Race Report Thread

[kirky92au]

Date: 13 Oct 2012
Venue: Kooragang
Grade: E - 28km
Result: 2nd from 20.

Report:
Second race today, learnt who the stronger guys are and who I should follow around. Also had a much better idea of what to expect and there was a nice tailwind going along the main straight. So we start off at a reasonable pace the first lap everyone finding there pace and rhythm with this lap being fairly moderate sort of pace. I'm trying to stick near the front today doing a little turn every now and then but not too much, as laps 2 & 3 pass the pace quickens and the group starts to string out.

Then there's the attack about 3km out by one guy along the back straight into the wind, I lift and try to get across to him but I'm not strong enough to pull myself up to him into this wind. Now I think I've buggered my chances as I've just spent myself trying to go with the guy to no avail. A group of 4 bridges to myself and I tuck in behind them hoping just to hold on and recover a little.

As well approach the final corner the lone break away is caught now its 1km to the line. Another guy goes and I latch onto what is 2nd place's wheel. We are tailing but closing. 500m to go and I jump, closing in on him but just got nothing left and I get 2nd by about a bikes length.



Stats:
Time: 00:48:52
Avg Speed: 33.8 km/h


Strava Data

[foo on patrol]

That's good that you are taking note of who the stronger riders are. Second placing in you your second race is good and will make you hungrier for a win.

Foo

[philip]

Had a pretty fun race yesterday. Beauie, A grade. Not a big turnout, maybe 10-12 in A, always makes it a bit more interesting. Was one of those surgey races where someone would attack, they'd get chased them down, everyone would sit up, repeat. I joined/started a few attacks, mostly short lived. I reckon I have to get the right balance between using a lot of energy to attack/bridge a gap and then being able to hold it. Too often I think I'm spending too much energy initially and then burning out too fast. Some guys "attack" by somehow just slowly rolling off the front, others pretty much full on sprint. Need a balance between the two, it's taken me a while to realise this.

I started my last attack when I saw a couple of the stronger guys move forward, looking like they were about to start a move. I figured if I started it first, hopefully one or two would bridge to me.. but they didn't, so I was solo and about half a lap later I was caught - then the dreaded counter attack by the 2 strongest riders. I knew straight away that was it, still 15 minutes or so to go but the field had been thoroughly whittled down, only 5 of us left to chase. We tried to get organised but guys wouldn't roll through and it became disorganised. Last 2 laps were very slow because we knew we were going to sprint for 3rd. There's a 15yr old junior racing with us (watch out for this guy in the future for sure!), he's a clever racer, knows what to do to stay in the game. Last lap, 600 metres or so to go, he's at the front but then goes off to the side and drops back, seemingly to get out of the way for us to sprint - he's on restricted gears. We're still dilly-dallying around a bit and then all of a sudden he comes flying past. I'm 3rd wheel, guy at the front doesn't know what to do, guy in front of me chases, we catch the junior, still 400 metres or so to go, guy in front of me starts a sprint but doesn't really have one, I decide I've left it as long as possible to go, give it a big kick and just manage to take the sprint for 3rd by half a wheel.

[ft_critical]

Nice lunge Philip! Congrats. You could just sit on Maddog all race.

[twizzle]

Urrrrrggggghhhh....

First crit since the beginning of the year : exercise induced asthma, legs cramps in the night, and only came 14'th of 26. I had one red-hot go after the first lap, but someone stonger (and older) than me chased me down for the next two-odd minutes and brought the bunch with him. There was a four rider break about half distance and after giving them bit of time to get clear I bridged, but before I even got a turn they had given up (?!), so we got caught... by the same guy who got me after the start. It ended up being a bunch sprint, and I'm kicking myself for not having a few more attacks along the way.

My weight loss (improved acceleration) & solo speed has been noted - and every time I rolled towards the front people started calling my "move".

27:42, 18.3km, 40.0kph average, 159bpm, 339W avg, 367W NP.
During my little "get away solo at the start" effort, it was a 488W average for 2:44 (AT) 42.2kph.

[jules21]

1st race post summer crit season and a win! in the Great Ocean Road Classic 120km team time trial. it's a handicap event and our team captain managed to negotiate a handicap based on expected finish time of 5 hours, while we finished in 4. there may have been some boos when we collected the trophy, but i'll take it

i dare say that if we return next year, our handicap may be a bit different. in our defense, we did have 2 female team members (not that i'd call them a handicap, they rode really strongly).

some shameless self promotion... i can honestly say, we won the Vino way!

