Race report

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tuco
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Race report

Postby tuco » Mon May 14, 2007 10:29 am

What an unusual day.

It was overcast and a coolish 11km/h southerly breeze. Well when I say coolish, it was 20.7C according to the Bureau but it felt cooler.

The course had been changed again (I've never ridden the same criterium circuit yet!). This time it was my least favourite 'L' circuit, about 250m on one length and 400m on the other. One turn around was a round about and the other was a witches hat on the centre line. I've found 'L' courses tend to give slower times, especially with the very tight witches hat turn around.

The turn out :
Mothers' day so it was a smaller turn out. Much to my delight the woman who has won the last few races was a no show. We ended up with 7 in our race, 4 adults and 3 teenagers, including a father/son and father/daughter combination.
The officals approached me just before the start and said they've made some changes and they'd like me to go in C grade. I told them straight out I'd rather not, especially this week as I just rode 200km in the week. It was actually closer to 280km if I counted the Saturday and Sunday last weekend - I start my counting on a Monday. The other reason I didn't tell them is I don't want to be stuffed around going up and down grades plus Megan enjoys riding in the same race as me and on a selfish point, the championship points are so close. We were stuffed around with grade changes many, many years ago in basketball so we dropped out in protest. Didn't worry us, we played in two leagues any way.
Turns out everyone from the previous race who finished 6 minutes ahead of the rest of the field was put up or asked to go up to C grade.

The riders :

Here we are. This was mid race and into the breeze. See how organised we were? One young guy had dropped off by this stage. The winner was the guy in the white top, Megan is hiding behind the guy in orange. I was easily the tallest rider (far right) but not the widest so I did get some drafting. The club's mobile toilet is in the top right.
Image

The race :
20 minutes + 2.
1.3km circuit.
Finish was a 400m straight, into the wind.

We headed off and it was the slowest start to a race I've ever been in. It was like we were heading off down the street to get the paper. The officials even yelled out to pick up the pace! I jumped to the lead telling one guy I'll take the lead, at least the breeze is behind us. It continued like a ride to the shop all race with general chat throughout the race. It was also the most unorganised race in history. There was only 7 of us but we still insisted on riding in two columns even into the breeze. There were a few of us testing out the others. We'd do little sprints to see the reaction by the others. Every lap there was a sprint down wind to the first corner and I'd let them go because I knew I'd catch up rounding the corner.

Since the woman who has been winning the last few races wasn't there I knew it would be a totally different race to what I expected so I decided on a new plan. Overall she is only 2 points behind me but since she did show I'd get a points break on her whether I won or not so I'd use the race as a test ride. I wanted to sprint out early to see how long I could sprint for because I had a plan for the next race. We got the bell lap and I was leading into the first corner and Megan was behind me so I thought I'd take off from there and she could draft me. That left about 900m of sprinting including a U turn around a round about and right angle turn around a round about.
Everything was going fine until the last corner and into the head wind. I came out of the corner and went up a gear too soon or forgot to change down before the corner and hit the head wind. I looked behind and a guy was closing fast so I pushed harder. The lactic acid hit me half way down the straight and it was like someone dropped a bag of concrete across my legs. It was too late to draft him and change down a gear or two because my legs wouldn't work. I looked behind and third was way, way back so I sat up and cruised in for second place.
Megan came in fourth only half a wheel behind third. This is near the finish - she caught up a bit after the photo was taken.
Image

It was a slow race due to the sharp witches hat turn around and there was always at least 6 of us rounding it at the same time. I think if the riders who went into C grade today and the missing ones had of been in the race then it would have been dead serious, a lot faster and spread out into a couple of groups by the end.
The official results aren't up on the web site yet but it was about 27ish minutes and about 13 km. My average was only 27.2 km/h with a max of 44 km/h.
If you could call a race fun then I'd have to say this was fun. It was almost like a training ride with a sprint at the end.

So once again I learnt something from a race. Check the gears before entering the corner and not where the rider behind is. It's the first time I've never had to come out of a round about and into the final straight before. The other criteriums we came out of a normal corner and we could use all the road (closed road) so is was a fast corner.
I also found my distance limit on a final sprint and to beware of this races winner in the next race. I've always out sprinted him in our training rides.

I had a chat to the winner after the race and apparently he started riding in 1995 and is getting back into it this year. He's also army so he's quite fit. He also raced with flash new wheels. Not sure of the technical term but they are those deep V I think they're called.

Overall I was happy with the result although I didn't get number 2 or 8 off my to do list. I thought about number 8 (throwing out bottle like the pro's do) but the on lookers were too close. I did mark off number 4.

One good thing is I proved to the officials I'm not ready for C grade. Take that officials.

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Postby europa » Mon May 14, 2007 10:40 am

Which 50 words are we supposed to read? :wink:

Good stuff mate.

Richard

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Postby MichaelB » Mon May 14, 2007 11:09 am

Well done again.

The guy who won doesn't appear to be a small lad !!!

Sounds like there needs to be a bit of leadership up there.

Cheers

Michael B

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Postby Mulger bill » Mon May 14, 2007 11:19 am

Nice one Tuco, good effort with the bike and the keyboard :D
Maybe your jersey could do with a few logos on it? They seem to make the pro's quicker :?

Are all your roads that good :shock:

Shaun

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tuco
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Postby tuco » Mon May 14, 2007 11:29 am

MichaelB wrote:Well done again.

The guy who won doesn't appear to be a small lad !!!

