I agree about the talking down your bike handling otherwise it will get worse. I dont think the crash was a bike handling issue. I think it was a decision making error or trying to push too hard/taking too many risks.

[MREJ]

Hi xplora

Waratahs have a clear system for promoting riders, which is documented on their site. If you meet those criteria, you are probably ready,

When a rider gets the necessary results, the club contacts them.

[gretaboy]

Also, do not allow anyone or anything within 30 cm of your front wheel, either at the sides or from in front. Even/especially at the sharp end of the race.

Rogan...I am new to the racing game, had two races now, and understand what you are saying here but how do you actually implement what you say here??

I am in control of my wheel I know, but if I am boxed in (bad positioning and shouldnt allow this) is there much I can do??

Comments on here are great as they are making me think about my riding and what I should be thinking about during my races

[rogan]

Also, do not allow anyone or anything within 30 cm of your front wheel, either at the sides or from in front. Even/especially at the sharp end of the race.

Rogan...I am new to the racing game, had two races now, and understand what you are saying here but how do you actually implement what you say here??

I am in control of my wheel I know, but if I am boxed in (bad positioning and shouldnt allow this) is there much I can do??

Comments on here are great as they are making me think about my riding and what I should be thinking about during my races

If you're truly boxed in at the business end, ie. no space on either side, accept it's not your day and roll in with the bunch. If there is a line of riders going past on either side, CHECK with a head turn and try to find a suitable gap. Do not make abrupt movements in the middle of the bunch. Always check before changing your line, especially in the middle of the bunch, and especially in the last lap or two. In lower grades in particular, someone will often let you in or leave a gap, but don't count on that happening.

I see people sprinting for 15th or whatever. OK for training, or to get that "feel", but only if you get yourself some space and go round the outside of the main part of the field (on a wide track like WSID or ECR). Even then, if someone in front starts to drift into your path, shut it down gently (don't slam brakes on, there might be someone on your wheel). But doing the sprint for 15th in the middle of a pack with most riders just rolling in, and the top few riders 20-30 metres up the road - that is a recipe for needless accidents.

[skull]

If I'm not up the pointy end of the bunch thinking I'll have a chance at a place then I won't go for a sprint finish. I'll usually keep pedaling at pace but won't, for example, sprint for 8th instead of 10th.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4

[bigfriendlyvegan]

Greataboy - if you want to improve your handling skills, try riding track. I have had many opportunities to talk with some of the older guys in the club when I've had traffic controller duty, and the consensus is that there is a visible difference in a criterium between people who have track experience and people who don't. Vander and Brawlo are both trackies, so they might want to chime in on this as well.

[nickobec]

3 race reports from 4 days

Just to show that not everybody here is perfect,


WCMCC C grade criterium
Wangara
10 November 2013

Lesson for today, when racing at a new course:
Know exactly where it is
Have a realistic travel time
Leave on time
Don't get lost
When you get there 10 minutes before the start, make sure your front wheel goes on straight and does not rub the brakes

So I line up without a sighting lap or warm up. And we are off at pace. I drop to the back, first two corners no issues, the third corner I don't like, particularly the traffic island, so I wash a little speed off with the front brake. (Which I don't realise causes the front brake to rub on the rim). Which makes me work harder on the only downhill section of the course, which due to a headwind is the toughest part of the circuit. Swing uphill past the finish line and repeat

The first few laps are done at a hectic pace, I was trying to learn the circuit at the back of the bunch and was constantly moving up, as riders are going out the back. Down the back straight, the group has halved in size from 18 to about 9. Through the final corner and suddenly there is a gap, I put in a huge effort to get back on, I realise as I turned on the uphill finish straight I am dragging a couple riders with me. It does not matter, I get back on, taking three with me and promptly explode.

I keep the bunch almost in reach, till that corner again, got through it and only then realise my front brake is rubbing. Adjust the brake on the move, make a mental note not to use the front brake for the rest of the race and realise with the time lost, there was no way I would catch the bunch and settle down to avoid being lapped. Unfortunately the first five laps took their toll and I got lapped seven laps later.

Of the 18 starters, only 12 finished, the first few laps took the toll on more than me. I just made stupid mistakes before the race, a good warm up, an understanding of the circuit and a front wheel that did not rub would of let me be competitive. As the pace was far more settled from the 6th lap to the final 16th lap.

