Suffering from a a mild head cold, I decided it was time to sit in the pack and see how I went in a bunch sprint, relatively fresh. You will get bored said a couple of my fellow racers when the asked about my tactics for the day.

The first lap was a fairly decent pace, Matt one of the usual suspects and Nigel one of the new guys went off the front, but a 30 gusting to 40 kph headwind, kept them in check and it was not long before Matt was back in the pack. Nigel lasted most of the lap dangling off the front.

Recent roadworks had made the circuit more challenging, some sections had be be resurfaced with smooth tarmac. One rougher section had also been resurfaced, but it was covered with small stones, and these had collected in number on the turn into that section, which make the cornering difficult. The little lip on the bridge had gone, but the bridge surface was still rough and the shadows made the crossing a little disconcerting.

Second lap, into the headwind section and Matt was just off the front again, the pack was just letting him die out there, crawling along at 25 kph. Unhappy with the pace and the group bunching up, I went to the front. Nobody jumped on my wheel, so I just sat on threshold pace, the pack was still back when I caught Matt and went to the front. Next couple of kms, just kept going at threshold pace, as we turned out of the headwind, I knew I had more than one rider behind me, so I eased off the pace. I did not know that a couple of riders had decided that this was an attack to follow, and dragged the bunch up.

If someone went round me after the corner and kept going, I would of joined them, but nobody did, so I settled for tempo pace on the front. Until the loose stone section, let’s just say my cornering was sketchy, but I stayed upright. Settled in at 3rd or 4th wheel, for that section, then over the bridge and as we hit the little rise I went to the front. I wanted to get a good look at last kilometre and work out where I needed to launch my sprint from, given that one bend in the road had be cordoned off due to an incidence between rider and an american muscle car last time we raced here.

Past the start finish and rolled to the back to grab a drink, got five minutes of rest, before we hit the headwind section again. So onto the front, for a few kms of threshold, turned off and this time somebody else took up the pace making. Dropped back, before the entrance to the loose stone section, but took the corner slightly better this time, though I am capable of much better, but my confidence was shaken. I knew I had to be closer to the front next time through the loose stone section.

On to the final lap, the bunch slowed in to the headwind section, but I did not go to the front, just sat at the back, round the corner and then the next on to the loose stones section in last place. The pace was on, but I had no trouble in moving up, by the time we hit the bridge, I was close to the front and could see another rider off the front. I didn’t react and stayed with the bunch, my mental map of the course deserted me as I made my way to the front too early. With just under a kilometre to go, I was 4 deep on the front and sitting on 45kph, my options where limited, so I decided to stay put, hugging the inside of the centre line. The rider off the front is coming back to us.

With about 600m to go, I see an american muscle car heading in the opposite direction. No other option, a quick touch of the brakes, a quick acceleration and I am on the back of the bunch. The car passes safely, I swing out to attack at my chosen point and I have absolutely nothing in my legs, I can not accelerate, so with my legs screaming in pain, I roll across the line to finish 10th.

The only good news is that Matt wins his first D grade race, so I would like to think I had an influence on the race results. After the race, I was trying to figure out my poor performance, did I work too hard during the race, did I get to the front too early on, was it just bad luck with big american muscle cars. I now realise that the biggest contributing factor was my cold, the next day I was struggling to complete easy physical tasks. Sure if I didn’t go to the front so early or did not have to brake and then accelerate because of oncoming traffic, I might of pick up a few spots, but my cold was the limiting factor.

The jury is still out on sprint finishes for me. I need a bit more confidence and assertiveness to hold my place in the bunch. So next time may be I will be the lone attacker with a kilometer to go, even though today he finished last.

I had originally planned to be nice to the new people and not do any attacking or aggressive riding until the last couple of laps. Except nobody wanted to start at the front so I did, and as I want to be on the front for the first time up Gull Road. 3km of gently twisting single lane road we a rather rough surface, I kept the pace high, and continue it up Gull road. It was not until halfway down Rapids Road, so 5km from the start I got relieved of pace making duty, the speed settled down and after a little time mid pack, settled down as ticket collector.