Sounds like there needs to be a bit of leadership up there.

Cheers

Michael B
He is built like a hobbit, short and wide but very muscular.

Leadership was lacking. I was happy enough to take it easy
Next week will be back to normal.

They were the best roads we ride on. They're brand new in a new estate.
They were a little dirty in places so care had to be taken.

The rest of our racing roads are fairly ordinary.

PS - Slow day today. I added some background motion blur so they look like they're not standing still -
Image

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Postby mikesbytes » Mon May 14, 2007 1:27 pm

Well done Tuco.

In answer to MichaelB's comment. I beleive that Tuco's race course is pretty flat, so the weight penality isn't as important.

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tuco
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Postby tuco » Mon May 14, 2007 1:36 pm

mikesbytes wrote:Well done Tuco.

In answer to MichaelB's comment. I beleive that Tuco's race course is pretty flat, so the weight penality isn't as important.
You're right, this one is dead flat. The winner has a high power to weight ratio. Mine's a combination of power to weight and power to fat.

Only two weeks ago I beat this guy up a small hill. I hit 35+ km/h and he struggled at 20 - 25 km/h.
He doesn't know but next weeks race has a hill about 500m before the finish. Mwahahahaha :twisted:

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Postby mikesbytes » Mon May 14, 2007 2:08 pm

On the flat its more power to wind resistance.

You will do him on those hills for sure.

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Postby sogood » Mon May 14, 2007 2:36 pm

mikesbytes wrote:On the flat its more power to wind resistance.
On the ride back yesterday we hit 46kph sustained at the back of a large bunch. I understand that drafting helps a great deal, but at the end of the day, someone in front has to break the wind at that speed in the first place. Given the fact that this isn't a paceline, the front pair must be pretty strong to sustain mid-40s for so long.
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Re: Race report

Postby MJF » Mon May 14, 2007 8:36 pm

tuco wrote: It was overcast and a coolish 11km/h southerly breeze. Well when I say coolish, it was 20.7C according to the Bureau but it felt cooler.
Sheer frikken luxury, if you ask me.

4.7C when I rode to work this morning.

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Postby tuco » Tue May 15, 2007 9:39 am

Results are out.

Officially 25m 59.58s for about 13km, ave 30km/h, so it was a little faster than the 27.2 km/h I had on my computer but that included the couple of minutes post race cool down.

They listed me as 4th place and my daughter as 2nd place!!!!
They got us mixed up. We have the same initials, first and middle names plus we're next to each other on their list of names on the clip board!

I've let them know because the 2nd place put me in the D grade championship lead. Well 4th does as well but I'm going to need every point I can get with a certain person catching up fast!

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Postby Halfanewb » Tue May 15, 2007 7:24 pm

Grats Tuco, i like the photo with the bit of blur :)

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Postby MichaelB » Wed May 16, 2007 9:09 am

tuco wrote:

They listed me as 4th place and my daughter as 2nd place!!!!
They got us mixed up. We have the same initials, first and middle names plus we're next to each other on their list of names on the clip board!
No wonder your bike is PINK Megan !!!!


Or is that meant to read that you have the same first and middle initials ?

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Postby sogood » Wed May 16, 2007 9:14 am

Ah, so it's Megan after all. :shock:
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Postby tuco » Wed May 16, 2007 9:58 am

MichaelB wrote:
tuco wrote:

They listed me as 4th place and my daughter as 2nd place!!!!
They got us mixed up. We have the same initials, first and middle names plus we're next to each other on their list of names on the clip board!
No wonder your bike is PINK Megan !!!!


Or is that meant to read that you have the same first and middle initials ?
Firstly my bike is red. I could post a photo but I'd by hit with, "He photoshopped it!", since I proved with the blurring of the photo above that I can use photoshop.

You have me confused now :shock: We have the same initials, M K, of our first and middle names.

I hope they fix it up. It could mean the difference between getting first and second in the championship :!:

As it is, and assuming I do get the points for 2nd and not 4th, if the person currently second (and an ex C grader) wins all the remaining 5 races then I HAVE to come 2nd in all of them to retain my lead. I only have 2 2nds for the entire season so I have a challenge on my hands. Just the motivation I need.

If they give me the points for 4th and not 2nd then I have no chance of winning D grade.

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Postby MichaelB » Wed May 16, 2007 10:15 am

:D

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Postby europa » Wed May 16, 2007 10:50 am

The thing about your bike colour and photos Tuco, is not that we know you can photoshop, but we know your camera messes with the colours ... which was how this started in the first place (and if you hadn't commented, no-one would have noticed :roll: ). Still, your bike colour does have the honour of being the forum's first icon :D

Richard

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tuco
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Postby tuco » Wed May 16, 2007 11:07 am

Don't forget the fluoro lights :wink:

I know it's all in good fun but remember, it's no fun until someone loses and eye.

I cleaned it the other day and it's turning white. It has so many stone chips on it now. It has more than our 8 year old car.
Group riding side by side will do that.

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Postby mikesbytes » Wed May 16, 2007 1:14 pm

If the R-1 rule is broken, what happens to N+1?

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tuco
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Postby tuco » Wed May 16, 2007 1:55 pm

mikesbytes wrote:So we are back to the pink jokes
Image

:D

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Postby Mulger bill » Wed May 16, 2007 6:58 pm

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!


That's GOLD

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Postby mikesbytes » Wed May 16, 2007 9:51 pm

If the R-1 rule is broken, what happens to N+1?

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