R E P O R T
No feature race this week, just races full of features. With Australia on top of the world in cycling at the Tour de France and the World Junior Championships the enthusiasm amongst all the competitors was easy to see. The night started with a larger than normal Junior Development group, possible inspired by Cadel’s performance in Europe. The junior girls had a stand-alone demonstration event whilst the boys slogged it out in their own demonstration scratch event.
The Hillbrick series this week was round 3’s Win’N’Out. The big winners were Kieran Heffernan and Gavin White, who both have a perfect record thus far in the series. At the completion of the 6th round of the Hillbrick series the top 15 on the point’s ladder will be invited into the Hillbrick Series Wheel-Race, with the eventual winner taking home the gorgeous Hillbrick carbon Track Frame.
A rider who has impressed me this season, and not for his tactical ability, has been big Darren Cash. Darren is relatively new to Track racing but is well known on the road scene, even placing in National (Master) Time Trial Championships. From what I have seen of Darren he seems not to possess a killer sprint or a wicked jump but he does have bucket loads of power topped with truck loads of endurance. It is clear that Darren has been watching the Tour de France tactic of the non-sprinters getting into an early break, busting their gut and being caught exhausted in the final kilometre. He has managed to apply the same principal to the track, the only difference is that it works.
Darren jumps away with 4 laps to go and builds a good lead. Amazingly a slightly redder faced Darren hangs on to win by the smallest of margins.
This week welcomed a new title sponsor for the Swerve Cafe Time Blaster. The time to beat was a blistering fast 8 minutes 52 seconds set by Scott Law before heading to Cape Town for a successful Junior World Championship campaign. With a full field of former and current World Champions along with a plethora of National Champions and of course David “Action Snaps” Lane’s son, the chances of the time falling were good.
- 10 laps into the race the bunch of about 21 were 4 seconds down
- At 20 laps the group of 12 had moved to 1 second up. The group included Darren Cash who would be declared the last man standing (div 2)
- At the completion of 30 laps we had 2 riders left to finish in a time of 8 min 45 sec (51.43km/h)
Alex Carver took the sprint from Jayson Austin along with the $150 prize, in the post race interview Alex spoke highly of the riders who contributed to incredible pace and expressed interest in going faster to collect the prize again in a fortnight.
With 4 laps to go in the Swerve Cafe Time Blaster we down to three including eventual winner Alex Carver followed by Jayson Austin and Aaron Donnelly.
Next week will be a great spectacle with the Cycle World Junior handicap along with the amazingly spectacular Madison. Next week also marks the last chance to change grades without the 10 point rule applying (read news letter for more details). Till then enjoy the late nights of the Tour.
All photos are courtesy of David Lane from Action Snaps Photography. Check out their website www.actionsnaps.com.au
Guest reports
- First Guest reporter is Greg Johnson
- Club: Northern Sydney CC
- Division Three
Happy days : bleeding lungs and a bit of biffo…
July 19th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
Friday is always a good day - the week is closing out and the weekend draws near. Friday is an even better day when it’s a lead up to going track racing. Like a teenager looking forward to seeing the girl he’s trying to get it on with, I spent most of the day with butterflies of anticipation fluttering in my stomach every time I thought about where I was heading tonight - the Dunc Gray Velodrome.
Me at the track - Photo (c) Bruce Cooke
Tonight was my third outing to the track for the Race All Winter track series. If you’re interested, previous instalments of my adventures track racing can be found here and here. The first time I raced I was in the beginners division - division 5. For my second outing I boldly went where many men and women had gone before - up into division 4. I had a great week and won two of the four races so when I went to sign up tonight I moved into division 3.
Race One - Warm Up Scratch / Schooling in Track-Craft
Race one was a warm up scratch race. The pace in division 3 and tightness of the bunch were noticeably different to division 4 and it took me a while to get into the rhythm. Once in the rhythm the next challenge was to do something other than float in the last two or three riders in the pace line. I moved up through the field, but before long found myself boxed in about halfway through the bunch. I kept looking for outs, but with a couple of laps to go it was clear that there are a few crafty buggers racing div 3 and it’s time for me to start learning some track craft. The sprint for the line went off the front and I was nowhere, rolling in about half way through the field.