Next circuit, the pace was pretty ordinary, some 5kph slower up Gull. So I decided to make things interesting next lap, took the lead on Karnup Road, put in a small dig as we turned into Hall Road, it was quickly countered by a number of riders and I was sitting in about 6th place as the relatively smooth and wide Hall Road turned into Gull. So I put on a blistering counter attacked, heard a few jaws drop and heart sinks as nobody could match it. Put in a decent gap and then promptly sat up after 1km, I could not solo 2.5 laps against the riders in this group. But things where going to plan that I just made up on the fly.

Settled down the back for the next two thirds of a lap, then onto Gull again and straight to the front for a hard, but not that hard tempo. Needed to made it harder, as when the bunch decided enough was enough and came past me, before the turn into Rapids Road. I was at the back, when one of the new guys decided to take a swig from his water bottle as we turned into Rapids Road, went right off his line and almost put me in the gravel. Then somebody on the front put the hammer down. I swung in behind the new guy and let him do the work, but still burnt a match or two getting back on.

Bell lap, onto Hall setting decent tempo on front, a couple of A graders go flying by as we hit Gull, check to see if anymore are following and no more A graders and I have a small gap, the bunch just let me slip away not expecting anything to happen. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together and I pick up the pace. About a minute later, a wheel comes past, I think I have been caught, look over and it is another A grader in hot pursuit of the other two. Then the curse of Nick strikes, the A grader on a straight road appears to lose his front wheel and hits the deck some 20m in front of me. Brake heavily, veer left, hit the gravel, avoid the downed rider, who is moving off the road, cursing. I hop back on the road, put my head down and keep riding. A minute later I am caught by Matt another D grade rider. I check over my shoulder and see a bunch bearing down on us. I sit up, then I realise it is A grade. Let them go past and get told “go back to your group” I am thinking WTF, the crash was a racing incident. They go past, I waited until they are a good 10m ahead before I start pedalling. But by then it is all over and a further kilometre down the road we are caught by the bunch as we turn into Rapids Road.

The rain was now blinding me, I was having great difficultly in seeing, as I am trying to recover and work on tactics for a sprint. Turn onto Karnup road for the last time, at least I can see a little, the pace is up, but not hard. I slowly make my way to the head of the bunch. A grab a wheel of a rider making a charge for the front, hang on, accelerate past him on what I thought was the last kink on the road, only to realise it is the second last kink on the road. And having spent so much energy in the race so far, I am unable to drive from that far out and settle for a constant pace and try to survive as half the bunch pass me and I finished 9th.

I might be the strongest rider in D grade but not always the smartest.

At the end of the race the A grade rider who yelled “go back to your group” was complaining to the Commissaire about a two D grade riders taking advantage of A grade. He grumbled when I challenged him, seeing we where off the front of D grade well before the accident, which is when the two bunches met, and did not do anything when A grade caught and passed us. Actually without A grade interference my plan might of worked. Well there is always the next race.

I had scouted the course out via Strava and Google maps/sreetview before signing up for the race. A quick couple ofs ighting laps and I found it was a lot more technical than my research revealed. For those unfamiliar with cycling terms a technical course is one with lots of difficult corners, and given my limited cornering skills this was going to be an interesting race.

I was racing with a couple of club mates, but neither were confident of lasting the distance. So team tactics discussions where limited. So I went into the race with simple tactics, start at close to the head of the race, get to the front early and ride hard, but not that hard my team mates get spat out the back. And hopefully finish in the top 10.

A soon as they announced our race, I was in the marshalling area, but so was more than twenty of the 34 starters. I grabbed what I thought was a good position, on the far left with a couple of people in front of me, which should of meant when I rolled out of the marshalling area, turned left onto the course and I would of been close to the front of the race.

How wrong could I be, the rider in front rolled out onto the course, turned left, struggled to clip in and did not pedal. So riders streamed past us on the right and by the time he clipped in, we where at the back of the field and our race was run.

I then made the mistake of trying to work my way up slowly, trying to get past people in the straights. It was not until the 3rd lap I realised most people were cornering far more conservatively than me. If I dived up the inside, turned hard and accelerated quickly out the hairpin I could pass a couple of riders in one move. Unfortunately by this time it was too late, the field had broken up into small groups and the gaps between then, where increasing fast.

