Race Report Thread

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MREJ
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby MREJ » Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:17 pm

Yes, a good question .....

I did consider it and I had a sense he might not be caught. I also thought that if I chased, it was possible I'd be allowed away with him. But I felt that surely one of the three or four riders who were much closer on overall than I was would chase him. He wasn't going especially fast, nor that far away. I'm still not sure why they didn't chase immediately, but I suspect everyone was just waiting for someone else to take the initiative. D'oh!
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ro.
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby ro. » Thu Apr 11, 2013 8:11 pm

Fair enough, it's fun to analyse it.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby mrgolf » Fri Apr 12, 2013 9:02 pm

Good report, MREJ. I rode Gunning too. What grade was that?

A Grade perspective: TT left me 27 in arrears to the tandem and 20s behind the first single bike rider. I end up in 7 having posted the same time as P6. How do you lose that much time over 4kms? Insane. I knew the road races were going to be tough.

Stage 1: Bunch rides together with a few breaks that are reeled back in by the turn. Another rider and I kept attacking off the front until at last an attack sticks coming up to the prime sprint. I know the GC leader is chasing so I take the front up the hill to protect the big lanky rider up the hill as much as possible until the elastic breaks. GC gets me with 50 to go and I take second and 2 seconds bonus. Peleton regathers and we survive to the bottom of the final climb. Everyone is looking around wondering who is going to lead out the gradual 2km climb to the finish. My team mate tells me that it would be pointless in me hanging around for a sprint and I should just back myself and go, so I hit it hard and go solo. No chasers. I expect someone to come across at the 1km mark, but still no one. Legs are screaming. I have no idea how far behind they are and refuse to look. I push on and with 100m to go my legs are starting to fade fast. Where's the bunch? Still no one. Take the win by a handful of seconds to the GC leader. Haul myself into 4th overall with only 9 and 12 seconds respectively to 3rd and 2nd. Av speed 38.4kmh for 48kms and 500m of climb.

Stage 2: Everyone is more attentive now. The tactic is to lose the tandem from the top 5 and fight it out amongst ourselves. There are a few attacks before the first prime but nothing sticks. Then the prime sprint. Im sitting pretty but get swamped and cut power to conserve. GC, 3rd and 5th dont stop after the sprint and attack off the front. I am out the back. I jump hard and chase the gap down, but its hard work. Possibly more than it should have been. No one else comes across. The break ups the tempo and hammers out to the turnaround. We have a good gap.

Trip back and it is just power time into a nasty headwind. We work together to gap the peleton more and no one attacks. Miss out on the points at the prime again. This course is way too flat for me, and these guys are tall lithe sprinter build riders. Again we turn and the gap has grown nicely. 'They arent coming back' says GC. Same again. Miss the points and stay on the back at the prime. Turn at Breadalbane and back into the wind. Approaching the sprint prime my back is starting to niggle hard. I get left on the front coming up to the line and I just get pipped to 3rd. Better, but it cost me. My lower back pinches hard out of the saddle with GC on my side and I let out a cry of pain and sit down. GC goes and I am cramped. F***! All that work and my body lets me down. I push, but the gap is too big. 15kms to go into a headwind and I watch the gap between me and the break open. So disheartening. Now I need to survive the chase to hold onto 4th. Its a long undulating mainly downhill section where a bunch with a tandem is going to move fast. I cant afford to back off. I push as hard as I can, keep looking back, and try to adjust my position on the bike to make the pain less debilitating. No sign of the bunch. Reach the final climb and I can see the break ahead playing track games for the sprint. Keep pushing, keep spinning. I watch in horror as my speed plummets into the mid 20's. Im a goner. I keep spinning leaving my out of the saddle legs for the final push. 500m to go and I can see the front of the peleton at the base of the hill. Im home. Push a bit harder and cross the line. I lost 2 minutes but maintained about the same to the bunch. 4th overall. Happy with that. My first flat multi stage road race is done. Av 38.6 over 96kms with just under 1000m climb, done and dusted in less than 2 and a half hours. Fastest 100kms I ever rode. Finished utterly shattered. Took a couple of days to recover. Great race, so much fun.
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MREJ
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby MREJ » Sat Apr 13, 2013 6:14 am

I enjoyed your report mrgolf. I see we had something in common - it's hard out there coming back from the range alone, but you had it even worse on the headwind day. Great effort, not just there but overall.

My report was on C grade. By comparison, we averaged 33.1 for the 100k stage. It was about 35 for stage 1.

I came down from Sydney to do the race. I'd been wanting to get there for a couple of years, and now that I have, I'll try to come back next year and perhaps bring a few with me.
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mrgolf
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby mrgolf » Sat Apr 13, 2013 9:09 am

Cheers. It was a great weekend of racing. That headwind coming through the poplars was the worst bit on the Sunday. Only harder thing than that was my 2013 Mont24 campaign, but that was brutal soft tissue battering as well as very high intensity physical effort.