ATTA Early Birds in the Park
17km TT (5 laps of 3.4km circuit with 1km 5% avg climb)
12 November 2013

Not falling for the same mistake my last race, I had already scouted out the circuit doing a couple of laps on Sunday and I turned up on time and warmed up.

Only problem, no real strategy to deal with 500m flat, U turn, 500m flat, 1km descent at 5%, 200m flat, U turn, 200m flat, 1km climb at 5% average, circuit that was covered 5 times.

The first lap was interesting, start was good, the turn bad even by my poor standards, flat good, downhill was a little scary, especially when a couple of dry leaves got flicked into the front wheel and made some horrible noises, end up finishing the descent on the bars. OK turn and then up the climb, a lot shorter than I remembered from Sunday.

From the second lap, my strategy was simple drive from the line to the corner, power out the corner, keep pace up for 1km or so, get a slight breather last 500m of descent, while remaining on the TT bars. Turn, get the pace up, push hard up the climb and repeat.

I was surprisingly consistent within a couple of seconds of 6:25 for all laps except the for the 4th 6:40, a few seconds for being balked by a slower rider at a corner and a few seconds tiring up the climb. What speed I was gaining on the descent by gaining more confidence each lap, was counteracted by me tiring and not having the power to apply to the climb.

Overall happy with my performance, 82nd out of 115. I wanted to finish in the top 75% and did and now have a target, sub 32:00 for the next Early Bird in the Park, could do that just by improving my cornering.

PDCC 16km TT
Hopelands

The 3rd race of the season, The first week I bettered my personal best by 5 seconds on a bike that I put together from bits and pieces, as my regular time trial bike is off the road for repairs.

The next week, same bike, minor adjustments to my position for improved power delivery. The weather was back the usual hot with a strong headwind for the first half of the course. Which meant a tailwind all the way back from the turn around point. I was happy with my ride putting out close to an extra 15 watts over the week before. Until I saw my time, over a minute slower than the week before. The wind did have an impact most other riders were 15 seconds or so down from the previous week. Nobody else lost over a minute.

This week, the weather was the same, hot with a strong headwind. I had reverted the adjustments to my position, thinking it was poor aerodynamics, particularly into the wind. I was still worried.

I knew the riders both in fornt and behind me and their previous times, I was not going to catch anybody and was unlikely to get caught, so my sole effort was going to be ride close to 26 minutes as possible.

The first couple of kilometres are protected from the worst of the wind, by trees, I rode hard, I surprised myself how much power I was putting out and how easy it was to maintain the effort. Then the wind hit, I eased back a little but kept the effort going for a few more minutes. After I hit the 5km mark, I do not know why I eased back, my heart rate started dropping and I was struggling to keep the bike straight. Got to the turn around point, and though I did not know it, in almost the same time as the week before.

Turned, got the wind in my back and started working harder, I was putting out more power than before and consistently. I knew I was doing well when I was pushing 53x11 for some time. I did measure my effort well as I could barely sprint over the line. It was only then I looked at my time, it was just under 26 minutes and 5 seconds off my personal best.

What surprised me was the time splits, first 8km into the wind averaging 244 watts and 32.5kph. The return trip and fastest ever for me, by almost 30 seconds was averaging 236 watts and 44.2kph. I made up the minute from last week on the return leg.

[filip]

Hi Nickobec, i missed your race reports. I think that everyone can relate to the ‘lesson of today when riding a new course’. Just the thought of ‘maybe my brake is rubbing’ does my head in, or another good one : ‘is my tire getting flat ?’.

[sminns]

SSCC Twilight Crit C Grade
38kph avg
167HR avg
20min +3

First Crit race.
I don't know how everyone writes such detailed race reports, I can't remember 90% of it except for the last lap!

I lined up in last position after warming up and slowly made my way to the front, I didn't pace myself we'll I don't think, as I was strong in the first half of the race and even though I wasn't pushing I still felt quicker than the others - turns out I was too eager and going too hard as the last 3 laps got pretty tough. I managed about 5th as I rolled off on the home straight realising I couldn't get off the saddle to contest the 2 or 3 sprinting just in front of me. The last lap I thought about going off the front up the bottom hill but I didn't want to lose steam so I just stayed level with everyone but ended up losing steam anyway, I think I know where to jump for next time though.

