WCMCC Dog Hill Road Race - A Grade :: 26th May, 2013

Not my usual punctuality with my race report this week due to travel commitments so this post comes to you from Hong Kong and includes as much as I can remember about Sunday as I can. I warn that lap descriptions may be a little hazy so I will avoid trying to tell you what happened on a lap-by-lap basis and just point out the main events of the race. I certainly recall looking forward to getting down to Dog Hill and joining the other members of the Unicorn-Hall Cycing Team (men and women) and to finally get the chance to race alongside Brad for the first time at WCM.

I arrived early enough to get the usual registration process out of the way so I could focus on a warm up and get to the team discussion around our race plan. Our mens team would incorporate Paul Foxwell (who by all accounts was itching for a win), Chris Singleton, Pat Hayburn, Andrew Patterson and myself. Chris Roberts was hoping to join us after a visit to Champion Lakes for a time trial but time was not on his side and neither were the punctures. Craig Pennell was out of town at the time and was unable to join us.

Brad was on hand before the race and we had a brief strategy discussion (which will not be disclosed here) after which we fronted to the race referee in readiness for a start. Mal Miller (Glen Parker) decided he would not make an appearance until lap 2 of the race as he thought a longer warm up than usual was required. Not sure what you knew that we didn't, Mal?

I started at the front of the group and was keen to keep an eye on the rest of the peloton from there in case someone outside of Uincorn decided it would be a good idea to get some distance on us from the get-go. It didn't immediately eventuate and we got the the top of Dog Hill Rd as a single group and then the games began. Sam Smith was off and Pat was with him along with another rider to make up three riders to get an early break. We kept them in our sights for the duration of St Albans Rd and round the bend to Folly Rd when another two or three riders decided to go. From memory this group may have consisted of Vaugn Harvey and Ian Lyne (or maybe Colin Rose) but I do recall seeing AP latch on and go with them which meant we would have two riders up the road if they managed to bridge the gap.

The timing of the AP's bridging to the lead group was excellent as the chase group didn't seemed to be to motivated about bringing the lead riders back which to me was a little surprising given Sam Smith was up there with them and was more than capable of keeping the rest of us at bay if the other teams could not orchestrate an effort to bring them back. Clearly the Eddie Hollands team were not going to participate in such deeds and considering our Unicorn team had two riders up the road, neither were we.

Before long the second break group were up with the leaders and the gap seemed to be increasing. Chris Glasby from team Eddie Hollands (still back with us) showed some early signs of interest to try and get away. I anticipated that this was in an attempt to try and bridge the gap on his own to join Sam in the lead group and I, along with one or two others who also seemed to recognise this, looked to go with more than one of these attacks which were all brought back into the fold.

The average pace of the chase group was consistently over 40 km/h which I seemed to be able to keep up with (not bad coming off the flu) and as we approached the half way point of the race there had been little organisation among the other teams in an attempt to chase the leaders down. I'm not sure if this was due lack of intent from other teams or whether they were waiting for us and/or Brad (who was also still with us) to make a move.

Eventually, Doug Stewart must have rallied his troops in KHT to get to the front and work toward chasing down the leaders as three of the four remaining members of that team hit the front and began rolling turns in an effort to pick up the pace. I was near the front at this point and was more than happy to sit behind them and allow them to do the bulk of the work and would only take a turn if I thought the pace was picking up enough to threaten our two riders at the front indicating the chase needed to be disrupted a little.

Eventually additional independent riders made there way to the front to assist with the effort and I dropped back of the front to allow them to make their attempt to bring back a lead group that was now out of sight. At this stage, after he seemed to note the combined effort to work toward chasing the leaders down, Brad came up along side me and provided me with some advice on what would need to be done should the chase down be successful and I stored this plan in case it would need to be executed.

Eventually the attempt to chase down the leaders appeared to have been given up and the KHT riders removed themselves from the front of the group as we approached the bell ringer to signal the last lap. As we crested the small climb before the change in road surface at the east-bound end of Dog Hill Rd, another challenge came from Chris Glasby (if I recall correctly). Chris Singleton happened to be riding one wheel ahead of Brad and was given the push to go with the attack in case it proved to be successful. This seemed to last up until we received the bell at which point the two would-be challengers resigned to being reeled back.

It would now be more of a case of the chase group saving face and grappling for the last one or two paying places for which Doug Stewart decided to be a worthy cause and made one last-ditch effort early in the last lap to swing around the front riders and test them, which I suspect was more in an effort to see what Brad might be prepared to do. As I was the one on Doug's wheel at this time, I got the push from Brett Stapleton (in the HCT strip) to go with him. I was more than happy to co-operate and followed his wheel but refused to offer any level of assistance as I knew he was a stronger rider than I was.

The result saw Doug sit up and let the group latch back on. I was happy to remain at the front for the remainder of the last lap in an effort to keep Paul on my wheel and as fresh as possible for the last sprint effort to the finish. Either that or to cover any further attacks that might come throughout the final lap. There were one or two more final attempts to break away from the chase group, the final one coming from Mal Miller (who was a lap fresher than the rest of us due to his enthusiastic warm up - no offence Mal) and he managed to keep a gap on us for the best part of Young Rd and into the first section of Dog Hill Rd.

It seemed evident that no-one wanted to chase Mal down and eventually I found myself awarded the task to put the effort in and I caught him as he crossed the small bridge on the first left hand turn. We held a slender gap on the field which we both knew would be unlikely to be held and we were brought back in as we crested the small rise before the road swept around to the north where the pace picked up and riders jostled for position near the front.