Race Two - Win and Out
The win and out is a pretty simple race - roll around for five laps and then sprint for the line on lap 6. Whoever makes it there first wins the race and exits. Everyone else keeps racing and the subsequent placings (down to fourth) are determined by the winners of each lap thereafter. Simple in concept, but a little tactical nous is required. If you go balls-out for the win but just miss it, you may well find you’ve got nothing to give in trying to secure a 2nd, 3rd or 4th placing.
The bunch rolled out and the pace was moderate. As we neared the last lap I started to move to the front - not wanting to end up boxed in like I was in the first race. I jumped off the front with about a lap to go and got a bit of a gap. I busted myself over the course of the lap and rolled into the home straight. With the finish line in sight I kept cranking the pedals over, only to be pipped at the line… Aaaargggghhh…
The winner swung up the track and I thought, “bugger that, second it will have to be”… I dug deep and kept driving on - only to experience deja vu as second place went the same way as first, pipped at the line yet again!
I’m a stubborn sort of bastard and with a relatively good pain threshold I just determined to bury myself. Third, come on baby - you’re mine! Nope, it wasn’t to be third place, but rather third time getting beaten at the line by a tyres width.
The field was rapidly diminishing by this stage and I just kept torturing myself. I very nearly got caught as I raced towards the line, lungs on fire and a rider hot on my heels. In Robbie McEwen style I pushed my bars forward and for a change managed to beat my competition by a tyres width to take fourth place. With a wry smile on my face (part happiness, part pain) I rolled around and off the track.
You know you’ve gone hard when you can taste blood in your mouth. I swear my lungs were bleeding afterwards even though there was no evidence of it. I learnt two things from this race:
I need to actually learn to sprint - all the riding was done in the saddle, if I thought about getting up out of the saddle on any one of the three opportunities before I took a placing, I may well have been able to exit the race earlier.
Secondly, and more importantly, Paul Craft is a sadistic bastard. Chatting to Paul afterwards he seemed genuinely disappointed that I’d actually succeeded in placing in the race. According to Paul, there’s nothing better than someone burying themselves and just missing out. It’s that sort of dry and somewhat sadistic sense of humour that makes Paul so entertaining.
Race Three - Mystery Lap
The third race was the mystery lap race. This race starts with 10 laps and a randomly selected (but not disclosed) number of additional laps - from 1 to 11. On any lap past 10, a bell may be rung to signal that the race finishes at the end of the next lap. As a result, the race can last for anywhere between 11 and 21 laps and so poses interesting tactical options - for example, do you smash yourself at the end of lap 10, taking a punt that the race will end soon after, or do you hold back but risk the chance of missing the action when the bell finally rings.
The pace was pretty strong from the get go, and once the 10 laps were done I started to surge towards the front to remain in contention should the bell go. Each lap we neared the start/finish line and I came forward only to be taunted by a silent bell. Finally, with 16 laps done the bell rang and there were five or six of us up the front. One guy jumped (Luke?) and three guys got a small gap, with me pulling through as fourth wheel. I just couldn’t catch them and rolled in fourth place.
There was a bit of biffo during the race - as I came into the home straight I think I swung slightly upwards on the track and another rider was (I think) swinging down off the banking and we clashed side to side. There was a seriously nervous moment where I thought, “ohhhhhhh faaaaaaarrrrrrkkkkkkk”, but somehow managed to hold it upright and raced on. Not sure who was actually responsible - hopefully the video taken on the night will show the clash and if there’s a learning in there I can chalk that up to a valuable and luckily painless learning experience.
Race Four - Div 2/3 Combine
Ok, 1000 words in and you’re not done yet? Well, one more race and we’re done. The Div 2/3 combine was a 15 lap scratch race and the pace was on from the get go - with a Div 1 rider leading us out for the first 6 laps and (did I mention he’s sadistic) Paul Craft offering the leadout man $1 for every rider he could break on his final lap.
After the intermediate sprinting on lap 6 we had 9 laps to go. I found myself about mid-field, but with a gap to the lead group of about 4 or 5. I spent a couple of laps bridging and managed to pull myself through to the front group - unfortunately also bringing a couple of riders with me.
2 laps to go and I realised that I was pretty toasted and didn’t have a hope of winning. Instead, I thought I’d have some fun and blasted off the front. I made it through to about half a lap to go and then nearly the whole field came over the top of me - felt like I was standing still. The good news was that fellow NSCC rider Owen Cooke managed to place and got a bit of a lead out from my surge.