Was good fun and I impressed myself so I'll definitely be working on a couple of things to push for a win in the next few weeks (being optimistic here). Was a good club culture too that I'm not used to as I ride solo all the time so another positive there.

Until next week! Or tomorrow at Lansdowne....

[foo on patrol]

Here is another way of looking at being optimistic Sminns, I call it positive thinking!

Foo

[Xplora]

I managed about 5th as I rolled off on the home straight realising I couldn't get off the saddle to contest the 2 or 3 sprinting just in front of me.

Until next week! Or tomorrow at Lansdowne....

Good thinking - I got off the saddle and ruined the end of the Waratahs race last week crashing at the front of the bunch. Life before valor!

[winstonw]

HPRW NundahDome 161113
C grade has been split into two races for over a year, due to high numbers. C1 tends to be younger guys and C2 older.
I'm a big fan of C grade riding more aggressively, as in attacking more so. In my view, this spreads the field, can result in a break that sticks, and avoids a more dangerous bunch sprint.
Anyway, today I was pleased to see both grades had breaks that stuck. Brilliant.
It shows up the sit in slugs for what they are!
I think pulling off a break is much more admirable than a fast twitcher with a superior 200 metre sprint.
Oh, and C2 had a faster av speed than C1

[ft_critical]

I managed about 5th as I rolled off on the home straight realising I couldn't get off the saddle to contest the 2 or 3 sprinting just in front of me.

Until next week! Or tomorrow at Lansdowne....

Good thinking - I got off the saddle and ruined the end of the Waratahs race last week crashing at the front of the bunch. Life before valor!

Don't stand and sprint, in case you crash, check.

[Xplora]

My point was the second sentence more than the first... no heroes on the DNF list

[Chuck]

Well sports fans there were 45 Starters and 28 finishers in the Australian M4 Road Race. My lucky gift was presented to me by the cycling gods after only 10km of racing. An amorous Peloton Sports rider and a Lidcombe Auburn rider embraced tyres. Mr. Peloton swerved left towards me. I cried inwardly for my demise, but fate intervened. He then corrected right, and domino’ed 3 riders and brought down several more behind. I jumped. But we agreed to wait.

I was having a bad day. Having a bad day in this company was excruciatingly bad. The State 1, 2, 3 Champions of all the Eastern States were present. The announcer noted the world champions, state champions…, past and present. And then there was me. I was kind of a filler. I am padding . Padding out the peloton with no significant achievements. A peloton padder.

30 degrees. Mostly when I race, I remember some amazing things.

I remember only suffering. Suffering so much I had to force myself to stay connected, to stay engaged. So many times I stepped over my limit, promising myself that there was relief ahead. There was no relief. There was no pleasure in this race. There were only fleeting moments when it hurt less. I truly question why I race. I made no mistakes. I raced to my abilities. I came 26th which is an absolute representation of where I should have finished. But it does not tell you how hard it was. When I finished I could barely stand. I could not think. I do not believe that I have ever had to commit so deeply to so many micro-seconds of life.

Failure gives you a certain sense of humility. This was far too humbling.

I rushed home to see my children. They asked whether I had won. They forgave me for my failure. Amy went upstairs and returned with her skipping medal to ‘lend’ me so I wouldn’t feel so bad.

I missed this first time around, excellent as always . If the Tan man ever stumbled onto your race reports he'd be shamed and perhaps inspired.

[foo on patrol]

It will come together for you Nickobec, you only need to improve marginally on all your segments and tactics and you will be surprised at how much of a difference it makes!

I missed that report also FT. But the way you explained how you were feeling is exactly how you need to commit to a race and when you're finished, your legs should be jelly and your brain not able to focus completely on anything for a while.

Foo

[jules21]

SKCC D grade 45mins + 3 laps (well, that was the plan).

my first crit of the season. it was a huge field and i was happy with my effort to stay near the front, which i did for most of the race. towards the end i got a bit swamped and didn't have the legs to move up again, but i expected that. some poor bloke hit the deck hard coming into the home straight - he was lying on the road with blood on his face, looking pretty stunned. the race was stopped to allow an ambulance course access. i thought that was it, but they let us out again for another 3 laps. that was too much for me. the field started splitting and i made a couple of efforts to stay on, but that was about it for me - i was a spent force and rolled in at the back.

after a month's holidays and a 450km week to date including recovering from jetlag, trying to recover form for Tour of Bright in a couple of weeks, i was surprised that i could hang on, which was good.