By the time I tagged on the back of the 3rd group on the 5th lap, I realised that I was as close to the front I would get. So I settled down to conserve as much energy as possible for inevitable sprint, or at least lead my club mate out. At one stage I did go to the front, went round a hairpin and stuff educe the line and quickly ended up on the back again. But most the time on the back, as I would not accelerate as hard as the rest of the group out of corners, as I did not need to. as it was easier on me to keep a constant pace, so I drop a few metres out of each hairpin but get then back before the next corner.

So I was on the back on the last lap, when one of the junior riders lost his front wheel, I took evasive action to avoid him and ended up way of the back of the group.

Finished about 17th out of 34, so not bad seeing where I ended up after the 1st 100m of the race. Still I should of done better, but I will know for next year, line up earlier and if things go wrong, be very aggressive in the first couple of laps to get to the front group.

Race on Strava

My first race with the West Coast Masters, it was suggested I should race C grade. Happy to oblige, while I am a D grade at Peel, given it is now road race season, I should earn promotion in the couple of months to C grade. I was treating this race as a big learning experience.

It it was going to be interesting 6 laps, 57km race on a course I was riding for the first time with 34 participants. First couple of laps, I settled down the back and was happy there, The third lap, moved up had a look around, did a short turn on the front and then spent some time riding in the first third of the pack. Before drifting back down the group. It was a pretty uneventful race for almost 5 laps at a pretty hectic pace for me of 38 kph. Though it was not constant, sharp acceleration out of corner for 500m, steady pace till next corner, sharp acceleration out of corner for 500m and so on.

Early on the 5th lap, we got passed by 3 escapees from A grade. Expecting the rest of A, but nothing. Last corner of the 5th lap, a couple of cars, made the corner interesting, I was one of the people who got the line wrong and somebody on the front put the hammer down. Took about 3km of chasing to get back on, I got on as the group slowed and was passed by A grade. A grade never really distanced C grade, as well approached the final corner, C grade was attempting to pass A grade, when there was a touch of wheels. I saw a bike flying through the air and heard a sickening thud. Attempted evasive action, locked the rear brake, felt a bump on the rear, collided with the rider in front and we went down,we were not the only ones, around 10 of us hit the deck. Got up, starting disentangling bikes, when we realised one rider was not getting up. He had hit his head hard on the ground at speed.

Luckily one of the riders was a paramedic, another called an ambulance, another went for the club first aid officer and I helped out by slowing traffic, as the injured rider remained on the road. After our fallen comrade was placed in the ambulance, we finished the last kilometre or so at a sedate pace, finishing some 30 minutes after everybody else.

Up until the crash, I was enjoying the race and hoping to finish in the front half. However the crash put a big downer on the day.

Race Report PDCC Club Criterium Championship D grade Smeaton Way Rockingham

I have never had any luck at Smeaton Way, always finishing in the second half of the group. My dismal record had little to do with my limited sprinting ability, even though every race finished in a bunch sprint, but more to do with bad positioning and my lack of confidence in cornering.

Today, even suffering from my continuing cold, I was not worried about finishing in the front half of the group, I was aiming for a win and promotion to C grade. I decided on a simple tactic that was successful for Clint on the final lap in the WCMCC points race here. Attack hard on the final straight into the bell, get a gap and just ride the final lap flat out to the finish.

To that end, I settled in the now unfamiliar position of ticket collector, and stayed there for the a few laps. My first couple of laps was punctuated with poor cornering, but very quickly my confidence improved and I was having to feather my brakes after corners as I was carrying more speed through them than the riders in front of me.

There where a few half hearted attacks, which where quickly countered, this kept the speed fairly high. At times, the pace dropped, so after 15 minutes I took the chance to go to the front to successfully test my new found cornering confidence. About 200m shy of the finish line, I launched an attack, after crossing the line I could here Tom yelling Go, Go, Go so I drove to the end of the straight and swung wide, Travis came through and then slowed as the 4th member of our short lived breakaway, did not fancy their chances with the 3 riders who rode away with the race the week before, tucked in behind me as did Tom.

Attack nullified, I dropped back down the bunch and settled in as ticket collector, there where a few attacks, nothing serious and a few slow periods, but the pace was generally fast. Approaching the 35 minute mark, I made my way to the front on what I thought would be the second last lap, but I had been caught out before. I was right it was the 2nd last lap and I was on the front, not to matter, I set a pace I was comfortable I could keep going all day.

