Race reports

110km sportif that isn't a road race, but has prizes for first, fastest time etc yesterday (so a race). Average speed 38.9kmh for 110km.

The official race open to state graded A riders went off 15 mins ahead of us, then the women's official race 10 mins.

I was in the fastest wave (40kmh+ average). Looking around I could see some Audux jerseys, hairy legs and women. I was thinking some people over estimated here. Sure enough, 5k later people going out the back....

I hadn't warmed up so was happy to sit 5-10m off the back and have a easy ride, also the usual surge, hard braking which is always worse at the rear of the group if you are riding close or not paying attention.

Turn after 20km, then being a local I knew 5km down the road it narrowed due to roadworks, dirt either side and down to 3-5m sealed in the centre. Moved up to the middle of the bunch so through there easy. Few people flatted. Then some real rough surface, my mate dropped his chain & someone else pinch flatted. I was running Tubulars with sealant so I wasn't too worried.

Drifted to the back and had a banana, easy to 30km then a hard left and a short 3 minute climb where I moved up to the middle again and I think we got rid of the rest of the over estimators from the start.

We also caught the women's race here, which was pretty stupid from the organisers. 100 Club A & B grade male riders are going to be faster than 25 women. They then pushed into our race which is pretty stupid as they could just armchair ride.

I moved up towards the front on the wheel of a strong rider from our club knowing a few quick descents coming up.

Single lane bridge after 75km immediately after a 90 degree left, being local I knew all about it, took the inside lane middle front of the bunch. Sure enough crash behind, poor signage really, only 100m of warning when we needed at least 1km.

Leads into a hard Cat3, I went off the front at the bottom as it looked like the bunch was going to ride tempo, but they dragged back on after 5 minutes. Then the steepest bit bites, I managed to mash my gears here and dropped off the front 15 riders. Got over the top 15 seconds down with 3 other riders, super fast descent (80kmh+) and we got some more help from behind. 6 of us rolled super hard turns, 55kmh for the next 10km to get back to the front bunch!

Just 10km or so to go, I was feeling flat after the chasing, so just sat in, kept up over the small punchy inclines left & rolled home at the rear of the front bunch.
 
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What a lovely day it was today for many in the South!

Unfortunately the evening was not quite the same...Local 10 mile TT on my club course, not flat or smooth in any way. Bit of spitting rain on the way in the car, as it was getting darker and darker, this led to it lashing it down about a minute in to my TT, which also co-incided with a car almost pulling out in front of me, always good at the start.

I'm trying to pace myself a bit better and roll into TTs a bit better, and using power on the small inclines and when into headwinds to try to maximise my pace. Seemed to work quite well tonight, producing the normalised best power I have on this course by 1W, however due to the conditions I completely bottled a big chunk of the technical sections, areas where I'd be pedalling all the way through on the bars. This translated into a 25:29, some 1:37 down on my best time.

Shows what a difference conditions can make to a time. Earlier riders who I'd usually put a chunk of time into beating me or only just beating them. But definitely getting into the season now. Starting to feel comfy again in the position, going to be pushing for more aero front end tweaks over the next few weeks.

TL:DR - It was grim, I put out ok power for this time of year, but was 1min37 slower than my best on this course :D

https://www.strava.com/activities/545455010
 
Race Report!

Didn't race! Got to tonights TT, signed on, went to the start area, got the turbo out, bike in it, went to get dressed, oh I've forgotten my shoes!!!!!!!! Proceed trying to work out if I can get home and back in the time left, nope, go back hand my number back in and luckily get my fiver back as I was last off. Bloody stupid idiot.
 
I had my first couple of races last weekend.

