It's unusual for me to take so long to write up a race report and I'd usually not bother if I can't manage to get it done the night after the event, but there is no way I could let this one go. The guys from ATTA once again held "the Gents" 2-up Time Trial down at Mundijong and this year, I was invited to ride with John Sonego. I was really honoured to have been asked given his experience with time trials and his dossier of impressive results. Even though this event clashed with the Spring Classic held by Peel Districts Cycle Club and West Coast Masters, there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to ride "the Gents" with John.
I had warned John that he should be fully aware that I would be riding the event on the Venge and not a TT bike because, as most of those who know me would know, I don't have one. I remembered from the previous year's event with Alan Flanders that there were a number of riders that were on road bikes so figured I would not be out of place too badly. What I hadn't considered, of course, was that it could well be very different this year and everyone would be riding TT bikes. Bang on. We arrived at Mundijong and there was more "aero" there than you could find in a Nestlé chocolate factory. I recall experiencing that horrendous sinking feeling you get when you know you're out of your league and you're about to get smashed.
All I could do was keep a straight face and muster up as much confidence as I could and there is no better way to do that than to get on your bike and ride. It certainly helped as we rolled out along Mundijong Rd and picked up the pace a couple of times to stretch out the legs. However, the more warming up we did the more I realised that John Sonego doesn't lose much strength and fitness when he is off the bike for an extended period of time. Uh-oh, here comes that sinking feeling again, and to make it worse, we were a couple of places ahead of Trent Derecourt so it would be interesting to see how long we could hold him off for. I was expecting perhaps half a lap!
We rolled up to the starting point among some familiar faces that I knew were fantastic time trial riders and felt a little out of place, especially rolling up on the Venge. But at that point I somehow managed to ignore the feelings of inadequacy and began to focus on the job at hand. All I had to do was keep up with John and ride as hard as I could for the duration of the 28km course and hope that I would be there with him at the end (alive would also be helpful). I had offered to do as much work on the front as I could but John was happy to do the bulk of the work which kind of made sense given the difference in equipment.
So we were off with numbers 99 and 100 pinned to our backs and our first roll up Kargotich Rd was somewhat with the wind allowing us to get up to and beyond our prescribed average pace of 42.5 km/h. Hitting this pace so early into any event really makes my legs hurt and the lungs scream for oxygen and I was hit with the mental game pretty much straight away: "How the hell am I going to hold this kind of pace for 28km?".
We hit the first turn off Kargotich Rd and into the long back straight of Leipold Rd (cornering quite nicely I might add) and the memory of this stretch last year came flooding back but the problem was, there was a wind directly behind us that was missing this year. In fact, we were now riding into it. John was holding a line straighter than a precision tooled arrow with me acting like a wagging tail right behind him. This action was throwing me in and out of the head wind a bit forcing me to use a little more energy that I liked so I focused on John's back wheel and tried to hold his line as best I could. This worked well and I seemed to be in his slipstream enough to acquire my second wind and find a solid rhythm.
As we approached the end of Leipold Rd, I was feeling strong and sensed that our pace had dropped a little. I figured John might have been tiring a little considering he had done all the work on the front thus far and while he had not yet signalled his need to recover, I came around anyway in an effort to keep the pace up and provide John with some respite from the wind. This lasted about 1 minute before my upright cycling position into the wind began to take it's toll and as we hit the corner I kept it tight allowing John the option of coming around. As he came by he was hammering it and I suddenly found myself off his wheel and a 5 metre gap had opened. I had to muster a strong effort to close this gap and get back to his wheel.
We had to maintain this effort to keep our speed up along King Rd as it was still into the south westerly wind that was continuing to blow with consistency. I recall the legs were hurting pretty badly at this point and there were a number of times that I struggled to keep up with John as he powered into the wind. I was desperate to get to the turn into Mundijong Rd for the first time and feel the wind to my back and immediately felt the relief in the legs as we rounded the corner.
