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• cycling - 43
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• general - 22
• results - 2

Mon, 30 May 2005

Weekend of Racing in Wagga - 15:12

Neil, Simon and I headed off to Wagga on Saturday morning for the Wagga Motors 120km Handicap Race on Saturday and the Microtech Open Butch Menz Memorial 70km Handicap Race on Sunday.
I was reasonably pleased with my mark as I was in the same bunch as our own Mick Rawlin (who just happens to have a drink or few with the handicapper). I was not pleased with the sub 10 degree temperature on a howling wind which turned out to be the determining factor in the race. My bunch (one back from limit) cruised through the first 15km or so, then, as we turned right and up a slight incline stronger riders put the hammer down, this caused a lot of damage and we lost 6-8 riders. I had to make a mad dash across the gap and I was trying to stuff a muslie bar into my mouth as the hammer went down. We started working quite fluently and picked up lots and lots of small bunches from the limit bunch. The only thing disturbing our rhythm was a horror cyclist on a Klein, he featured a camel back with flowing straps, deep dish rims and very straight locked out arms. Of course in the cross wind conditions he was all over the place and got quite a bit of stick from the 5-6 riders in our hard working bunch. As we peeled off the undulating cross wind road onto a dead flat block headwind road the commissaries car came up and we were informed that only one rider remained in front of us and we still had 5:30 up on the bunch behind. Well, optimism was high, but we were barely half way into our 120kms.
So, we kept working and working. Later on, 20 minutes on another cross wind afflicting uphill dead road akin to Uriarra Road out of the crossing the car came up to us again. Bad news this time, scratch were only two minutes or so back. One very optimistic soul asked if we could possibly hold them off, most smiled to themselves, but one guy had quite a colourful, you've got to be ***** kidding. So, in what seemed like an instant scratch come along at a belting pace, a few made the belated effort to stick with em. I think Mick Rawlin may have stuck with them for a while as I never saw him again. I made the sensible decision to wait for a straggling bunch, which I joined in with them for the ride home. We kept up mopping up and spitting out riders who had been wasted away by the scratch bunch and the block bunch who were just in behind them. Neil and Simon had similar stories, being swept up and spat out by scratch as then pelted by. Simon made a huge attempt to get on, only to break a spoke in his front wheel and then be faced with a lonely ride home, even though he did sit on Graeme Allbon for 60km or so.
Saturday night saw much pizza, wine, garlic bread and desert consumed at La Porchetta in town, then sleep was east to find in our flat at the City Park Motel on Turcutta Street.
We woke on Sunday to a brigh sunny WINDLESS morning, had a large breakfast of crumpets and then headed off to the race. When we signed on we discovered that the handicapper had done a mass re-handicapping. He had shown us his notes from the day before at the pub on Saturday night, an incomprehensible piece of paper with yellow pink and blue highlighter markings and very small handwritten notes. Neil was happy to be moved out from block, Simon was happy to be moved out to 12. I was devastated to be moved into the same bunch as Simon and Andrew Mohr. It was going to be a hard day on the bike for me. Luckily the race was only 70km. It turned out to be mostly undulating, with lots of false flats. I lasted to the end, when my bunch caught the leading bunch right on the line. The placegetters were a combination of the bunch ahead and my bunch. I'm pretty sure Simon rode himself into about 12th place. But it was almost impossible to get through the bunch all over the road. Neil's bunch was bearing down on us at the finish and were only 30 seconds behind. Scratch was only just behind them, despite getting up to speeds of 60-70 on the run in. All in all, Sunday was a very enjoyable race after the hardships of Saturday. I can't say I like some of the aggression (mostly just people shouting in the bunch) but it is quite good fun to rip around at the speed a big bunch of cyclists can go at. Neil reported an average of nearly 45kph for his bunch and we were around 42kph. This was quite understandable as we had 20 riders in the mould of Simon driving the bunch. I could not do any more turns after about 2 thirds of the race. I was very happy to hang on in the company I was in. The next big race is the Coota Classic weekend. I encourage all those with ACF or MTBA licences to give it a go. If they have never heard of you they tend to handicap you in limit or one back from limit. The full NSW racing calendar can be found at Cycling NSW.

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Thu, 26 May 2005

Champions League Final - Liverpool v AC Milan - 09:57

Champions League
This morning I witnessed one of the most remarkable games of football I have ever seen. SBS, my very favourite TV Station in the world showed me every second of the delights of a dramatic game that brought me to tears. I can't imagine what it would have been like if I was a supporter of AC or the Reds.
As many of you will know Liverpool finally won the game, but to go down by one in the first few minutes, then by three by the time the ref blew for half time even the most dedicated Liverpool supporter must have thought it was all over. Champagne must of been at hand at the San Siro. Then, inspired Liverpool in an inspirational 7 minutes brought themselves back to 3-3. It was at this point where the tears started welling up in my eyes.
The only other sporting event that matches the drama in my mind is when Greg Lemond beat Laurent Fignon by a very small margin in the final time trial of the tour to win the GC by 7 seconds.
Nobody could have written the drama of the final, this is why I love sport. Football reflects life.

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Thu, 19 May 2005

Coota Haycarters - 11:24
Details on the Coota Haycartes, maybe even results
It seems to me the CCC and even the NSW Cycling Federation are pretty damn slack with results. I mean, all you get is the top ten, fastest time and that's about it. When I compare this with the excellent work on CORC and the ACT Vets I reckon the effort is a bit weak. But then again, my bunch was 30-40 strong coming over the line, it must be pretty difficult to get all those numbers. I think there was 203 riders in total at the Haycartes, all coming over the line within a few minutes of the winner
Mike asked me about the Coota Haycarters, so i got writing in an e-mail. In the absence of extensive blogging on my part, I'll reproduce the race in my own words here Well, the short of it is my bunch (12 min) won and I was not there. I got dropped at about half way when I went through a nasty feeling really bad patch. The bad bit is I was feeling really good (doing all my turns etc) before the bad patch and I was also really good after the bad patch when I jumped in with block and scratch and rode the last 25-30km of the race at a really fast pace. So, I'm really dark about getting dropped, but in retrospect my legs have been killing me ever since the end of the race, so I did work hard. Pete Harding lasted a bit longer in the 12 minute bunch, but I went flying past him tagged onto the scratch men and he could not get on. Of course Neil through the race was too easy, but then again he was only one bunch behind mine, maybe he should have got block. Mike Rawlin was one bunch ahead of me (18min) I think, he was there at the finish. It was good fun when it was done, we get to do it all over again with two races in Wagga on the 28th and 29th (Saturday race is 120km) So, I hope I'm going to be on a very good day.

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Wed, 11 May 2005

Intensity Training - 11:31
Neil and I have started a arduous program with a view to being ready for the Australian Masters Games (and Australian Nationals) towards the end of 2005. The Australian Masters Games are being held in Adelaide.
Cycling Australia have not announced the details and venue for the road and track Masters Nationals, but we do know an indoor wooden velodrome is a requirement.
In any case, for the 10km scratch race we need to ride at about 50-52kph to be there at the end, then one will have to sprint. So, Neil devised a training program on the rollers. Details are here
We are also doing uphill sprints, but I don't really want to talk about those. In the short term, the NSW Masters Road Championships are being held in Wagga, details can be found on my racing plans page." I suppose it will be a good time to see if all the training is working out.

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