Congratulations to the "Cappa Shleppers" Winners of the GORC Classic held on 13th October 2012 with a time of 4.03

[kirky92au]

Date: 20 Oct 2012
Venue: Kooragang
Grade: E - 28km
Result: 5th from 12.

Report: Not much to say this week, didn't feel like I had the legs. I kept with the group at the back for the majority of the race as the other guys slowly dwindled.

Last lap a group of 4 got away and I was at the back of the group behind them. Through the course of the lap pulled my self up to 6th spot, soloing into the head wind with 5th trying to bridge to the leading 4. Then 5th place crashed, for no apparent reason. He was on his feet when I went passed him and seemed ok so I raced on.

I wasn't able to get to the leading 4 by myself so I ended up consolidating 5th place today. Always next week =]

Stats:
Time: 00:50:32
Avg Speed: 34.0 km/h
Avg Heart rate: 182
Cadence: 85

Strava Data

[filip]

I did my first crit of the new season last friday at Wyong. Nice and warm evening, lots of people. i decided to race in C as it was my first race back, this under loud protest of my friends -last season i raced in B-. Anyway, felt really comfortable during the race and never was in any difficulty. B grade passed us verly early in the race and was hanging 20m or so in front of us, holding us up for a while. The signal for the last 2 laps came a bit earlier than expected and the speed obviously picked up. During the last lap i decided to attack and quickly got a gap. I remember looking at my speedo and thinking "53km/h, eat this C graders". Unfortunately the man with the hammer was not too far off and i blew up in spectacular fashion. I couldn't even hold the wheel of the front group riders when they flew passed me with 500m or so to go. In hindsight my break must have lasted 2.2 nano seconds. Guess i will focus on VO2max intervals instead of lalidaing around/tempo/sweetspot training.
Very nice racing though.

28 or so minutes
38.5 avg speed
165 avg HR
max HR 196

[smileNnod]

Had a pretty fun race yesterday. Beauie, A grade. Not a big turnout, maybe 10-12 in A, always makes it a bit more interesting. Was one of those surgey races where someone would attack, they'd get chased them down, everyone would sit up, repeat. I joined/started a few attacks, mostly short lived. I reckon I have to get the right balance between using a lot of energy to attack/bridge a gap and then being able to hold it. Too often I think I'm spending too much energy initially and then burning out too fast. Some guys "attack" by somehow just slowly rolling off the front, others pretty much full on sprint. Need a balance between the two, it's taken me a while to realise this.

I started my last attack when I saw a couple of the stronger guys move forward, looking like they were about to start a move. I figured if I started it first, hopefully one or two would bridge to me.. but they didn't, so I was solo and about half a lap later I was caught - then the dreaded counter attack by the 2 strongest riders. I knew straight away that was it, still 15 minutes or so to go but the field had been thoroughly whittled down, only 5 of us left to chase. We tried to get organised but guys wouldn't roll through and it became disorganised. Last 2 laps were very slow because we knew we were going to sprint for 3rd. There's a 15yr old junior racing with us (watch out for this guy in the future for sure!), he's a clever racer, knows what to do to stay in the game. Last lap, 600 metres or so to go, he's at the front but then goes off to the side and drops back, seemingly to get out of the way for us to sprint - he's on restricted gears. We're still dilly-dallying around a bit and then all of a sudden he comes flying past. I'm 3rd wheel, guy at the front doesn't know what to do, guy in front of me chases, we catch the junior, still 400 metres or so to go, guy in front of me starts a sprint but doesn't really have one, I decide I've left it as long as possible to go, give it a big kick and just manage to take the sprint for 3rd by half a wheel.

Great report,

So true for many racers learning the tactics. It's certainly not the fittest or fastest that always wins.

PS: The young guy you mention rides with me sometimes. Comes from good pedigree. Always amazing to watch them spin a cadence of 100Av for a 100km ride.

maybe See you at Beauie next race.

[jules21]

C grade, hawthorn crits. D grade was sold out! 38 km/h average on the hilly Boullie circuit. everyone was complaining it was a fast crit - baptism of fire for me. got dropped on the last lap but happy with that speed in my first crit of the season.

i was close to repeating on myself towards the end. as i was battling to keep the bunch in sight, floris goessinen came past me like i was standing still, having broken away from the A-grade bunch.

i'm fired up now, but i'm off to bali for 2 weeks, so my form will take a dive

[toolonglegs]

