Short, fast and hard. Three simple words to describe this morning's WCM Criterium at Wangara. Being my first time on that course, I didn't have much of an idea of what to expect. This was also my first Criterium for the season given my decision to pull out of the Kings of Wanneroo event last Sunday due to bad weather conditions so I was hoping for a good hit out to kick start my venture into A grade Criterium racing. As soon as I arrived I knew that I was not going to be disappointed given the large number of riders lining up to register - most of them the usual A grade suspects.
I met up with AP while I waited for registration and neither of us had expected the other to arrive today so we threw together a rough plan to hopefully try and get me to the front of the group for the sprint. Given the strength of the field, I was more hoping that I could hold on well enough to even honour the arrangement let alone hammer out a sprint at the end as my week leading up to this morning had not been great performance-wise.
I had coped well enough with our group training session around the river on Tuesday morning with Henry Morley (in Brad's absence) which maintained a great pace and incorporated some hard sprints at the usual locations, but I began to show some signs of sluggishness on Thursday morning. This came to a head on Friday with a 1 hour session of E2 (as done the previous Friday) which turned into a 1 hour session of E3 and a massive 20% drop in power. To say I was not feeling great is a bit of an understatement.
So I rode out a couple of laps of the course with AP allowing me to familiarise myself with the track and of course to warm up before the start. As we joined the rest of the now 39 strong A grade field, I bumped into Mal Miller who offered me some encouragement after he asked how I was feeling and I returned the honest truth.
As we were given the all clear to go we hit the course with just 10 seconds until the first attack and the pace was up to well over 40km/h and remained there for the first 5 laps before the pace settled back to around the 40 km/h mark. We had a couple of riders off the front during this phase and I wanted to offer as much as I could to bring them back and did a little work at the front of the chase. The group rode very well and it seems everyone was in the same frame of mind in regard to breaks from the group.
I wasn't able to keep to the front for long and I dropped back into the thick of the field but worked enough to ensure that I did not drop back past 20th wheel to avoid having to work too hard to get back to the front should the group split up. AP was working very well and by the end of the race he will have put in far more than his fair share of work at the front. He's a solid rider in these situations and can certainly hold it with the best of them and put the necessary pressure on them to keep them honest.
At this point, I recollected what Brad had been teaching us during Tuesday session sprint training and I began to sit in to help conserve the energy I would need to try and compete the sprint and respect the effort that AP was putting in to help get me there. The wind was blowing up from the south so we were riding into it along the back of the course. It would hit hardest as the group came out to the top of the back straight so I looked for wheels to sit behind to help break the headwind up a bit. This certainly helped as I often found the front riders would fatigue a little and ease up on the pace a bit to recover.
It was not to long before the strongest attack came taking numerous riders with it and gaining a good 200m or more on the main field. The group did not seem to phased by this attempt and the teams in the peloton were well organised enough to want to chase this break away down before the end of the race. Again, everyone worked well throughout this phase and we managed to bring the riders back bit-by-bit as individual riders in the break popped and dropped back to the main field.
With the 45 minutes up and the "2 to go" being shown, we had the last of the break in our sights and had them back into the fold just after the bell. As expected the pace really kicked up and riders began to jostle for position. As we hit the roundabout at the top of the home straight, I was back on AP's wheel but we were both squeezed to the kerb on the exit island of the roundabout and I would guess that we both came within millimetres of hitting the tarmac - hard. We both regrouped but had to put the power on up the remainder of the small rise to the back straight and into the wind for the last time.
Thankfully the group had eased off the pace a fraction which allowed AP to claw his way back to about 15th wheel with me hot on his six. Mal Miller had come up along side in an effort to also offer me some assistance getting to the sprint. Unfortunately we were squeezed again, this time on the second last corner and both Mal and I were forced to the outside of the course and just missed the kerbing yet again resulting in me losing AP's wheel and about 8 places in the field.
I worked hard to put enough pace on as we descended to the last corner. I found AP's wheel again but his pace was not matching those of the front riders (I think the work he had done throughout the race had caught up with him a bit) so I had to search for other wheels to go with. By this point, a small gap had opened between my position and the front 15 or so riders so it was clear that my participation at the head of the sprint finish was written off so I put as much power on as I could to cross the gap and take as many places as I could before the finish. This half-effort found me at 15th wheel as I crossed the line for the last time. Not quite the sprint finish I was hoping for which is a shame as the legs were more than feeling up to it and as Mal posted later today on Stava, "I don't like finishing with gas in the tank and a mediocre placing". I know how he feels.
I am learning an astonishing amount from my ventures into A grade racing and today was no different other than learning more about Crit racing. The pace is hard from the outset (harder than B grade) and you simply cannot afford to lose places and fall toward the back of the field. The effort required to get back to the front can be draining and I was happy to have had Brad's advice in my head on this. He has always told me that position is everything and he was able to provide me with some sound post-race advice regarding positioning in the last lap which I hope to put into practice next week at Kewdale.
It was a very strong field of riders today and I was happy that I was able to regain the form needed to keep with the pace. While I may not have done as much work as AP or Mal for the duration of the event, I was happy with the fact that my role was to ride smart enough to conserve enough energy to be able to contend the sprint. Something I am confident I could have done had my positioning not been interfered with. Lessons well learned.
I look forward to getting back out to Kewdale next Sunday, a course which I am fond of and I am more than happy to now add Wangarra to that list. I enjoyed the rolling nature of the course along with the width of the road and the pace that it allows the group to maintain - even with a bit of wind.
Thanks for reading and as always, see you out there.
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