Gerro was there watching and i'm pretty sure i saw Cerb sprint to about 5th or something in C grade.

[foo on patrol]

Be smart with your training with the leed up to the Tour Jules!

Foo

[jules21]

Foo i plan to ride hard for the next week, then use the last one to taper. that's about all i can think of to get my legs working as best they can, while giving myself a few days to recover.

[ironhanglider]

ACTVCC Dalton E grade.

Sometimes it all comes together, almost.

A small field of 7 lined up for the start of the E grade race. I was in a good mood, the course is one of my favourites, my bike was clean, the weather was clement with a reasonable breeze. I had knocked up a work stand out of a folding saw horse and had give my bike a good clean over the day before. On my warm up the bike was purring along, the spokes were shiny, the tyres were at the right pressure, the bike was quiet and smooth and just felt good.

The course at Dalton has 3 legs out and back from the town.
The first leg (east) starts with a 6km climb, followed by a 4km descent to the turn and back, (The higher grades do this leg twice)
The second leg (west) starts with a sharp little ridge to get over, another descent and undulates a bit to the turn at 4km and then back,
The third leg (north) is fairly flat for 4km out and back before turning for the finish which is to the east of the town.

The hills on the east leg whilst significant enough are not very steep, I presume the higher grades would have climbed them on the big ring. That being said I have been dropped within the first 3km on this course before. Today however I was riding well enough to stay with the bunch up to the top of the hill. In the past I have used the downhill to either break away or chase back on but today I decided to cool my jets and arrive at the foot of the climb feeling fresh(ish). At the turn I was a little surprised to see that we had dropped Jeff, although he is a good time trialist so was not necessarily out of it at that stage. On the climb back up the hill Terrence broke away, I encouraged the others to let him ride by himself for a while because there was no way he'd hold off the bunch on the descent to follow, and sure enough we caught him only half way down. Somewhere in the chase we managed to drop Alex, which was unusual,as he is a smart racer and I'd thought that he'd be in with a chance today. This left Ian, Terrence, myself Belinda and Liz, and we came back through Dalton together.

The west leg has a nasty little climb that had me a bit concerned, so I took up station on the front out near the middle of the lane, partly to discourage attacks and mostly to make sure that the others would take as long as possible to come past me. It seemed to work, and I stayed with the bunch out to the second turn and back again to the top of the ridge. This bit was my favourite bit of the course, a fast descent that goes straight into a left turn to start the north leg. I'd scouted this corner in the warm up so I knew that it had been recently swept so I could be confident of attacking it. Sure enough I pulled out a gap of about 40m on this turn and caused a slightly panicked scramble behind to chase me down. This was just what I was hoping for to take a bit of the sting out of the others.

By this stage I knew, that I was likely to be the fastest finisher amongst the group, so I figured that it would be up to the others to make the running and to try and win by breakaway. As an overweight, undertrained racer I don't get to fight out many sprint finishes and I wasn't going to throw this one away. The pace came out of the race as everyone else also started thinking about the finish. Terrence had a dig, but Ian shut him down, Ian was looking the strongest to me. Belinda went to the front and drove the pace for a while, but the pace settled again when no-one was prepared to go past her. Finally we came to the town for the last time and turned for the finish. The sprint is a little tricky to judge, as it is uphill and today it was into the wind as well. Terrence jumped first at about 300m to go, Ian and I responded immediately and as we caught Terrence I launched my bid for the line. It was hardly withering acceleration but it was enough to open a gap, I pushed on for the line and knew that I had gone too early and that I was over geared so was just willing myself to tough it out for a few seconds more. I didn't know where Ian was but I suspected that he'd be closing, however as my friend Ray used to say 'It's better to be at the front dying, than to be at the back flying'. I didn't look back, and held on for the win. At the finish my lungs had exploded, it took a while to get my breathing back under control. I still have no idea of how much of a margin I had, but all I know was that it was at least a bike length.