Time Blaster
The final race for the night was a Div 1/2 time blaster. This is a 30 lap (7.5km) race, the objective of which is to get through as fast as possible and hopefully beat the previous best time. This seasons record was sitting at 8min52sec but the boys smashed it tonight, pulling through in 8min45sec. To give a little perspective - that’s an average speed of 51.43km/h. That’s a pretty hot pace if you’re racing just a couple of laps, but as an average for the 30 laps its pretty insane and makes for fantastic viewing from the stands!
Aftermath and a few Statistics
After a nights fun I took my busted carcass off to the car. Sitting in the car, my body relatively still, I started to feel the after-effects of busting a lung out there tonight. Whilst my lungs still felt like they’d been put through a paper shredder set to fine and my quads were throbbing, it was my mid to lower back that took me by surprise. It felt like someone (for some reason Paul’s face popped into my mind) had punched me in the kidneys and then was gently prodding the bruises. Nice…
I had a HRM on for the racing tonight and collected a few stats. I’m 33 by the way, weigh approx 70kg and generally don’t see heart rates much above 170bpm on the bike, even when going pretty hard.
Tonights efforts saw most races with an average speed of circa 40-45km/h, max speed of around 58km/h, average cadence of approx 100-105rpm and a max cadence of about 140rpm. I’m riding an 88-inch gear and think that a little experimentation with a 90-inch gear may be in order.
I rarely see heart rates above about 170bpm on the bike, even when pushing pretty hard. That’s on the road - on the track tonight I hit a max of 180bpm (haven’t seen a figure like that in a couple of years) and average HR was about 165bpm for most races - right at the upper end of my aerobic zone and tipping into the wrong side of my lactate threshold. It felt good…
PS - The photo up top was taken Week 1 by Bruce Cooke. He’s got a flickr photostream up of a few nicely taken snaps, mostly of his son Owen, but worth a look: Bruce’s Flickr Photostream
- Second Guest reporter is Ross Clague
- Club: Central Coast CC
- Division four
Week 5 report.
Scratch Races
Andrew Mills and Michael Smith worked great with each other
in Div 2 taking a 1-2 in the warm up scratch. Smithy led out
from a long way, with Millsy sitting on his wheel. Millsy
was content to sit on the wheel, ready to go around if
anyone should challenge the lead, no one had the speed or
strength and the boys got the 1-2.
I was the lone Coastie in Div 4, and picked up 4th. After
last weeks gentle welcome to RAW in Div 5, it was
interesting mixing it in with 15 or so riders.
Win'n'Out
The Div 2 riders again showed how to ride 'together'.
Smithy led it out once the boys had settled into the race
and Millsy went around him to take first place.
Heat 2 of Div 4 saw me miss first by the width of a tyre
after I hesitated just a fraction on the final bend. I
decided to keep going and not wait for the bunch and took
out second.
Mystery Lapper
Div 2 was a great race to watch, with Darren Cash, who took
it out going hard early. The gap he took was enough to put
the rest of Div 2 in trouble chasing him, and he looked to
be away when the bell rang. Millsy had taken charge of the
chase with Smithy on his wheel for what seemed like 5 laps.
I'm sure it wasn't quite so many, though I bet Millsy would
back me up. Millsy blew as the bell went, and the race
looked to be gone. Smithy never gave up, chasing hard, and
missed the win over a tiring leader by inches.
Heat 2 of Div 4 saw me in my first Mystery Lapper. Richard
Pettigrew had offered advice which made perfect sense...
Attack on the lap you think the bell will ring! Lap 10 saw
me on the front, so I had a go hoping to be able to hold the
bunch off until the bell tolls... I gained a small gap, one
I thought would be enough to hold them off if the bell went,
as laps went by. 11.... 12... 13.... 14... I swung up and
waited to tack onto the back of 2 riders coming through. I
hoped I would be able to recover enough for the sprint if
the bell went. 15... 16... On lap 17 the guys in front
started to try some tactics, and slowed. Coming onto the
home straight they slowed too much for my liking so I jumped
out of the saddle and took off... The bell rang as I went
over the line and the gap I had gained was enough to take
the win.
A few of the guys had a go in the combines with Richard
Pettigrew (I think) returning the best result for the
Coasties in 4th. Maybe if he a clean bike he would have been
able to slice through the air a touch faster and take 3rd!
The Time Blaster was the final event of the night with the
Div 1 and Div 2 riders taking the cash away.
Another night of great racing from Paul...