Always testing and a random regional Handicap thrown in for good measure
After an indoor power test
during the first week of April, my coach had lined me up to do an outdoor power session on a
climb. I had not tried to give Kinglake a real crack before, so I headed out
there to kick my weekend off in style. I was pretty motivated to do a good
time, but was not really sure where the start of the climb was, so I didn't hit
my lap counter until I was sure the road was consistently going up. The problem
after that moment was my gears were not consistently changing! I had some real
grinding and crunching issues all the way up and probably scared off all the
remaining wildlife and one Hells500 grey striper that I passed while
doing the unintentional strength effort. I had flash backs to my hideous
Masters Nationals Time Trial where the gears were slipping around on my TT bike
and I had to just find a gear that worked and mash it to the top. I'll be going
back to give it another go in the coming months for sure.
The next stop on the way
out of town with Shane was to pick up Stephen Lane fresh from winning the
Coburg Club Crit Champs in A-Grade and we headed straight out to Seymour.
They put on great club
racing each week - check out their Facebook page to see the schedule when the
Northern Combine is full or the weather is a bit uncertain and you can get a
start for $10 entry on the day!
I got a fair handicap
starting with three other guys at about C-Grade level for the 60km race. We
worked even turns out to just past the turn around where we zoomed back in
towards home on the same road to see the scratch bunch coming. Shane was on the
front of the bunch and had a massive grin on his face as he past us. It struck
fear into our bunch that immediately went to pieces and stopped working
together.
They caught us at the 39km
mark and I was on the front as they came by and sprinted to get across to the
back of the train. My average speed jumped from around 36 km/h to 42 km/h and
all I could think of was to hang on as long as possible to get me closer to the
finish and to try and finish with this group.
It was really cool to see
my team mates rolling turns up the front in a massive pace line smashing each
other and trying to soften up the rest of the group. At one point I see Shane
grab a drink and water goes EVERYWHERE! He's pouring it all over himself like
he's on fire. A few minutes later we're on another small rise and I can see the
guys driving it into the head wind as the group of now 10 riders snakes along
behind them with me near the tail. My mind wandered off for a moment to a
conversation in the car on the way to the race how there are B and C-Grade
riders who can hang on to a sprint finish in some races without even hitting
the wind - I had a chuckle to myself at that point as I was benefiting from the
slipstream and essentially "I was that guy"!
It was going to be easier
said than done to hang on though as I didn’t know the route and we had a
technical section through town where I had to sprint out of each corner to stay
with the guys and then we hit the hills. I remember from the rough overview
Shane had mentioned there was a double kick in the final hills. Initially there
was a small climb out of town that Stephen had perfectly paced the group
halfway up and dropped back through the group to rejoin in front of me. Just as
the next rider was looking to roll off, he attacks up over the top of the climb
and disappears off into the distance. I manage to hold on with the group as
they respond up over the top of the climb and scramble on to the back.
We are 51km into the race
and each kilometer I can hang onto is one less I have to ride home solo. I
realize that there is another hill coming up and it must be the last one. I can
still see Stephen up the road, but I think we are starting to make some time
back up on him. So Shane sets a tempo on the climb at the front that is pushing
it for me and just hard enough that it seems that nobody is going to counter.
Sam Fuhrmeister was the next to roll through to set tempo, then I was next and
ready to try my best at blocking, but Shane pushed me off the front and
promptly counter attacked on the other side of the road. This was bad timing
for me, I was already in the red zone and then the explosion from the group to
respond to Shane jumping across to Stephen who was fading up the road was the
end of me. There was a little more hill to go and someone was still on my
wheel. I swung my elbow once, twice, but they didn’t come through. Bad mistake,
as I was starting to go backwards fast and lost contact with the front of the
race.
There was about 7-8kms left
to go and I could see the group up the road but nothing behind. That means I
was guaranteed a top 10 placing if I could keep the pressure on.
We worked together towards
the line and then I jumped early to try a sprint and rolled in for 7th
overall. Totally ecstatic with the result, I rolled around to find Shane who had
brown gel goo all over himself. During the race the gel pack had split when he
opened it and covered his face, hands and he’d tried to wash it off
unsuccessfully during the ride. That was the gush of water in the peloton that
I had witnessed.
The boys had gotten away
with a first place for Stephen (double win day!) and second for Shane after
wearing down Alan Adams before the finish. It was a great day out in the last
of the summer’s warmth.
 |
| Totally washed out after a big day out with the boys and the team car |