Saturday: 50 mile road race. 10 laps around a 5 mile loop.
A 3 man break went early. My legs were feeling good and I was annoyed to have missed it so I tried to bridge across on my own. The bunch didnt seem to want to chase the break but they did make a half-hearted effort at chasing me and I dangled off the front for about half a lap. A team mate attacked on the climb and I sat up to wait for him. The two of us worked hard but the bunch shut it down quickly - 2 riders from the same team could have been pretty dangerous in a 5 man break.
So, all back together bar the 3 up the road for the next few laps. I'm just sitting in recovering and I can see that there's a few riders working on the front and we're slowly bringing back the escape group. At about 4 laps to go, the break is 30-40 seconds in front and 1 rider goes off the front of our group and gets across. After that, the pace drops - I'm not sure if it was team mates of the guy who attacked who were pulling it to try and get him up there or some other reason but I decided that this may be the closest we ever get to the front group so I attack again and try to get over to them.
I'm gradually catching the group in front and as I get closer, a service car pulls in behind them - that means that the gap back to the bunch is around a minute. I'm feeling pretty confident by the time I get onto the back of the service car, we have a minute on the bunch and only 3 laps to go. The confidence soon disappears once I get round the car and into the group - these boys have been out front all race and they are suffering hard! (Schoolboy error - Dont ever bridge across to a group that's already coming back to you) I try to take some longer turns and give them a bit of a rest but the pace just isnt high enough. Sure enough, the service car pulls out of the gap soon after and on one of the more open sections we can see the bunch behind, maybe about 30 seconds. I put down some power on a small incline to get away from the others (they've pretty much given up now so it doesnt take much). I dont really want to be out front on my own with still about 10 miles to race but I've played it bad tactically so I dont have any other choice - Just keep riding and hope that the bunch sit up when they catch the others from the break and forget that I was there.
They didnt forget - they chased me down and that was it for me. It's going to come down to a bunch sprint (and I am seriously hopeless at sprinting). There's a draggy climb up before 100m or so of flat to the line, so it goes better than a purely flat sprint because I can climb well. Made up a load of places on the line and finished 18th in the bunch. Pretty happy with myself: legs were good, tactics were bad.
I later found out that there were 2 races combined in 1: a juniors race and a cat 3/4 race. Turns out I finished 4th in the 3/4 race and got 8 points on my licence :D

I wont be chasing points this year but that's a nice bonus.
 
272w average power for 2 hours, weighted 298, intensity 90% legs are a little sore now!

Rode my training wheels which gave me power, but heavy, it was windy as hell so didn't want to ride my deep tubs.

How does Strava only give me a training load of 158!

Feeling like I am going OK for state masters road race next weekend, that's 110km.

Had a 100km, 110km and 70km races the last month so a good build up.
 
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Big day arrived, New South Wales & Aus Capital Territory State Masters.

Men's masters 1 & 2 are run as a combined race, I'm not sure why they do it but it means there is a decent peloton of about 70-80. We had to do 4 laps of a classics style course, some shortish climbs with a few punchy bits and quick descents. 110km and 1200m climb.

Heavy rains overnight and light drizzle treated us since we are having a bit of a drought. No fun for racing. I rode two laps of the course last week so knew it was going to be hard. I didn't bother warming up, always plenty of wheels on the first lap to follow. We had to cross train tracks twice and they had put rubber matts down, I was worried about these being a bit of an angle in the wet but turned out OK, no fallers.

First lap I was happy to sit on the back and do nothing. I lost the bottle from my seat tube mount, the first 10km was rough as guts, OK when you can pick a line but no choice but to hit bumps and patches in a bunch. Not the greatest start, but at least with it raining it wasn't too hot. Ate my muesli bar after half an hour as thought it might be the only chance I got. Then things got a bit confusing, there was a break up the road, the commissare came alongside and spoke to the bunch. I'm not too sure what happened but I think they neutralised the race for the next 10km, no idea why.