However, this was only short lived as it was this stretch along Mundijong Rd that we needed to up the pace above and beyond 45 km/h if we wanted to counter the the slip of speed into the wind along Leipold and King Roads. We were into the 48-50 km/h zone pretty quickly which kept the hurt going and I began to realise that time trial riders have a fantastic ability to shut out the pain and ride through it. I searched for a means to do the same and switched my mind into the same mode I use during some of the hurt locker sessions we have on Tuesday mornings although I would need to be able to maintain this block on the pain and still focus on John's back wheel at the same time.
It was clearly working as I was able to come around (not easy to do when your doing nearly 50km/h) for another turn on the front as we continued down Mundijong Rd. We still had a while to go before reaching Kargotich Rd turn off again so I held my turn for as long as I could in order to afford John some recovery time as I would expect he would want to do as much work as possible again into the wind. He switched back to the front and we rounded the turn into Kargotich Rd to begin our assault on the last lap of the course.
Kargotich Rd would be the last respite from the wind until we reached the back end of Mundijong Rd. I was tiring a little at this stage and was not really looking forward to pushing through up Leipold Rd again but then I realised that Trent had not yet passed us and I could see riders up the road with numbers in the 90's which meant we were catching people ahead of us. This seemed to strengthen my commitment to the event and keep the power on for this last lap and through to the finish. My average power at this stage was registering around 320 watts but seemed to be falling so I was keen to try and keep it up as high as possible until the finish. All of this seemed to help get me through.
As we approached the turn into King Rd once more, I sensed the pace had slipped a little and I attempted to come around John for another turn on the front but I struggled with this and I realised the pace had not slipped as much as I thought and I was attempting to come around at about 41 km/h into the wind. It hurt pretty bad so I had to slip back into John's slip stream and felt a little dismayed for not being able to do some work on the front and give John a little time to recover.
John continued to with his super-human effort into the wind as we pushed down King Rd for the last time and I stuck with his pace but with significant effort. The turn out of King Rd and onto Mundijong Rd with our noses pointing to the finish line got the wind behind us and the pace picked up to 45 km/h. With less than 1km completed into this stretch, Trent finally came around us but not before we had passed 3 or 4 pairs that had started ahead of us. I was really pleased that we were able to hold Trent off for as long as we did but the pace he was pushing would see him amazingly finish some 4 minutes ahead of us.
I think we were both tiring now and I figured that I would leave some in the tank to finish off strongly as it was on my time that our result would hinge (I was the "Gent"). John was still holding a solid pace along Mundijong Rd and we were able to keep very close to our intended 42.5 km/h. We reached the cross-road with Kargotich Rd which signified 3km to go. This was motivating as it meant the pain would not last too much longer and we could ease off and recover. I moved up closer to John and yelled "3 to go, lets push hard" and the pace rose back up to our peak. With about 500m to go, I figured it was appropriate to shave as many seconds off our overall time as I could and hit the gas to get the pace up around 50km/h until the line. I was surprised to be able to do this given the fatigue I was feeling and John kept with this last burst of pace very well and we finished the event on 40 minutes and 18 seconds (42.3 km/h).
Based on fastest times for pairs, we finished 8th overall while considering standard times, we managed to complete "the Gents" in 17th position. Individually we finished 20th and 21st out of a total of about 100 riders. Solid results considering the mix of TT bike and a straight up roadie.
I was incredibly impressed with the ride that John put together here and caught a glimpse of his ability to ride an amazingly strong time trial. I fear that had the course been longer, I would really have struggled to stay with him. For John to ride this strong with the best part of his winter off the bike was outstanding and a credit to his strength both physically and mentally. It was a definite privilege to have had the chance to ride with him this year and, as with Alan for the same event last year, it will be a ride I will remember well not only for the pain, but for the respect I gained for my riding partner.
I'd be more than happy to ride with John again next year but I truly hope that I would be able to complete it on a TT bike. John offered me the chance to get the feel of a TT bike after the race and I was completely surprised with how well I fit the Cervelo P3 and how easy it was to kick up a speed of 50km/h and hold it there. The riding position would certainly take some getting used to as would the bike handling but I'm now seriously keen to give a go.
Thanks for the invitation to ride with you in this year's Gents, John. It was a fantastic experience.
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