I am keen to get back there next year and hope nature puts in a few more climbs. Not steep enough for my liking.
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby toolonglegs » Sat Apr 13, 2013 3:15 pm

Good read Mr Golf, we have a lot of those multistage races here... you would enjoy them as they are never flat!. Usually start with a 2 - 5 k prologue on the Friday night, then Sat or Sun will either have a split stage usually around the 50-70k mark each or a 100-120k stage. Big bunches too.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby twizzle » Sat Apr 13, 2013 6:19 pm

Gunning is a 4km ITT followed about two hours later with a 48km RR, then double that course the following day. Prime sprints at the mid point of the road... but it's an out-and-back so you do two sprints per lap. It's a power course, although the big guys like you and I have to be able to get over the occasional climb.

I got 3'rd in B... but been too lazy to do a write up. :oops:
The highlight for me was the first road stage - getting away in a 16km break with the guy who came thirds in the ITT (I was second) and allowing him (Kev) to get 30 seconds on the bunch... I only got 15, but it was enough. Day two is always hard, as the pacing is tricky if the wind changes.

And I finally got to meet mrgolf in person.


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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby mrgolf » Sat Apr 13, 2013 6:30 pm

Yeah, its funny how you can know someone online for years and never meet... hmmm.... sounds kinda dodgy...
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby vander » Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:14 am

First race back I raced LACC B grade at Landsdowne.
After not very many (not any) sub 5min intervals I was a little worried I would lack a bit of intensity. I went ok we started with about 12 or so. About 20min in or so there were someone away, he was a strong rider. So I bridged across to him. I brought one other guy with me. We had a group of 3 and I thought we could just stay away but a few more came back and then it was down to a race of 6. There were a few little attempts after this but nothing stuck. Coming into the sprint I was in 2 minds about competing as I am still not too confident on the bike. I ended up at the back of the 6 as I wasnt going to fight for wheels. I thought it would string out a bit then I would have a bit of a go. It never did so I just rolled over in 5th, still felt like I had a kick left for the sprint so I am pretty happy with how it went. Avg speed was about 38km/h my garmin died about half way through so I dont have any real data but numbers wise it wasnt the easiest race (for that first part anyway). Pretty happy with it.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby trek52 » Sun Apr 14, 2013 1:49 pm

How did the crash happen there in b yesterday ? I can't understand how people crash all the time at landsdown.
A grade was a joke 6 of us with one lasting 4 laps. Don't know why the attendance was so bad.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby vander » Sun Apr 14, 2013 2:07 pm

trek52 wrote:How did the crash happen there in b yesterday ? I can't understand how people crash all the time at landsdown.
A grade was a joke 6 of us with one lasting 4 laps. Don't know why the attendance was so bad.
LACC has just been getting worse and worse as far as attendance goes, last year A grade despite smallish number only around 10 or so there was much more of a spread of riders. Now with the 2 teams its just silly. Of the 6 that showed it was always going to be one of you 3 NRV boys also. The guy that you dropped is a B grader but cause he is CRT they want him to race A. Hopefully as winter kicks in and other races like Marconi stop LACC will get a few more riders but otherwise they will need to change something drastically to attract people. Sat morning Horsley could be good.

The crash was pretty stupid. One guy was attacking up the outside the guy on the front pulled off, they bumped into each other the guy that pulled off the front ended up coming off the other guy held it up. It was really a silly crash, couldnt believe it.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby trek52 » Sun Apr 14, 2013 2:41 pm

Yeah cool I wondered what happened. They poor guy that got dropped tried really hard but it was a different level for him. I did 100km before the race.
The team thing is good and bad I love riding with the boys but sometimes it is just silly. Years ago when riding NRS for trek we used to pair up and race each other in pairs. Maybe we should try that at some of the smaller races. To me these are just training.
All I need now is to get thin :)

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby vander » Sun Apr 14, 2013 3:59 pm

trek52 wrote:Yeah cool I wondered what happened. They poor guy that got dropped tried really hard but it was a different level for him. I did 100km before the race.
The team thing is good and bad I love riding with the boys but sometimes it is just silly. Years ago when riding NRS for trek we used to pair up and race each other in pairs. Maybe we should try that at some of the smaller races. To me these are just training.
All I need now is to get thin :)
You dont have long battle at the border is soon :P .
Yea pairing up would be better but you may as well go man on man. With only 6 in the race even pairing up still doesnt leave many people competing. At those races even practicing team tactics is a waste of time, save that for old mans racing :D . Hopefully I will be back to A grade soon to give the 'lone wolf' another friend.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby ft_critical » Sun Apr 14, 2013 4:48 pm

Race Anecdote
Perception: Half way up the berg, the last rider in the three man break looked back. He smiled. The peleton slowed. I jumped. As I crested they had a good 500m on me. I gripped the drops and dug. I felt the chain burn my hamstrings. My HR went from a comfortable 155 to max. A 7min all out effort; solo, averaging 45kmh. The bunch were amazed, no one could go with me.
I was in trouble. I hadn’t made the junction before the next berg and I was in the red. ¾ of the way up, I made contact and sat in. We crested, I screamed at the other three that we all roll turns. We started to roll. The bunch shut us down.
Post race I bragged to my club mates about the ‘big bridge.’

