Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

I had a bit of a dig at racing this morning out at Smeaton Grange in C grade on a tight L shaped course, with lots of braking and accelerating. Overall it was a great experience and the first lesson I learned on such a course was not to be at the back because of how quickly the line strung out. I finished at the back end of the field (but not last), which wasn't too surprising considering my strengths are building up a pace and not the stop start nature of this course. But it will be great for building up my acceleration which I intend to use it for. So come next week I'll stick in the middle of the field if I can and see what happens and watch out for those riders (if they are there next week) who kept on crossing over into my line making me slam on the brakes far too frequently.

I guess you must've enjoyed it if you're going back again Tactics are the thing aren't they and can't some of the good riders accelerate

Richard

Tactics are somewhat important as I found out. It was a great experience, the pace was quick, B grade never got within cooee of us and yes some of the good riders with their $X000 bikes sure know how to accelerate. Those sand baggers I tell you.

Congrats on the first race, planning to eventually have a go myself so will be interesting reading your experiences. Keep the reports going!

Congrats on doing your first race. Sounds like you have learnt much from the experience.

Don't worry about those $$$ bikes, the nut behind the handlebars is the most important bit.

good stuff KHW!,you will learn to hold your place,you are prbably leaving a bit of a gap and people will jump in there,you have to be a bit aggressive but sensible but experience will teach you to read the race better...it gets addicitive.I hate going a week without a race

Good to hear you enjoyed. I was out there to watch the start, but didn't hang around as I was off MTBing in Picton at 9am.

If you're there next week, I'll probably bump into you (figuratively speaking of course ) as I'll be there as well.

Watch out for the black Gitane Mach 1800 and that's me.

It'll be my first time racing as well, so I'll try to learn from your experience yesterday.

By the way, how did they decide to grade you into C?

Kev.

Great effort there on your first race, and good luck for the next one. Hopefully won't be too soon until I give it a crack as well!!

Kev365428 wrote:Good to hear you enjoyed. I was out there to watch the start, but didn't hang around as I was off MTBing in Picton at 9am.

If you're there next week, I'll probably bump into you (figuratively speaking of course ) as I'll be there as well.

Watch out for the black Gitane Mach 1800 and that's me.

It'll be my first time racing as well, so I'll try to learn from your experience yesterday.

By the way, how did they decide to grade you into C?

Kev.

I'll be there next week. I'll more than likely ride down if the weather is fair. They didn't actually decide to grade me as a C grader, I more or less decided to try there first after watching the grades at the Lakes last weekend.

inaminit wrote:Great effort there on your first race, and good luck for the next one. Hopefully won't be too soon until I give it a crack as well!!

Thanks. I definitely reccomend it. It's a great change from the continuous solo riding that I do and it gives a great indication of how all the training is going. All I wanted to do is stay out of trouble, being the first race and all and a friend warned me, C grade is for crashing.

Wow, what a co-incidence. It just so happens that I was in the very same race (I've been upstate for the last few days). I was one of the two crazy idiots who jumped off the front of the pack with 3 to go, I still managed to hold on and claw my way back to 3rd place in the finish.

It was a pretty good ride, no-one was being stupid or anything like that. However the size of C was massive and caused a huge rubber-band effect each time we did the 180s.

Out of interest, your not the guy with the CF Pinarello/Record whom I almost ran into on one of the corners are you?

Looking forward to this Sunday, as it'll be my first race. The pity is that I've done no riding this week at all. Might try to get out either this afternoon or Saturday arvo just to loosen the legs a bit.

Might spend Saturday morning cleaning the bike so it looks a treat for Sunday. Guess some lube on the chain couldn't hurt either.

cheers,

Kev.

Kev365428 wrote:Looking forward to this Sunday, as it'll be my first race. The pity is that I've done no riding this week at all. Might try to get out either this afternoon or Saturday arvo just to loosen the legs a bit.

Might spend Saturday morning cleaning the bike so it looks a treat for Sunday. Guess some lube on the chain couldn't hurt either.

cheers,

Kev.

Have fun!....remember 2nd day of intensity is the best

Kev365428 wrote:Looking forward to this Sunday, as it'll be my first race. The pity is that I've done no riding this week at all. Might try to get out either this afternoon or Saturday arvo just to loosen the legs a bit.

Might spend Saturday morning cleaning the bike so it looks a treat for Sunday. Guess some lube on the chain couldn't hurt either.

cheers,

Kev.

If your going to jump into D grade, watch out for my brother on the black Felt. He's recently discovered that he can in fact sprint.

Not sure what grade I'll be in Jashy. If I wind up in D, I'll keep an eye out for him.

Also have to watch out for Killer on his second outing. What bike am I looking for Killer?

Kev.

Kev365428 wrote:Not sure what grade I'll be in Jashy. If I wind up in D, I'll keep an eye out for him.

Also have to watch out for Killer on his second outing. What bike am I looking for Killer?

Kev.

My bicycle is the only one with reflectors. I had to explain to people that most of my training is done in darkness.

As for grading, who knows. There were only 6 or 7 in D grade and 25 in C grade.

Jashy wrote:Wow, what a co-incidence. It just so happens that I was in the very same race (I've been upstate for the last few days). I was one of the two crazy idiots who jumped off the front of the pack with 3 to go, I still managed to hold on and claw my way back to 3rd place in the finish.

It was a pretty good ride, no-one was being stupid or anything like that. However the size of C was massive and caused a huge rubber-band effect each time we did the 180s.

Out of interest, your not the guy with the CF Pinarello/Record whom I almost ran into on one of the corners are you?

Well done on 3rd place. I think mine was one of the cheapest bicycles there, a plain old Giant OCR3. I'm happy with it, it just needs to go on a diet.

KillerHeadWind wrote:My bicycle is the only one with reflectors. I had to explain to people that most of my training is done in darkness.

Yeah, I remember grabbing your wheel at one stage and thinking "Man, don't you know your supposed to take those off????" .

Kev365428 wrote:Looking forward to this Sunday, as it'll be my first race......

Good luck Kev and have fun mate!

Looks like it's the time of year for first races...I'm joining a club tomorrow morning and will hopefully be having my first crack at racing as well.

Was going to hijack your thread Killer with details of todays race, but I decided to start a new one.

Kev.

Kev365428 wrote:Was going to hijack your thread Killer with details of todays race, but I decided to start a new one.

Kev.

You could have hijacked away but for your first race you deserve your own thread.

Today's race argggh. All the plans in the world never came to eventuate due to my legs being a little blown from what has been a fairly intense training week and probably the ride down. As much as the circuit at Smeaton Grange does not suit my style of riding, at least I'll be able to use it to improve my sprinting over time. Slowing down to a near halt then accelerating a few times each lap hurts a lot (me being a pure tempo rider) but I'll persevere and look forward to the challenge of adding dimensions to my riding. All in all I came last (which didn't surprise me) and the slacko timekeepers didn't even blow the whistle for three to go or ring the bell for one to go.
It ended up being a training ride.

It was great to put a face to a name from the forums when I met Kev365428 and his black Gitane.

Thats sad to hear killer, but as I said in kevs thread it looks like the faster riders from C are going to be moved up to B. So don't get down, next week's race should be a little bit more tame.

Jashy wrote:Thats sad to hear killer, but as I said in kevs thread it looks like the faster riders from C are going to be moved up to B. So don't get down, next week's race should be a little bit more tame.

I don't think it's sad at all. At least I know what I have to work on especially on that circuit as compared to the Lakes course which I will be racing on from November. The Lakes is much more suited to me especially if the wind blows.