First cyclocross of the season ... Weather put in a fine display... Monday I was basically in summer gear. Today it was 2-3c and super windy.
Rocked up in plenty of time for once... Signed on in the rain and headed out to check out the course... The course was fantastic all though it did climb a bit too much for me as usual. One 200 meter grass climb and another similar Stoney fire trail climb plus one very steep little pinch which I didn't find to hard in the 38/28.
After one lap I went back to the car to warm up. I find if I thaw my hands once they don't freeze up as bad the 2 nd time. Headed out for a 2nd lap and felt really good on the techie stuff. I could ride the logs no problem which only meant running two barriers which were are little high to ride.
Got an ok start but could have been better by getting a front row position... Will be more pushy next time!. Starts are everything so I was happy to be move up quickly before the first climb. Basically you don't save anything in the first lap and just fight aggressively for a good position. At the end of the first lap I was in a bunch of 4 in around 10-14 place... Felt smelted in and although I was losing a bit on the grass climb I had it all over my bunch technically... Here's me thinking with 40 minutes to go a top 10 is possible!... Bear in mind last year I was getting lapped at the end of the races and fishing high 20's early 30's out of 50-60 riders. If I can take anything away from today it is that I am vastly improved on last year .
Anyway as it is autumn and there are leaves thick on the ground I managed to hit something very hard on a fast section... Probably a good sized roundish stone of which there were plenty. After a few hundred meters I thought I had got away with it... But then the front started feeling heavy and it was all over not long before the end of the 2nd lap. .
Hopefully I didn't damage the wheel but apart from a jetwash I will check it out tomorrow. As I was walking back to the car I realized it was snowing!.
Next one is in two weeks by when my crc order should arrive with bigger tyres (33 to 35) and some better brake pads.

[foo on patrol]

Bugger TLL, conspiracy theory comes to mind.

Foo

[ni78ck]

first race ever, what a buzz!
got to eastern creek and i was put into C grade. i was there with a friend who had his first race this week at heffron on tuesday. we were the only guys representing Sutherland shire. The race started and i decided to tuck into the back for a couple laps and see how it unfolds. the pace was fairly consistant. within a couple laps i found myself at the front doing some work. my friend and i decided to up the tempo alittle and see how the peleton reacts! we were chased down fairly quickly as we were riding for the same club. we spent most of the time from then on at or near the front. there were afew early attacks but they were not out there long as we would real them in.
with about 5 laps to go there was an attack which we all let go from a guy in a LACC jersey. for the next two or three laps we did not gain on him as we thought he was going to blow! one lap before the bell lap, i decided to give chase. no one wanted to help, so at that point i knew we were all racing for second place. coming down the straight for the bell lap, and as i expected the guys who i never saw the whole race got the front , they were obviously seasoned racers and in it for the glory!! with about two kms to go i found myself back in about 15 position. we had one last pinch and then the long straight which had a head wind. my friend came up beside me and said lets go!!! i jumped on his wheel. at this stage the loan breakaway had won. we had 500m to go. there was a LACC rider and a Manly rider about 50-60m ahead i was thinking we were no chance of catching them but within a couple seconds we flew past i was then next to my friend (he never knew it was me) and we went for it. i put my head down and just went for it. he finished 2nd and I finished 3rd WOW i was over the moon!!!!!!!
there were 34 riders in total and we were told that next week were in B grade !

[mjd]

first race ever, what a buzz!
got to eastern creek and i was put into C grade. i was there with a friend who had his first race this week at heffron on tuesday. we were the only guys representing Sutherland shire. The race started and i decided to tuck into the back for a couple laps and see how it unfolds. the pace was fairly consistant. within a couple laps i found myself at the front doing some work. my friend and i decided to up the tempo alittle and see how the peleton reacts! we were chased down fairly quickly as we were riding for the same club. we spent most of the time from then on at or near the front. there were afew early attacks but they were not out there long as we would real them in.
with about 5 laps to go there was an attack which we all let go from a guy in a LACC jersey. for the next two or three laps we did not gain on him as we thought he was going to blow! one lap before the bell lap, i decided to give chase. no one wanted to help, so at that point i knew we were all racing for second place. coming down the straight for the bell lap, and as i expected the guys who i never saw the whole race got the front , they were obviously seasoned racers and in it for the glory!! with about two kms to go i found myself back in about 15 position. we had one last pinch and then the long straight which had a head wind. my friend came up beside me and said lets go!!! i jumped on his wheel. at this stage the loan breakaway had won. we had 500m to go. there was a LACC rider and a Manly rider about 50-60m ahead i was thinking we were no chance of catching them but within a couple seconds we flew past i was then next to my friend (he never knew it was me) and we went for it. i put my head down and just went for it. he finished 2nd and I finished 3rd WOW i was over the moon!!!!!!!
there were 34 riders in total and we were told that next week were in B grade !