Then 200m from the line, just as the bell started ringing I attacked. When I got to the first corner, I knew I had not established a break, as I had at least one rider on my wheel. No problem, fired out of that corner into the headwind, round the next corner and down the back straight, my legs was beginning to tire, I knew I had more than one rider on my wheel. Still I drove on, round the next corner, I knew I had gone out too hard, but I kept going. Around the final corner, I was tiring, but I still thought I had a chance, 300m to go I was spent, 200m to go, riders started coming around me, after five, I sat up and cruised to the line finishing 12th.

So not the result I wanted, I could blame my tactics, I needed to attack from the back or middle of the peleton, not the front to get the element of surprise and get that desired gap. My current state of health and lack of training in the last couple of weeks was another factor. Still happy with my performance given my tactical error and health. Hopefully I should be fully fit and back to full training for the road race season that starts in a few weeks.

The race data on Strava

The numbers

• Time: 37:37
• Distance: 23km
• Avg Speed: 36.7kph

The head cold from earlier in the week had moved down to my lungs, so I was not feeling great & definitely not excited about my chances on my favourite criterium circuit (4km long with a sharp climb & only one challenging corner for me). Still I wanted to be the only club member to race & finish ever criterium this season, so I was not going to let a little cold slow me too much.

Knowing, my limitations, I went in with a simple tactics, be patient, be cautious & put all my energy into a single do or die attack, probably attacking as we crested the climb on the second last lap & try to solo the 5km to victory. My plan suddenly had to be flexible, as I found out Travis my breakaway partner for my previous win at Parklands, was back racing after a few weeks away, with a lot more miles & a little more speed in his legs (though I did beat him by almost 30 seconds at an ITT on Wednesday). Still much prefer a head to head with Travis, than a bunch sprint with half a dozen riders who have beaten me in a sprint in the past.

A dozen D graders rolled out for a six lap race (officially 35 minutes + 1 lap, but when a lap takes 7 minutes & a few seconds it is a six lap race). The pace was fairly slow for the first lap & I was happy sitting at the back, watching what was going on. Halfway through the second lap, Travis & a couple of riders got a small gap, as nobody could or would shut the gap. I took it upon myself to drag the bunch to their wheels at the foot of the climb, as I was worried the three would attack on the climb. They didn’t, they actually swung off the front, so I took the bunch up the climb without investing too much effort & shot off down the other side looking for the best lines for my future attack, before waiting for the bunch to catch up in the finishing straight & I rolled to the back feeling surprisingly good.

So good that the next lap, I rode to the front up the climb, to tease another rider about his new bike, then bombed down the descent, picked decent line through the first corner & suddenly I had 50m on the peleton. That was enough of an invitation, I put the hammer down & crossed the start finish line with 15 second gap (access to the timing computer after the race).

I eased off down the back straight hoping to make use of my time trialling skills, but my lungs were struggling, instead on pumping out a constant 240 watts which I can in a TT, I was struggling to make 200 watts, so I made do with that, trying to keep a constant effort, hoping my lungs recover & hoping that the bunch had forgotten me.

After a solitary 4th lap struggling to make 200 watts, I got it to 210 watts when Travis caught me on the back straight on the 5th lap, I tucked into his wheel, until the climb where I could not match his pace, got dropped. In hindsight I should of made more of an effort to stay on his wheel, but my lungs were burning & I was struggling badly.

On the final lap, I was caught by Cassia & Tom on the back straight of the final lap, this time I had enough in reserve to stay with them & do my turn on the front up the climb, but it was not pretty. Lead down the descent, Cassia took us through the corners & Tom started the sprint from a long way out, I took the lead from 400m out, as Tom appeared to fade, but in the shadow of the line Tom came out of my slipstream to snatch 2nd, with Cassia hot on his heels for 3rd, so I was 4th, 15 seconds behind Travis but more than a minute ahead of the bunch.

Overall happy with my performances, given my cold. If I was 100% healthy, the results would of been different, but that is racing.