Second lap it was on, rain stopped and the wind picked up, giving a headwind then a nasty crosswind on the climb for the backside of the course. I saw two guys from my club go out the back as about 30 riders got shelled on the climb. I rode in the wind which was tough, the right side of the bunch was sheltered and like 50w+ less effort. To get there meant riding on the wrong side of the road as it was almost single file in places fanned out. After the climb came a short descent followed by a 13-15% punchy climb with a false flat to the line this was only a 90 second full gas effort in the saddle at first until the road dried.

The third lap eased a bit and the break blew out to nearly 2 minutes and a second bunch of 4 or so formed. I just sat in the rear of the 20 or so that were the remains of the peloton, made sure I was eating. Got myself over all the hills and out of trouble.

Last lap the gap had come down, the group started to work, almost everyone was rolling, I did a few turns and we took a minute back pretty quick. Got into the headwind and started to catch the breaks ahead as they had blown up a bit. Final climb they were all within catching distance, I got on the front feeling good and was tapping out a good tempo but wasn't getting much help. Sat back in second or third wheel, get close to the top and one guy comes round quick but get on his wheel and sit on. Someone else comes round hard, I crank it to get on his wheel burning my matches here, before the descent to the final climb.

There were three ahead going into the last 500m two from the first break who had a good gap and one from th second break who had a small gap but who was pro, I was second wheel in the peloton but the other guy on the front sat up sharpish and the guys behind who had a draft came over the top of us. Ground away up the steep bit trying not to go too deep, back in the saddle for the false flat (probably still 5-6% but felt flat after 13-15!) I picked up a few places here, everyone doing their best Tommy V faces. Over the line 18th in the combined race which gave me 10th in Masters 1 +25 seconds. Two up the road who won from the break were both masters 2, the one in the middle (in full team skin suit) was masters 1. A really strong guy who did a lot of the chasing got a deserved 2nd.

Pretty happy with my result, maybe I could have sat on more on the last hill, I thought the bunch might have split there in the wind, and moving to the front was probably worth the energy burn, 5-10 seconds advantage being on the front compared to last wheel. Maybe I was dehydrated which hurt me a bit, only one bottle for a 3 hour race not good. Kept it rubber side down, first rider from our club, and finished so I'm happy :)

111.3km inc the neutral start, 1200m elevation, 37.6kmh average, 74.5kmh Max. No power data as race wheels! 3 gels, 1 muesli bar, 1 banana and a bottle of SIS which felt about right, eat the solid food towards the start (laps 1 and 2) then go for one gel a lap. Finished and drunk a whole Powerade like it wasn't even there so definitely dehydrated!
 
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Sounds good Berger! I think you may be racing with a guy I know, Cameron Judson?

First day of the May 3 day stage race for me today. Enjoyable race and we rode really well as a team protecting each others breaks and chasing when needed. One of my team mates when 2up with another chap on the last lap and took the win, I managed to get 3rd in the remaining bunch sprint for 5th overall.

Looking forward to the next couple of days, although tomorrow's course doesn't suit me in the least! Super hilly.
 
Couple of TTs in the last few days!

Firstly my last one on the old Dolan, just tapped out a rhythm as I knew I had two TTs this weekend, so pushed round at just over 250w for 15 miles to come something like 10th. Happy enough, just a good workout really.

Then onto the A3 tonight on my new Felt! The bike is rapid, bloody windy tonight, blowing from the north west, so head wind on the way out, but mostly across the bike. During the warm up it started hailing so I went back to my car to grab some knee warmers, then suddenly the sun came out and it was glorious, this held on for my ride luckily.

I rode a steadyish pace, aiming not to overstretch myself and learn the bike with another TT tomorrow, worried a little about the turns as it's obviously quite different to the Dolan and trying to take on board any adjustments I need to make. Finished with a new 10mile PB in 22:16 (3seconds) but a good 20w down on previous best., and beat some people who have been ahead of me by quite a way recently, so the bike has definitely helped. My club mate came first out of 120 riders!

https://www.strava.com/activities/561148710

Definitely got some aero gains to make with the adjustment available.

