Pickering Brook Remains The Bane of My Cycling Life :: 12th Aug, 2012

I officially retain my attitude that Pickering Brook holds a certain level of disdain toward me! It's a course that has always troubled me and today was no different. Throw in some bad weather, too much work on the bike yesterday morning and a band of teenagers in the B grade ranks and it adds up to a day of pain and suffering on a course that knows how to dish it out. But none of that stopped me from enjoying the morning's racing and I will steel my resolve to continue working on improving my efforts amongst the open B grade ranks.

As much as my performance this morning was not at its best, it was another day from which I have taken a number of achievements that I am happy with. I recall my step up from C grade to B grade with WCMCC and with this morning being my first venture into the open B grade ranks, I found that the change from C grade to B grade this time was a bigger step. It was also the first open event I have done that included two events in one morning with an ITT preceding the road race.

The time trial ahead of the road race was one lap around the Pickering Brook course and the signs were there that the road race was not going to be an easy one and that the course was still something that troubles me as a cyclist. I did not approach the TT with any committed, strong effort as I wanted to concentrate on the road race and preserve my energies for that event and as a result, I completed the TT in just over 13 minutes. I felt there was a certain level of heaviness in the legs from yesterday morning sensing I was not in my best form and that the road race might be a difficult one to complete.

Conditions were not the best for road racing but I was happy that the venue was not Wandi given it's record for punctures in wet weather (proven again this morning with a reported 13 punctures across the grades at WCMCC). It wasn't as cold as it has been through the previous winter months and the ITT had proven that it was relatively easy to keep warm so (like last week at Pinjarra) it was only the arm warmers on for extra protection against the elements.

I rolled up to the Commissaire with Dylan and Matt and it wasn't long before were were confronted with a plethora of youthful looking faces with a level of "cockiness" amongst them. I think with the Master's riders moving up to ride with A grade, they felt this would be a good opportunity to take control of the race and dominate. As we were released onto the course it was clear that this was going to be the case with five of the younger riders hitting their straps and leading out strongly from the word "go".

The first 25 minutes of the race were of a high pace for the course. At an average of 37 km/h it was not a pace that I was used to and it had me working from the outset. The initial climb up Repatriation Rd from Piesse Gully is the one part of the course that I have difficulty with and it proved to be problematic this morning once again and I struggled to keep in touch with the lead riders each time we rode through the segment. By the third lap the pressure was still being applied and the peloton was torn apart rapidly with a string of riders between the lead group, which appeared to be about 6 riders (from my view) and the group that I remained with which was also made up of about 6 riders.

Matt and Dylan had managed to get amongst the lead riders (or there-abouts) and I was a little disappointed that I was not in a position to be able to have gone with them and remain in touch with the main group. Our group of 6 riders had suddenly become 3 in a very short period of time as another three riders dropped off yet we were still working together reasonably well to maintain some momentum. We began to pick up a few more riders, including Matt, that had also dropped of the main group. I was surprised to see Matt dropping off the pace and even more surprised to notice that he was not keeping with our small group and eventually pulled out of the race (Dylan said to me after the race that he had been suffering with the flu).

Eventually, our small group was back to 6 riders and we remained that strong for all but the last two laps of the race with riders slowly dropping off the back as we tried to maintain a steady pace. Four riders remained as we received the bell, including one of the Masters 1-3 group however he too dropped off the bunch as we turned off Repatriation Rd and onto Pickering Brook Rd for the last time leaving just myself and two other riders in the same team kit (Total Triathlon?). It was definitely two against one and I was not in a hurry to offer them any assistance by taking a turn at the front until we made our final assault on the up-hill run to the finish.

The two of them appeared to be jousting with each other a little in the down hill run past the primary school and I was happy to let them carry on and sat in to watch. As we passed the Patterson Rd turn off and headed straight on up the hill to the U-turn point, the two of them split and I found myself having to come around the second of them in order to keep in touch with the first of them. I wasn't sure if this was a ploy to try and flush me out and double-team my effort to the line but I had to be sure that neither of them were able to get to much of a gap on me.

As we rounded the turn to head for home, the first of the two riders had opened up roughly 20m on me and the second rider was still on my wheel and now appeared to be using my momentum to keep in touch. We passed Patterson Rd again and I sensed that the rider behind me was now beginning to struggle to keep the pace so I jumped on the pedals and got out of the saddle to make up the remaining ground on the first rider before we hit the final rise to the finish.

I was able to continue my momentum I had built and came around the rider for my last ditch effort up the hill to the line. I was well clear of any challenge and crossed the line with roughly a 5-10 metre gap on them. I was really suffering by the time I had crossed the line as I had throughout the most part of the entire race. I certainly wasn't prepared for such a large step-up from C grade to B grade and my performance revealed this quite a bit.

I had managed to attain my two best times around the circuit which shows that I have certainly improved my ability to tackle the course but I still hold a certain feeling of inadequacy for it in general. However, I still enjoyed the race. I appreciated the work I had to do just to complete the race and fully understand that I have a lot of work to do to be able to be competitive at this level on courses such as this.

My legs were very heavy today and I could sense that I would have problems based on how I felt in the time trial before the race. I could certainly attribute a good part of this to yesterday morning's fast ride with Garland Group 1, but I think my lack of preparedness for this step up to B grade also caught me off guard.

For now, I look forward to some hard training over the next two weeks before getting back into race mode for a hit out with WCMCC up at Neerabup. I am undecided about whether I will make another step up and venture into A grade or whether I allow myself to build up to it and ride B grade once again. Time, fitness and the numbers from my power meter will tell.

Before I sign off, I wanted to mention that it was great to see AP back into racing this morning competing in the Masters 1-3 category. Hopefully his time off the bike has not set him back too far and he will be back to his full strength soon. I look forward to the opportunity to race with him again soon (assuming I can keep with him long enough).

Thanks for reading.