Al the race details on Strava, speed, power, HR etc

My time trials races this year so far:

1. I crashed on a straight road.
2. too cautious/nervous after previous week, still 30 seconds behind my best time set on a road bike at my first attempt at the end of last year.
3. finally having a TT bike pays off new personal best by 14 seconds.
4. still improving beat last week’s time by 16 seconds
5. another 8 seconds off my PB, now 27:28
6. had a bike fitting and improved by over a minute
7. DNF after flat
8. proved that race 6 was not a fluke and beat that time by 2 seconds
9. another great ride, hard into a strong headwind and then flew back with a tailwind, another 14 seconds off my personal best which is now 26:02

So coming into the final race I had a lead the solo rider competition and had a simple aim, beat 26:00. As well as beating a milestone, it should be enough for me to win the solo rider competition, provided my main competition, did not beat their best time by a significant amount.

That was until I picked up a head cold, by the time Wednesday afternoon arrived I felt bad and went to the race with a simple aim, finish the race, score 2 points for completing the race, maybe post a 26:30 and hope that neither of my two main competitors did not do anything better than half decent rides and times.

The weather was not doing me any favours, the days I did best compared to my competitors were the hot 35C+ days with a strong southerly. Today it was only 27C and the wind was a mild south easterly.

I set off, aiming to keep an average of 250w for as long as possible, see how my body and lungs coped and work out a strategy from there. I managed an average of 245w for the first 8km (down from 255w the previous week), was a little unsure of my average speed, it looked like 35kph and I did not worry about my time. I got caught by a rider who started 2 minutes behind be just after I turned for home. But seeing he is a solid 22 minute rider, I was thinking my time was not that bad. Though felt I needed an average of over 40kph on the way back to get a decent time, however, I struggled to keep it above 39kph and when the rider in front is travelling in excess of 44kph, you do get a little dispirited. However I did feel good and I managed to keep my power output was around 240w for the return trip, I sprinted over the finish and then I finally looked at my my time 25:44 whoot!

The figures

• 16km
• time 25:42 (official)
• average speed 37.4kph (out 36.2kph, back 39.2kph)
• average power 241W (out 244w, back 239w)
• 15th of 21 on elapsed time
• 7th of 18 club members on best time compare to previous PB (yes 6 beat their PBs by more than 20 seconds tonight, apparently good TT riding conditions)
• enough points to win solo rider competition (based on time compared to previous personal best, with bonus points for fastest 3 riders.

So I rolled out, went to the front on the back straight and starting riding hard and by the 180 degree turn towards the end of the first lap, I had a gap on the field. Kept riding hard, had a decent gap by the end of the next lap. I decided to measure my effort and not push hard into the wind on back straight. Which was a mistake, the bunch pulled a little time back and then a lap later one rider bridged across to me on the back straight. With two riders off the front the bunch reacted and the chase was on in earnest.

We worked together for the next few laps, breaking up the chasing group, before we were caught with 15 minutes or so to the bell. The only problem was nobody wanted to ride on the front. A couple of times, the two riders who did the bulk of the chasing, took short turns into the wind and a couple of times I ran wide on the 180 degree turn, so I could drop back a couple of places. But most of the time, I was feeling good, so I rode on the front, every couple of laps I rode hard up the main straight, breaking the group up, but generally slowed on the back straight, which allowed people back one. I did not know it, but there was still 8 riders behind me, when I came out the 180 degree turn for the second last time and pushed hard. 4 riders never made it back, even though the last time into the wind was slow. I ran wide out of the final corner on purpose again, but just missed grabbing the wheel of my breakaway companion, who was behind the two riders who did the bulk of the chasing. I started the long sprint, got close just before the kink, but then they skipped away and another rider who was sitting on my wheel pounced and I finished 5th.

Overall I was happy with my performance, maybe not the result, after spending at least 30 minutes and probably closer to 35 minutes of a 40 minute race on the front. I made a couple of tactical errors, if I hammered it on the 3rd and 4th laps, I probably would of got a big gap before the bunch got organised and ridden to a solo win. But after my last race at Parklands I am not willing to put myself into the red so early in a race. Also if I pushed hard into the wind the last time I might of kept a couple more riders from getting back on. My cornering still needs work, the last corner I choose to run wide, I did not need to run that wide and that slow, which meant I missed that wheel. Still I do know how hard I can ride and how much damaged I can do to a race.

