Dog Hill was the second of three longer races for the WCMCC 2013 Road Race calendar with 100km of racing scheduled for the day's event. And along with good results, the learning experiences continue to come at a bewildering rate. It's important to note at this level that the individuality in racing that I used to know when competing in C and B grades has completely gone by the way side and the team unit is King when it comes to riding in A grade events. I've heard people suggest that any B grader can ride A grade if their fitness is there but I'm not sure that this applies any more. Yes, you can ride A grade if you want but the complexity of A grade Masters racing has seriously changed and while I can only comment on this from an observational perspective of early A grade racing, I doubt there would be many that would argue the fact that it might not be what it used to be.
The Unicorn-Hall team had discussed plans earlier in the week to dominate the race from the start which incorporated me putting the pressure on with an immediate attack. It would test the group to see what they were prepared to let happen in regard to our team getting early breaks. The move involved counter-measures as part of the plan that I'm not prepared to divulge here, but it seemed the mindset of the main bunch was to not let Team Unicorn-Hall establish an early dominance of the race. As I jumped from the very beginning, there was no-one prepared to come with me initially and I managed to establish a short gap from two or three riders that demonstrated an interest in going and a couple of hundred metres on the rest of the field.
I was able to maintain the gap for no more than a few kilometres into the race before the main group had decided to bring it all back together. But this attempted break seemed to set the pace for the race as it was maintained at 40.5km/h for the duration. Pat moved to the front of the field and maintained position there for a couple of laps before he, Chris Glasby and Andrew Simpson managed to establish a gap on the field that slowly but surely put enough distance to have them disappear up the road. The trio would work together to maintain a good distance on the field right through to the last lap which made for an absolutely fantastic finish.
Back in the bunch, our team were keen to keep a reasonable pace that would be enough to make the field work and wear down some of the riders but more so to keep the stronger riders in check and prevent them from making an effort to get across to the breakaway. AP had been doing a great job to keep Sam Smith in check before the three man break got away at which point he and Sam moved to the front where AP covered a few of Sam's half-efforts to test the group's interest in him.
Sam probably figured that we were not keen to let him attempt to bridge the gap without at least one Unicorn-Hall rider going with him and he moved back into the bunch to conserve energy. I had been riding with Paul during this time and also attempting to conserve my own energy reserves to ensure I was able to be there for a solid lead out with the rest of the team in the bunch final or to launch an immediate counter-attack if the break was brought back in.
There weren't many riders in the main field who were interested in taking a Unicorn-Hall rider with them across the gap to the leaders so the main field remained a single unit for the duration of the remainder of the race. We always managed to have at least one of our team, normally Singo or Chris, on or near the front to cover any moves that might eventuate and to maintain a pace that was still high but not enough to bring back the leaders into the group. If that was to happen, it would need to happen from another team other than ours or EHBS. Singo and Chris worked tirelessly at or near the front for the entire race with only a few breaks back in the field to recover. AP always seemed to be present at the crucial times and was able to cover just about any attack from the main bunch.
With Paul maintaining a position in the middle of the bunch, he was able to conserve energy by keeping on the wheels of other riders so I was not overly concerned about staying one wheel ahead of him but certainly ensured that I was never too far away from him whether it be ahead of him, aside him or just behind him and would jump on his wind-ward side if he move to the side of the bunch. Sam seemed reasonably quiet for the majority of the race once the break had gone and offered nothing to suggest that he was about to make any attempt to jump any time soon.
As the race continued to play out without much happening in the main field, I began to anticipate something happening from one of the stronger riders who fancied themselves to get a second break going. While Sam was still not showing any sign of jumping, I maintained a position on his wheel that would allow me to go with anything he (or anyone else) attempted so that Paul could remain well protected within the group. With two laps to go and on our approach to St Albans Rd, the group seemed to get nervous and the front of the group thinned out into a long ribbon which seemed to afford Sam the room to move and as he rounded the corner to begin the short climb at the beginning of St Albans Rd, he put the gas on and launched an attack.
I was in the best position to go with him and immediately jumped with him. His move up the hill was strong and he managed to get a few metres on me before I was able to really get going but kept him in reasonably close quarters as we crested the top of the rise. I knew I had him covered if he wanted to continue the pressure and I kept the gap to just a couple of wheel lengths. Sam only looked back once to realise he was not going to get away without dragging another Unicorn-Hall rider with him and gave me a quick smile to acknowledge my presence. At this point, another rider had joined us to create a trio and I was happy to sit behind both him and Sam and let them continue any work and drag me along. Sam eventually sat up, perhaps realising he was not going to get any help and the remainder of the group engulfed us again, but Sam was keen to remain closer to the front where I let AP keep a check on him and I moved back to find Paul.
