WCMCC Age Division Criterium Championships :: 11th March, 2012

Somehow everyone at West Coast Masters between the age of 40 and 44 happens to be in A grade!! I was set to start along side 18 other riders with the majority being of the regular A grade field - 11 of them including Doug Stewart, Pedro Turibaka, Dave Rawlings, Tony Mott and a number of other noticeably strong riders. This would be the ultimate test to see how I would fair against such a strong field and how well the recovery has progressed.

Even with a start time of 8:35am, the temperature was beginning to get uncomfortable at 30°C and it continued to soar reaching almost 35°C before our race was done so the bike was loaded with the extra drink bottle to ensure I had enough fluid to get through the 45 minutes + two laps.

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As mentioned, the make up of the field was dominated by A grade riders with only five B grade and two C grade riders filling out the field of 19. It was always going to be an A grade level contest from the moment the start list was posted on the WCMCC web site so the aim was to give it my best shot with an attack or two and if it payed off, great. And if not, trying to finish with the main field or be a part of the bunch sprint would the ultimate objective.

It was on from the starters gun with two A grade riders breaking away and my race plans were thrown out the window pretty quickly. The chase was certainly messy to say the least and was not particularly organised or forthcoming which appeared to completely upset a number of A grade riders who were keen to let the B and C grade riders know their thoughts. I had certainly been putting in significant effort to help with the chase (possibly to my detriment) so while it was not necessarily directed at me, it was hardly necessary lashing out at riders of lesser ability for their unwillingness to chase.

From my perspective, there was no willingness from anyone in the field to want to work together to bring the two riders back into the bunch. On two or three occasions I had found myself some 50m or more ahead of the main bunch trying to prevent the gap from increasing the 400m or so that it had become. On each occasion, I would eventually be drawn back into the field of stronger riders and I could feel that these chase efforts were working against me. I could not fathom that while there were two strong teams in the field (Keady Humble Tognini and Total Travel) there was no intent to chase down the break away, especially considering one of them was in one of the two teams.

The pace reflected the lack of chasing going on but eventually it picked up enough for two riders to bridge the gap and bring the break away back into the field at around the 25 minute mark of the race. I was on the verge of cooking if I didn't get the chance to recover somewhat so I could not counter-attack once the group was brought back in (as I had planned). In the end it appeared as I was not the only one not wanting to counter-attack as there was no attempt made and this seemed to spark a rally of abuse from a couple of A graders again directing their frustration at riders of lesser ability.

As far as any further attacks were concerned, there was little chance of them succeeding as the group seemed to be a little flustered from what had taken place so far. Attacks were certainly forthcoming but were not allowed to get away with most of the group electing to get out of the saddle and chase them down immediately thereby thwarting the chance of getting any gap on the field. As a result, the surging was incredibly intense with lap times ranging from as little as 00:02:37 (36.3 km/h) to 00:02:17 (41.6 km/h). The overall race average was only 38.7 km/h which was hardly fitting for a race dominated by A graders but it certainly felt like the pace was far more than this at the time - perhaps due to the heat and a bit of a breeze along the back of the course.

With the call for 2 laps to go, I was still in with the bunch and still managing to do my fair share of work at the front (come to think of it, I seemed to be out there quite often) which was beginning to take its toll. I had anticipated that the pace would pick up a little but the final lap only managed to reach a sprint peak of 56.4 km/h but this started very early at some 400 - 500 metres from the finish. When the sprint began to power up, I managed to get onto Doug Stewart's wheel and I held it for as long as I could but his sprint pace was incredible and he eventually got away from me. Other riders began to stream around me as we passed the 100m mark and I just couldn't seem to generate the power that the A grade riders were pumping out and crossed the line (still amongst it) in 12th place.

I was still happy with the result although perhaps a little less work on the front might have seen me finish inside the top 10. It was nice to have completed my objective to attack once or twice (even though they were brought back) and to finish with the main field in the final sprint and not be dropped. The recovery from over-reaching had been good but I don't believe I had the form that I had a couple of weeks ago so some serious training in the next two weeks should see me getting some, if not all, of that form back in time for the UCI event.

I didn't particularly enjoy this morning's race as I believe the "ugliness" that I witnessed was both uninviting in terms of joining the A grade ranks and also unnecessary and ill-directed. In my opinion, the riders serving up the abuse were equally as responsible for the lack of chasing and organisation within the group. It is hardly fair in races such as these to expect the lower grade riders to be be able to maintain the same power and strength that an A grade rider is capable of when it comes to chasing and counter-attacking.

While I certainly feel that I have the power back in my legs, my form has certainly dropped as reflected by my HR plot.

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The early break away got the heart rate up early and evidence of my first chase attempt can be seen at around the 3 minute mark. This was repeated at the 16 minute mark with the HR pushing into E4 for a good 4-5 minutes. At the 20 minute mark, the final chase was on and the HR climbed above 160 bpm where it pretty much stayed for the remainder of the race. A spike just short of 180 bpm (the highest I have seen it for some time) indicates the intensity of the final sprint.

The race average HR of 156 bpm shows that I have certainly lost the form I had up until two weeks ago so there will be some work to bring that back up and getting the HR under control again. I think this morning's race demonstrates what affect over-reaching can have on an athlete so it is important to incorporate the correct rest and recovery into the training program and stick to it. I still have some work to do to get the lost form back as the legs are now out-performing the HR and respiratory system at the moment but overall, I'm still happy with my performance this morning.