Fastest team car in the west!

DSC_1192_zps3aeevwyh.jpg
 
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Definitely the fastest bike and car combo I've seen! Are you using Seasuckers?

Good ride and it'll be interesting to see how your times look when you're putting out similar power and have your position nailed. Must save a decent chunk of time. What wheels are you running btw?

Rode an open 10 myself on what is our usual club course so very familiar with it. Not got the official results yet but I was definitely inside 23 minutes for the first time. Slow going out but very fast on the wind assisted way back- was third to Simon Yates on a short segment so I reckon that makes me second really. :p

https://www.strava.com/activities/561153196

Racing there again on Monday, still feel a bit of tiredness from Mallorca so will be good to see improvements as that starts to dissipate.
 
One More Solo said:
Definitely the fastest bike and car combo I've seen! Are you using Seasuckers?

Good ride and it'll be interesting to see how your times look when you're putting out similar power and have your position nailed. Must save a decent chunk of time. What wheels are you running btw?

Rode an open 10 myself on what is our usual club course so very familiar with it. Not got the official results yet but I was definitely inside 23 minutes for the first time. Slow going out but very fast on the wind assisted way back- was third to Simon Yates on a short segment so I reckon that makes me second really. :p

https://www.strava.com/activities/561153196

Racing there again on Monday, still feel a bit of tiredness from Mallorca so will be good to see improvements as that starts to dissipate.
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Yep seasuckers, only option really.

Running my Chinese carbon 50mm and corima disc. But gonna put it all up for sale this weekend to buy a new one! I'll probably bundle it with the Dolan to encourage a sale.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Sounds good Berger! I think you may be racing with a guy I know, Cameron Judson?

First day of the May 3 day stage race for me today. Enjoyable race and we rode really well as a team protecting each others breaks and chasing when needed. One of my team mates when 2up with another chap on the last lap and took the win, I managed to get 3rd in the remaining bunch sprint for 5th overall.

Looking forward to the next couple of days, although tomorrow's course doesn't suit me in the least! Super hilly.
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Checked the results and he beat me by 1 second :p

Pretty big bloke from memory, I remember the Syd Uni kit.
 
Eiugh, another day another TT! So tired!!!!

Another 10 miler, but on a more sporting lumpy course today, weather ewas so much better, but still fresh first thing, I was last man off and had a terrible warm up lasting a whopping 13 minutes....

Made a few changes from last night, arms felt massively more comfortable, but saddle not so much, going to be some tweaking going on over the next few weeks, just need to get down to lots of TTs!

Went out fairly quickly, then said to myself settle down, so eased in a bit more and next few miles was a bit easier on a rolling A road. Then the turn and the hills started, up out the tuck all the way, was hard work on the way back but legs woke up a little. But still after 3 TTs in 4 days I certainly felt lacking in power. Got round in 26:06, PB by 5 seconds once again about 15W down! So the bike is certainly helping. Now time to relax.

https://www.strava.com/activities/561679288
 
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Thomas. PLease. said:
My May 3 Day stage race write up on my blog below:

http://www.twhatley.com/

Sadly didn't end as well as it all started!
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Awesome write up Thomas! Really enjoyed that :D
Such a shame in the end, sods law is always on the card and you guys just got so unlucky but seems you have taken a mass of confidence away and most importantly you had a great weekend. Your teams ability to take up command of the bunch and for yourself to feel comfy sitting on the back and moving up and dictating your own race is all massive positives to take away. You sound and seem very confident in your racing, that makes such a huge difference and seems to be the case with your team, sounds like a great little group of guys you have there :cool:
 
Thanks xdcx, yeah racing has really taken an improvement this year. Last year in a lot of 2/3 races I was just hanging on. This year I can really choose when to animate the race and when to close gaps, move around the bunch etc. Has made racing a lot more exciting, even if at the moment the results aren't quite feeding through!
 
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