As we approached the start/finish line for the second last time to receive our bell, we were tangled up with the C+D grade event who were now on their last lap and a surge for the finish. There was one rider who had managed to put a 5 second gap on the main C grade bunch and as we rounded the long sweeping left hand corner that took us back into a northerly direction, the sole rider had voiced his intention to come around us and we maintained our position to the left of the road. This was a short lived burst and I believe a bit of a tactical one to put other riders between him and the main field. As our pace was significantly higher than his, we came around him again and our group cleared him before he finished (5 seconds ahead of his field).
This had us on our last lap and we began to organise our team unit into our lead-out train with Singo, Chris and AP on the front and rolling turns to balance the load. I was initially behind my team mates and attempted to slip in behind the Fox to protect his wheel and to maintain my energy for the final 800m-300m lead-out to deliver Paul to his explosive finish. Unfortunately, Doug Stewart was in no mood for letting anyone else into his position in the bunch and put a hand out to prevent my dropping in so I was not able to get behind Paul to protect his wheel. I immediately moved up and sat myself ahead of him and allowed AP to move ahead of me.
The train was set and we did our best to maintain the formation as best we could but as we crested the rise at the top of St Albans Rd and put our faces into the wind, we began to get a lot of riders attempting to disrupt our formation and hold on the front of the group. The Total Travel team had been doing a lot of work throughout the race and made their best efforts to get around us as AP called for us to form an echelon across the road and into the wind. It's possible they saw this as a potential blocking manoeuvre and I noticed at least one red jersey swing up the under-side of the echelon and over the top of it before disrupting our formation by splitting it in two.
This seemed to throw a little confusion amongst the entire front of the field and we were not able to get our formation back again until we reach the Dog Hill Rd turn. Things got a little messed up as we made our way down Young Rd and a small group of riders, including Sam, made an attempt to get a gap on the field. I was keen to stop this from happening but got the call from Singo to remind me that it wasn't my job so I dropped back to Paul and maintained my position ahead of him. Doug was still glued to his wheel so I was completely mindful of this.
As we did get back into something that resembled our initial formation, I was off to the wind-ward side of Paul to help break his cross-wind and give him an easier ride through to the top of the small rise on Dog Hill Rd ahead of the sweeping left-hander that would give us a tail wind. By the time we had reached this point, Singo, Chris and AP had been setting a cracking pace with the speedo consistently reaching 50km/h. Things began to get really prickly at this stage and with Singo and Chris having done their job, the manoeuvring for position was getting to the point of intimidation as Martin Depiazzi moved in on my position crashing into my handle-bars and shoulders to get the best possible approach to the finish. Unfortunately, Martin carries a bit more weight than I do and I had no choice but to end up in the wind at which point he moved ahead of me. My mistake here was probably not to use him to get back ahead of Paul and alleviate AP who had been working hard in the final lead out role.
Before I was able to counter the push, I was overtaken by a number of other riders and began searching for a gap to find my way back to Paul. Unfortunately the time in the wind and the effort to get back amongst the leaders had taken its toll and I wasn't able to assist with the final lead out. AP had tired by now and Paul had to switch to the back of Sam in order to time his jump. I was also surprised to see the three man break only seconds ahead of us. According to Pat, they had been jostling for the best position and moment to make their move and when they saw the group coming at them like a freight train, they immediately jumped with Pat managing to take the win over Chris and Andrew (in that order) and 3 seconds ahead of a flying Paul Foxwell who had managed to build on the pace at which we delivered him and jump around to take the group sprint.
So even though we were not able to reform our positions at the front of the group for some time, we were still effective in conserving Paul's energy and establishing a pace that would allow us to get him close enough to the front to finish with his usual explosive power. The big result of the day went to Pat who was able to pull the two other riders together enough to maintain their gap on the field and at the same time, use his tactical ability to out-wit his companions in the final jump for the line. A very impressive result for the team once again with everyone putting in everything they could to ensure the best results.
The team has already been through a good debriefing of the race to ascertain how we might have done things a little better (which is a closely guarded discussion not to be divulged here), but the consensus was that while we didn't finish the bunch kick as perfectly as we wanted, we still managed to pull in the result we wanted both in the break and in the bunch sprint.
The team is beginning to function very well as a unit and we know that we have become somewhat of a focal point among the other riders and we certainly anticipate tactics that will be used to upset our ability to establish a break or to deliver Paul to the line in the best possible position and condition. We will anticipate these moves and ride each race to our established plan for each occasion and learn from our mistakes as we move forward.
Many thanks for reading.
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