Can’t corner, can’t sprint, pretty lousy crit rider with a half decent motor is a fair description of me. Racing my least favourite circuit with two corners that cause me trouble, a single lane 90 degree right hander, with no room for error and a hairpin that leads onto the uphill finishing straight, I had no great expectations and a simple plan, keep my head down, stay in the front half of the pack and see what happens in the end. And to top it off it was windy as usual at the Motorplex, a 20kph gusting to 30kph South Easterly, which meant you were riding in a crosswind for almost all of the exposed course except a short downhill section and headwind for the finishing straight. Add to that 21 riders in D grade, one of our biggest fields of the season and it was going to be an interesting race for me.

As we rolled up to the start, a friend who just finished C grade told me whatever you do, stay on a wheel. I rolled out at the head of the pack, after being caught out last time I raced here with early attacks. I got through the first corner on the front and waited to see what was going to happen and they all slowed and bunched up. So I sat on the front at my own pace, keeping the group strung out, throwing in little digs, every now and then, accelerating hard out of a corner or up the main straight to make sure they worked. Occasionally a rider would attack, usually on the back straight, I never countered, kept on a steady pace and half a lap later after they found the wind on the finishing straight, they where back in the bunch.

After six laps of me sitting on the front, one of the stronger riders attacked, the bunch reacted, I settled in a little further down the peleton, to watch the show. Which at times was hard to follow, due to the number of riders spread over the course. There was a combined A & B grade (because the state crit championships was on elsewhere today), which had exploded scattering riders and there was a few D graders way off the back. I just made sure I was never far off the front of the dwindling group, when the bell rang, there was only 5 left, and the pace picked up dramatically. Slow out of the tight right hander, but I rode hard down the back straight, was back on well before the final corner. A little wider and slower than I hoped, in fifth but not far from the front, drove hard, past the young guy who had been off the front for a couple of laps, getting closer through the final kink. Then the 1st two accelerated away from me, as I sprinted with my muscles shaking from side to side to claim third by less than half a wheel.

Yesterday, test riding a Scott Foil Team Edition, I did a couple of hard laps of the course and settled on a plan to go to the front early in the race and sit on a good hard pace for as long as possible, to see if I could time trial the race and see what would happen behind me.

Well that all changed when I arrived at the circuit this morning, the wind was a strong south westerly, which meant the last few hundred metres of the course was into a strong head/cross wind and then you turned into a block headwind once past the finish line. After a couple of warmup laps, it became clear that the wind would quickly sap the energy of any solo effort and I decided my plan was wait, watch and react and if I was still there at the end, attack as we turned onto the straight for the final time, get a gap and try and keep it to the line.

The first lap was a little chaotic riders everywhere but no pace, then a couple riders took control and picked up the pace a little. Everybody thought I was attacking, when I rolled to the front, but I was going to the front to make sure we did not have any issues passing the juniors. Stayed there for a lap and then rolled to the back and the surging began. It was fairly mild compared to the attacks that Travis or I put out, but even then I did get caught out once and spent most of a lap getting back on. But that had more to do with my erratic cornering than anything else. Sometimes I would nail the corner, other times my line was bad or I felt I was going in to fast and had to feather the brakes, it did not matter if I was on the front, in the pack or chasing back on, or which corner, I just was erratic.

After 20 minutes the pace slowed, so I went to the front to try my original plan, went to the front and set a hard pace and most rider’s fastest lap for the race as they strung out behind my wheel. Into the headwind for the 2nd time, I decided it was just too hard and not sustainable, so I slowed, another rider countered and I was off the back with a 5 second deficit by the end of the lap. Not a problem this week, by the end of next lap I was back on, and slowly made my way up the pack, to be exactly where I needed to be when the bell rang about 5th. Then I made a mistake every corner and dropped a position or two each time. So I rounded the final corner in last place and had to sprint 400m instead of my planned 250m to the line. Got a few riders on my way, to finish 8th out of 13. It was a pretty decent sprint from me topping out at 52kph into a headwind and without anybody leading me out.

I need to be less conservative and more confident in those corners on the final lap to get myself into a good finishing position. I know what I need to work on, cornering and now have more confidence in my sprint. Looking forward to the road season in a couple of months, but until more criteriums and more corners including my least favourites at the motorplex next week.

On Strava