I've been racing with West Coast Masters for a couple of years and now I finally get the chance to race on the Mount Helena course for the first time. I've ridden all of the other regular WCMCC courses and I'm used to each of them so it was a little strange to get that sense of venturing into the unknown again. A quick study of the course elevation showed that there wouldn't be a huge amount of vertical metres to get through and while they would certainly still be a test of my hill climbing ability, I had been refining my technique to help better stay with the group when the uphill attacks would inevitably come.
Today's race would be the first time I would fill Paul's shoes as designated sprinter while Paul was away overseas. I was looking forward to the challenge however I also expected that AP's plan to break away might stick given his ability to ascend the hills as well as any other rider in Masters racing. This would not exclude me from having to do my best in the sprint finish as the bunch approached the end but time would tell how much effort would be needed versus how much I had left in the tank. The plan was simple, maintain my status as the protected rider and try to sit in away from the front as best I can without losing touch with the group.
At 20km in length, Mount Helena is the longest of the regular Masters courses and therefore only incorporated 4 laps for a total of 80 kms. We gathered the team together at the marshaling area for a somewhat casual discussion of the race plan. Singo and Pat were not feeling 100% but would put in what they could, while AP had not been on the bike since Tuesday so the team was certainly not at its best. A Grade were off first and the first half of the course was really quite easy, undulating terrain and it wasn't until we approached the intersection of Toodyay Rd that I first noticed I had to put in a little effort to get over a small rise. Toodyay road also offered a very smooth surface by comparison to the rest of the course and descended slightly before we reached the first of the bigger climbs which constituted the last part of the the highway before turning south into Stoneville Rd.
The majority of Stoneville Rd was made up of reasonable climbs that didn't seem too much trouble on the first lap but it would be interesting to see how I would cope on the remaining laps as the intensity of the race picked up. I was focusing on my climbing technique that I had been working on during the recent training weeks and found that while my power output was up, I was not struggling as much as I normally might have on these sorts of climbs - a good sign. The last part of the course was reasonably level with a slight elevation on average but kicked up a little with about 200m to go to the finish line. I would need to be mindful of this as my hill sprints were not as good as a number of the other riders in the field, which included Brad Hall and Eddy Hollands. I used the timing of the first lap as a gauge to our pace and lapped it at what would be our second quickest of the day at 00:29:44.
The pace eased a little as we began our second lap and from my position about midway in the bunch, I began to take stock of other riders and what was going on. At that point, AP got away off the front with Chris Glasby and another rider (I can't recall who this was but he eventually fell away from the other two and came back into the bunch) and began to work a reasonable gap on the main field which would be held for the best part of the 2nd and 3rd laps, but a lot would happen between them getting away and the point at which they were brought back into the main group.
As we climbed Toodyay Rd rise for the second time, the leaders were still away and had about 500m on the main field which allowed us to keep them in sight as we reached the bottom of the rise. However, we would end up dealing with slow moving traffic in the form of a light front-end loader that also made the turn into Stoneville Rd and required us to slow somewhat before being able to get around it. This gave the lead riders a slight advantage and allowed them to gain more of a gap on us and we wouldn't see them again until the road straightened out a little over the remaining climbs.
At this stage, I had been locked onto Eddy's wheel since turning into Bunning Rd the early in the second lap and comfortably maintained his pace in the middle of the group without exerting too much energy. I was able to keep within a rider or two of him through the second and third lap up until we reached the Toodyay Rd rise for the third time where I moved up closer to the front for the climb as I was beginning to feel the effect of efforts I had to exert to keep up with the group. As we rounded the corner into Stoneville Rd, Eddy came charging up the outside of the group in response to Jon Gregg's attack up the second part of the Toodyay Rd rise.
Jon and Eddy managed to put a small gap on the field to which some of the stronger riders in the group began to respond with Pat amongst them and slowly but surely bridged across, however the gap was significantly reduced as a result. As we began the climb up the last of the rises on Stoneville Rd section of the course, the race was unfortunately torn apart by a long string of motorcyclists who were seemingly held up by traffic ahead of the main field. I was behind Brad at this stage who lifted his intensity to get through and ahead of the interlopers. Sensing his anticipation that the group would split, I tried to go with him but before I could put the effort in, the door through which Brad escaped was closed as two of our leather-clad friends formed two-abreast forcing me to slow to an almost stop half way up the climb.
While most of the field behind were also forced to slow, some others braved possible on-coming traffic and straddled the white line to get around. AP, (still in the break) Pat and Craig were among those that managed to be on the right side of the split while Chris, Singo and myself found ourselves on the wrong side and had to wind up again on the hill in order to get around the obstacles. Eventually, the traffic cleared and moved on and the chase group maintained a steady pace until we reached Ankatell Rd where I noticed Craig in no-man's land after falling of the pace of the main field. Chris and Singo backed off the pace when Craig was collected and the chase was put on hold as we still had Pat and AP up the road.
As it turned out, AP and Chris Glasby were brought back into the main group not long after this split occurred due to the pace of the main field. The last lap would see the two groups remain separate with some interesting antics beginning to take place in the chase group as we approached Toodyay Rd for the last time and continued on through to the Ankatell Rd turn off. There was intent from a couple of riders to lift the pace and try to salvage some of the gap but in the end, this turned more into a game amongst ourselves than anything else as the main group had now put an unbridgeable gap on us.
In the main group, AP had utilised his reserves and had dropped off the back of the sprint finishing almost 1 minute of the pace while Pat had done his best to get among the place-getters and finished 5th behind Jon Gregg, Ian Gregory, Chris Glasby and Paul Prottey (in order from 1st to 4th).
Back on Ankatell Rd in the chase group, Chris, Craig and Singo had arranged themselves at the front of the group and I moved in behind Singo to put all four of us at the front in our lead out. We were all a little tired at this stage and the pace had not lifted much over the average pace of the race. As the individuals in the train began to peel off, I came around Singo at the 400m mark as he began to finish his effort. Phil Diesel made his way ahead of me with another rider and I glued myself to his wheel until we hit about 150m to go where I maintained my current pace as we weren't racing for anything other than pride.
Trial rider for the day, Tyler Gavin from HCT rode a fantastic race for his first time with the West Coast Masters and did well to finish in 7th, while Brad would claim Tyler's prize money (Trial riders are not eligable to claim prize money) coming in 8th ahead of Eddy. D grade was dominated by the Pink Unicorns with Emma Molloy putting in a superb effort on the back of a 160km day out the previous day to take line honours ahead of Jane Higgins from EHBS with Nat Roberts taking 4th. Lorna Henson, who had raced at the Peel Districts CC races on Saturday afternoon also came in 7th. A great day for the girls.
While it was not one of our greatest result compared to recent races, we still functioned well as a team before being split up by the motorcyclists. Even without our best finisher in the race, we were able to control a lot of the events and AP put in a superb effort to maintain a good break for so long. I think our results were more a consequence of bad luck than bad racing and we can take a lot from the race as we look forward to Neerabup next week.
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