With some valuable lessons learnt from Race #1 of the SPR/RCCC Summer Criterium Series, I was heading into this race well armed with knowledge, but I feared that my on-bike fitness was lacking due to a week of beach running (bumming) in Byron Bay, an exercise that had resulted in some pretty nasty delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Either way, I was still keen to brave the field and get down to Technology Park to join Leonie Burford for a good bit of B grade (A grade for her) racing.
C grade seemed to punch out yet another fast race which once again set the scene for some solid racing finishing with some frantic sprints for the line. With C grade nearly half way through their race, Lones was itching for a warm up so we hit the tarmac and rolled out a few kilometres before making our way down to the line. Laura Trott and Dani King were both signed in for another event but this time it would not be all about their presence as the arrival of Melissa Hoskins from Orica-GreenEdge would certainly make it interesting. I still had my money on Lones to punch out a strong race but she wasn't so sure.
At the starter's gun we were warned of a cherry picker that had been dumped on Sarich Way just before the turn back onto Brodie Hall Drive. We took the first lap reasonably easy in order to determine how best to navigate the machine and the following corner. The result was like a nasty chicane ending in a tighter than usual turn into Brodie Hall Drive forcing the field to thin out into a long ribbon and pushing the power output well up. It would certainly be a race for the stronger riders thanks to this particular obstacle.
Of course it also provided a logical place to attack the field so being at the front of the group and maintaining an attacking position would be vital to win the racing today. Unbeknown to me, the sking vs tarmac action had already started with a crash occurring on the relaxed first lap taking out as many as 5 riders. I only learnt about this from AP after the race but it was not surprising given the jostling for position amongst the group as we crested the rise on Brodie Hall Drive and descended down to the turn into Sarich Way. Due to the unusual obstacle on course, riders were as keen as ever to be at the front of the field in an effort to avoid the accordion-effect on the group as it snaked its way through the chicane.
I made every effort to get myself to the front of the field and avoid the surging but I was only able to do this for the first two laps before the lack of training through the week began to catch up with me and I slowly but surely lost power and found myself being worked to the back of the field. With not much more than 10 minutes of the race already behind us, I was beginning to feel the demands on the legs far outweighing the available power and a gap had formed between me and the back of the main field. This was partially due to getting mixed up with a number of riders being spat out the back of the field and ultimately pulling out of the race.
At some time around the 15 minute mark, new HCT inductee Anthony Minchin had a near miss forcing him off the course at the turn into Sarich Way. This was a result of some careless riding which did not seem to be uncommon during this event resulting in the earlier crash and finishing the race with a rider going down heavily during the sprint for the line.
Just over 17 minutes down and whatever fuel I had in the tank had been fully depleted and the elastic holding me to the back of the field snapped as I crossed the line for the 11th time. My final (12th) lap had absolutely nothing worth writing about and quite simply had me second-guessing whether or not I should be riding B grade at all while experiencing a lack of form and working through a rebuild phase of my training. I am strong enough to warrant being there and I put this week's lack of power down to a horribly wanting preparation throughout the week coupled with a lack of carbs and little sleep the night before - hardly conducive to good performance.
The B grade field was whittled down very quickly and they kept dropping well after my exit from the race. Even Lones had found the going a little tough and pulled off the course only a few minutes after my departure leaving it to Melissa Hoskins to dispense with Dani and Laura respectively. With a much smaller field remaining with two laps to go, MMCT's very own Matt Miller was proving that his drop down to B grade might just give him a win (note that we do not call this sandbagging unless MM agrees to it, right MM). The final lap had it come down to an all out sprint between two of the best in the grade, Matt Miller and Ben Wibberley with Ben getting position on Matt's wheel leading up to the line allowing him to jump at the right time and come around for the win. Having had the pleasure of sprinting against Matt before, I expect the win would not have been an easy one.
The trend continued for the A grade event with riders dropping out of the race left, right and centre - including AP and Andy Williams. You certainly couldn't blame them considering the line up for this week's race including the Meyer brothers and team mate Luke Durbridge, Brad Linfield, Andrew Martin and a good showing from Arbitrage, Eddy Hollands and Plan B, including HCT's very own XO, Henry Morley showing great strength to finish 4th behind 3rd place Andrew Martin and 1st and 2nd place Travis and Cameron Meyer respectively.
The next event in the series is not until February 10th, 2013 so hopefully I can find and regain some form before then. Perhaps this might come from a few time trials and some Masters crits throughout January - and some solid trainging of course. I wasn't completely disappointed with the result given my lack of prep and in a way I was probably happy to have avoided some of the cut-throat and reckless riding that seemed to be going on.
Looking forward to getting back to some more sane racing with West Coast Masters.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for reading.
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