Result: Me, followed by Ian, Liz got up for third over the tiring Terrence and Belinda.

The only downside is that my camera battery failed to charge (Osram's law, need to turn it on to make it work) so no footage, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Cheers,

Cameron

[foo on patrol]

Cameron.

Foo

Sent from my GT-I9210T using Tapatalk

[cerb]

Nice work Jules - Saw you buzzing around and holding good position throughout the race. That restart with 3 laps to go really killed any chance for the non-sprinters... Plenty of recovery time before going out and shredding the bunch! I'm almost surprised there wasn't another crash by all reports of the riding... !

Good intensity ride though for pre-ToB training!

[gretaboy]

KOCC D grade

35 k's = 5 laps
Avg speed - 34.8
Avg HR - 164

This was my third race ever. I am racing on a Malvern Star Oppy A3..9 speed bike at the moment. I remembered the heart rate monitor this week also.

Due to the race last week in E grade and how I finished compared to others, I had made up my mind that if on race day they had me still in E grade that I would ask to race in D instead. Turned up to pay my money and yep, E grade I was. Asked if I could race D instead and the answer was..if you want. I was nervous about this move but knew I had to in order to push myself and get a comparison.

Out on the road doing warmups and I am keenly looking at the other riders to see who had the same coloured "bib" as myself in order to see who the competition was. Seemed D grade was going to be a small field this week. The weather must have turned a few riders away as there were a total of 6 riders in our grade. Two of the riders present were on the podium the previous week so I knew I had to keep an eye on them.

The wind was up, blowing a 22k southerly, which meant the final straight to the finishing line had a nice tailwind.

At the start line we get told the race is 5 laps, which shocks me as I was only expecting 3 or 4 laps and we also get told only first place is paying. The race gets under way and I did my usual...sat at the back of the "pack" for the first lap, helps me get over the nerves. The two riders who podiumed the previous week took turns leading from the front which I was happy with but at the same time made me think they are strong...otherwise why be at the front all the time?? Around lap 3/4 I took some turns at the front, and again each time I got on the front I would click down a gear or two and ride a pace that I was comfortable with and one which would conserve my energy, especially into the headwind.

We get the bell for the final lap and I am at the front with a podium placer. Both of us had a small gap to the rest so I turned to him and said if he is prepared to work with me, that I reckon we could get a good break on the rest. With his agreement we both picked up the pace considerably. At the end of the final straight the road turns to the left and there is a small rise where you started to feel the wind again. Going up the rise I am in the front and expecting the other ride to take a turn, I give a quick glance to my right and he is on my wheel. I start to think that I am not going to give him a free ride but still keep going. We turn into the headwind and he still hasnt given a turn so I backed off on my efforts. The pack catches up to us but I am not overly concerned. We continue as a pack into the second last straight with the wind blowing directly into our faces.

With about 1500 metres or so to the finish line, a young kid pulls away from the pack. I am not too worried as he is working hard by himself with this headwind. He gets a couple hundred metres on the rest of us when another rider decides to give chase. I am glad he did this as I decided that I needed to go with him but still not thinking the young kid was a threat. How wrong was I there

We turn into the final home stretch, 1k to go. I have overtaken the other rider and only have the young kid in front. I really start working hard to reel him in. With 500m to go I still havent caught the kid and am trying to find the extras in my legs. I look up slightly to see where the finish line is and things are a touch blurry. I dig a little deeper and find just a little bit more in the legs, my head is down and I am simply trying to pump the pedals as hard as I can. I have no idea where the kid is or where the other riders are. I am tempted to look back to see where the others are, but remember some advice given to never look back, so I dont. I am simply focused on getting everything I can out of my body.

I hit the finish line not knowing whether I have come first or not, but thinking I may have just got the win. I also let out an expletive as I crossed the line. I get pulled up by the commissionaire about the expletive when I get back to the finish/start point and advised about using such words, but due to it being my first time I dont get fined. I also found out that I did get up for the win.

Learnings:

1. D grade is faster but I can match it..
2. Threats may not always come from where you think they are going to come from
3. The hard work during the week does pay off

[you cannot be sirrus]

First time on scratch yesterday.
When you get dropped and have to ride up Willunga Hill and then into a headwind on your own it makes for a loooong day.