As we entered the second last straight stretch of road that would lead to the final bend before the sprint finish, Chris Glasby made another move which sparked an all out bunch initiative to keep the stronger contenders within firing distance. Chris was pulled back almost immediately by Paul Foxwell and Brad Hall as the two hard men fired an arsenal of weaponry at each other in the approach to the finish line where Brad was able to pinch 7th place just ahead of his valiant trainee.

But of course, the race had been played out well before those two arrived at the finish line and while the line honours eventually went to the stronger sprinter of the lead group in Sam Smith, the Unicorn team were able to hold on to 2nd and 3rd places thanks to AP and Pat respectively. Unfortunately I have no knowledge of what played out in the lead group, nor by how much Sam took the win but the results for the day were ones that the team can be proud of in just about every respect.

While I report one my perspective of the day's events, there would be two things that I would be happy to receive appropriate commentary on in response to this post. The first being an insider's view on how things worked in the lead group and the second being the reason for Brad taking the honours over Paul. Was it a status issue where Brad could not be seen to be out-sprinted by one of his "underlings" or was it an honest effort thanks to the rivalry between himself and his knowledge of Paul's sprinting ability? Either way, I had personally exploded earlier in the sprint and was content to watch it all unfold but I would certainly have liked to have been in a position to have been able to lead Paul out to a stronger sprint effort that may just have seen him out-do the Boss, but the efforts in the final lap were just a little to much for me.

All in all, it was one of the most enjoyable races I have had the pleasure of being a part of. With a strong contingency representing the team, it made for some great tactical racing opportunities and a display of strong efforts from all of us. I couldn't have been more proud of the work that each of us put in and to have our illustrious leader in the mix (even if he was riding for a different "team") was a fantastic experience ... for me at least.

It was a little disappointing not to have been able to stay on after the race to be a part of the atmosphere during the presentations and to hear the results of the women's team race, but external duties called and I had to depart. The photos of the two teams together at the end look great (see the Unicorn-Hall Cycling Team's Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unicorn-Hall-Cycle-Racing/151791924994425.

As for me, I've got some final work-related duties to attend to tomorrow and then it's off to experience some racing of a different kind at the world-renouned Happy Valley Racecourse here in Hong Kong. Should be a great evening of punting!!

All the best to the team members who will be making the annual pilgrimage to Kalgoorlie at the weekend for the Goldfields Cyclassic. As much as I will be enjoying the comforts of happy hour by the pool at our Thailand hotel while you guys will be sweating it out and suffering inexplicable pain, I will still have a fleeting moment of yearning to be there amongst it ... perhaps.

Thanks for reading and Go Unicorns!!

29th May, 2013 - Update

With many thanks to AP, I can provide his perspective on the breaks that got away from the main group and how it unfolded up the road. Fantastic to have this detail to outline what happened in both groups throughout the race.

"The winning break was actually startedby Pat (inadvertently). He was moving up the outside to get a position closer to the front and this seemed to be the catalyst for Sam to jump away. I’m not sure if he thought Pat was making a move, or whether it was something more instinctive. I asked him about it later, and he said he had planned to jump early to give Glasby a bit of a break, and also to test himself after a crash the previous Thursday.

"Anyway, i watched Sam accelerate away with Pat sitting pretty comfortable on his wheel, pretty happy knowing that Pat wouldn’t help and that the two of them would probably come back eventually.

"The second move came from Ian Lynne, and this was a bit more serious, because that man will pull all day and not play games – just the guy for a long break. He didn’t get up to the leaders straight away and i wasn’t sure if he was going to make it at first. Pat said later that Sam eased up to let him on, no doubt seeing the value in having Ian in the break.

"At this point, Brad moved to the front of the group and picked up the pace a little, just enough to make further breaks difficult, but not enough to start pulling things back together. This was a tactic i had seen him use in crits when he wants a break to succeed. Within seconds i heard someone winding up behind me, so pulled out of the line and latched on to Vaughn as he launched. Brad yelled something as i went past but didn’t really catch it.

"While i wanted to get across, i didn’t particularly want Vaughn in the break, so when i saw we weren’t being chased, i attacked him and hauled myself over solo. I think this would have worked, but Colin (KD Cycles) had just got across to Vaughn at this point, and the two of them worked their way across a couple of minutes later. When they got there, i wasn’t expecting company and had a moment’s disappointment that we had just been caught by the bunch.

"From then on we all worked well together for the most part with a bit of niggling between Sam and Vaughn regarding the niceties of riding in a 6 man  break but otherwise everyone pulling well together. Vaughn did start to skip the odd turn on the last two laps, and i thought he was setting himself up for something – turns out he was absolutely stuffed and pulling with everything he had.

"Sam was obviously the one to beat to the line, but i wasn’t sure how Pat was feeling, or how strong the others would prove in the sprint. Pat kicked things off by jumping away on the little climb on Doghill, with Sam jumping across and me locked to his wheel. In hindsight, this would have been the perfect spot for me to attack and make Sam kick again with Pat on his wheel. The moment was lost however, and the other three riders soon came back to us with all together on the final left hander.

"As i was staying hard on Sam’s wheel, i got swamped by the others as we approached the final right hander, and rather than getting locked in, i jumped early across the apex of the corner, staying hard on the right so Sam would have to cross over the catch my wheel. As it turned out, he had enough time to get around me and take a well deserved win.

"It was certainly one of the best races i’ve been in, especially knowing we could commit to the break knowing that the rest of the team would be sitting in and either setting up for the bunch kick, or waiting to launch a counterattack."