Great first race mate!!! Congrats, sounds like you will be floating a few inches off the ground for the day....

[Chuck]

Nice work Nick

Unlucky TLL, top ten is coming

Good reports guys.

[philip]

Sounds promising TLL!

though it did climb a bit too much for me

pretty sure you've written that in every race report this year mate Coming up to winter for you, keep the kgs dropping for next road season and then you'll be killing it!

I finished 3rd

Awesome stuff for your first race!! Sounds like you need B grade (at least) for sure. Well done.

Did beauie A grade again today, got 2nd in a bunch sprint. Got outsprinted by the same guy twice - had a prime halfway as well that he just beat me in too. Lucky no one attacked after that, I took a good lap to recover. Not much else to report, not a very fast race but constant attacks throughout, another fun one.

[foo on patrol]

Woohoo Nic78ck, good one. Make sure you change your tactics at each meet, otherwise people will know what to expect from you.

Foo

[trek52]

well done ni78ck, I am at the vets most weeks and Tues night EC as well say hi if you see me...

I was out there today at EC, in A Grade. Somehow ended up off the front for 45km with another guy. Man it hurt, we swapped off solid and held the bunch off, got to about a min lead and stayed there. Was lucky enough to take the win

[kirky92au]

Date: 27 Oct 2012
Venue: Kooragang
Grade: Handicap - 6:15min 28km.
Result: Last of the finishers

Report: Turn up this week and its handicap! First one of those. So there was one group ahead of mine consisting of 2 riders going off 10minutes or so, then there was my group with two older guys (70+) and a younger kid probably around ~12. First lap is going good all taking turns at a reasonable pace. Just kicking it back around for the 2nd lap and we've dropped the younger kid, a little further on that lap one of the old guys has gone.

About half way through the second I've been dropped and can see the group behind me only ~100m behind so I sit up, jump on the back of them. However I get re-dropped with 1.5km left before the start of the last lap, and E through to B come streaming past. I tried again to jump onto their wheels but this stage I had it and that was that.

So I was out to cook on the finally lap by myself and only cruised around. However the first two riders apparently won by around ~20secs from the A grade riders. So next week is handicap again so hoping for a bigger one, considering the winner is getting an air conditioner! Shall also work on riding further as my legs keep coming up short, due to the persistent head winds.

Stats:
Time: 00:55:36
Avg Speed: 30.9 km/h
Avg Heart rate: 179
Cadence: 86

Strava Data

[ni78ck]

well done ni78ck, I am at the vets most weeks and Tues night EC as well say hi if you see me...

I was out there today at EC, in A Grade. Somehow ended up off the front for 45km with another guy. Man it hurt, we swapped off solid and held the bunch off, got to about a min lead and stayed there. Was lucky enough to take the win

I saw you after my race I went to the finish line to see you guys come through. I remember you passing us. Stellar effort on keeping away and out sprinting the guy in the red jersey

[ni78ck]

Woohoo Nic78ck, good one. Make sure you change your tactics at each meet, otherwise people will know what to expect from you.

Foo

My only tactic today was to try and finish with the bunch
I had plenty left in the tank for a sprint finish. (I'm no sprinter but somehow managed to get to 65 km/h into a head wind it was great fun)

[foo on patrol]

If you recon you're not much of a sprinter Ni78ck, then you make the real sprinters hurt.

Top effort also Treky. Always hard to stay away for that distance.

Foo

[toolonglegs]

Lots of action in the rr thread ... Nice work on all the results guys!.
Philip I know I always say it... There are a couple of flat races in jan, hopefully I can get some weight off by then ... Quite few races coming up with lots of climbing now though...oh well!.

[Sydguy]

(AT) ni78ck - I was the LACC guy who was 3rd about 200 to 300 metres out from the line. Died before the finish line but I have no sprint so I thought if I go a little too early I might hang on.

I nearly passed out at the finish line, and wheeled straight to the coffee van... long black with 3 sugars and I was good to ride home!

Well done on your placing, I've only managed a 2nd place in d Grade, so far nothing in C.

JM

[winstonw]

My first C grade win yesterday. Though due mostly to me reading competitor group psychology well.
I chased a solo breakway after the prime 15 minutes in. No one else wanted to come. So there I was about 80m in front, with break man giving up the ghost.
I felt ok, so kept going. Built up a 400 metre lead, and had to hold out for 30 minutes. Lead got eroded to about 200 metres 7 minutes from the finish, but lack of cooperation in the chasing pack put it in the bag for me. My average speed 38kph.