Reality. So I had the camera rolling and I checked Strava. Half way up the berg, the last rider in the three man break looked back. He didn’t smile. The peleton slowed. I jumped. As I crested they had a good 50m on me. I gripped the drops and dug. I felt the chain burn my hamstrings. My HR went from a comfortable 155 to 180bpm. A 2min all out effort; solo, averaging 38kmh. The bunch knew that the break would not succeed if I could solo across.
I was in trouble. I hadn’t made the junction before the next berg and I was in the red. ¾ of the way up, I made contact and sat in. We crested, I screamed at the other three that we all roll turns. We started to roll. The bunch shut us down.
Post race I bragged to my club mates about the ‘big bridge.’

The perception of time in a race is very unreliable.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby stevecassidy » Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:07 pm

vander wrote:Hopefully as winter kicks in and other races like Marconi stop LACC will get a few more riders but otherwise they will need to change something drastically to attract people. Sat morning Horsley could be good.
Sydney really needs some more road races. We can race most weeks at Lansdowne with W'tahs so there's not much attraction to the LACC races - although I understand that there is a need for races for younger riders which the Vets can't provide.

I went out to West Head this morning along with most of the rest of Sydney, the race booked out before I got to the start of the line leaving maybe 50 riders without a race. West Head is pretty much the only non-crit racing we have so understandably, it's getting more and more popular.

I can't see any scheduled races at Horsley or Oakville coming up. I've done one of each and would love to go back. I'm sure that the organisational issues around running road races are an order of magnitude harder than for a crit on a closed circuit; it's just a shame that they aren't run more often.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby vander » Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:21 pm

Parra ran Oakville on sat arvo which I am sure didnt help the numbers for the LACC race. I agree we need more road races. The thing about west head also is that they get good riders and attracts more good riders which gives them a good name for their racing which gets them more riders in all grades.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby MREJ » Mon Apr 15, 2013 6:53 am

Steve, how early do you have to arrive to get on the sheet at West Head???

Come and have a crack at St George one Saturday afternoon. Handicap, hilly, short and sharp. You'll know you're alive after this. 2.30 rollout.
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby RomanTheCube » Mon Apr 15, 2013 8:56 am

I've done it twice out there at west head and arrived both times at 6:45-7am when they start the sign on and had no issues. In fact most people arrive quite late IMO. Yesterday did look like there was a record number of people though by the photos

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby toppity » Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:09 am

Love that little write up ft_critical. I reckon that is so true. :D
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby stevecassidy » Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:21 am

vander wrote:Parra ran Oakville on sat arvo which I am sure didnt help the numbers for the LACC race.
Really! I just checked the Parra website and can only see a draft 2012 schedule. Where are their announcements?

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby stevecassidy » Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:29 am

stevecassidy wrote:
vander wrote:Parra ran Oakville on sat arvo which I am sure didnt help the numbers for the LACC race.
Really! I just checked the Parra website and can only see a draft 2012 schedule. Where are their announcements?
Ah, I see they have a new website: http://www.parramattacycling.com.au/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but the old one (http://www.parramatta.cycling.org.au/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) still comes up in Google - someone needs to put in a redirect, or at least a note on the old website about the new one...

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby philip » Mon Apr 15, 2013 1:50 pm

ft_critical wrote:The perception of time in a race is very unreliable.
so true! Great writeup.
stevecassidy wrote:I went out to West Head this morning along with most of the rest of Sydney, the race booked out before I got to the start of the line leaving maybe 50 riders without a race.
Yeah it was pretty nuts. I got there at 7am so got in fine. A grade went up out of akuna pretty fast, pretty important to be warmed up pre-race. Funnily enough I thought the January one was faster but strava tells a different story - check the date column - places 2-30 all from yesterday's race!

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I didn't feel like I was in trouble at all on the climb though so maybe I'm just fitter now. A mate of mine reckons there were 80 in A, not sure if it was that big though - but I never saw the field from the back as my aim was to stay at the front the whole race, which I did, but didn't manage to place, got in top 10 but didn't quite have legs left for the sprint. Such an awesome race though.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby RomanTheCube » Mon Apr 15, 2013 1:57 pm

damn those times are fast.

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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby rogan » Mon Apr 15, 2013 2:47 pm

Good field too. Plenty of familiar names from the top of strava leaderboards around town.

Also note the prevalence of power meters in A Grade.

My best time on that segment, from the equivalent race, but C Grade, in February - 9:46. I had plenty left, of course. :)
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Re: Race Report Thread

Postby ft_critical » Mon Apr 15, 2013 2:49 pm

RomanTheCube wrote:damn those times are fast.
Insanely fast Philip.

B Prestige was 25.2, so 2kmh slower up Akuna. 0.5kmh faster on the first lap, slower by 1.5kmh on the second lap.

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