Friday, February 13, 2015
Friday the 13th oceania TT!
Friday the 13th oceania TT!
While alot of people fear misfortune on todays day and date, I was optimistic it would bring me some good fortune!! By days end it would prove to be the case and while I fell short of it being a perfect day of fortune I certainly finished Friday the 13th with a pretty big smile on my dial. For the past 4 weeks I've been very focused on the Oceania TT which was held today in toowoomba and when the dust settled on the 40km race against the clock I had finally got myself back on a TT podium. It seems a long long time ago now that I was a decent time trialist. Sadly over the past few years i simpl have not done the work on the TT and I've been hopeless at it as a result! Today I was determined to simply give it all I could muster and see if I could get back amongst it on the TT rig.
The Oceania championships is quite a cool little event. While it's far from the glitz and glamour of the big european races, or even the big Aussie races we have just had over the past month, its unique in it's own way. It's held in a more remote country area usually which in 2015 is toowoomba, right on the top of the great dividing range. I love coming to events like this as I get to do it with the gang from the TIS. I have a soft spot for going to races with the tassie sporting gang as it's what interstate trips always involved in my young sporting days. I felt particularly familiar coming out to toowoomba as the last time I'd driven out the a2 highway from Brisbane I was headed to 2001 national rowing championships at lake wivenhoe. I had a pretty successful trip that time winning the school boy single skull, figured it had to be a good Oman ahead of the Oceania champs. There are no team buses, trucks, stickered up race cars, massage therapists or expert mechanics at your bec and call. No there are replaced with the Toyota hiace renta van. There is often no fancy hotels on these trips, infect this time we are staying in a caravan park. It's funny as I've been so spoilt with hotels in my time that you could get a little snot nosed at staying in a caravan park?? Nah not me, I love it and not so much because I'm in a caravan park but these types of accom represent these type of Aussie sporting trips.
I have to admit I was pretty jolly nervous when I woke up this morning. Although I could hardly call the 4 weeks I've focused on this event a hugely sacrificing period of my life it's certainly been on mind each and everyday so obviously I wanted to see some return for the work I'd put in. That's a positive and negative all in one as you are completely in control of how hard you push yourself so can dictate to an extent how well you perform. It's a negative as I've you ride like a softy you get your backside handed to you and Theres only one person to blame! So I've had m fair share of ass whippings lately so at the very least if I was going to put myself on the startline today I was going get everything out of my body no matter what shape it was in. I went into the race with a pretty clear race plan after some solid recon of the course yesterday. The course was pretty simple. 5km straight line dead flat, turn left, another 5km with a nasty 100m 20% wall half was only, do a u turn and ride back to where you started from. Once back to where you started do another u turn and do it all over again! Pretty simple! As I said Id studied the course pretty well yesterday and there were a few factors. Firstly the wind, head wind one way, tail the other! 2nd the climb, 3rd the heat, 4th the dead roads which DS Dave Sanders reiterated there condition to me by saying they were as "dead as Roy Orbison" just to ensure I really knew how slow they were!! He is an absolute crack up!
The other little factor of these events is you need to be organized! Well I'm not really used to organizing everything myself, been way to spoilt in my cycling career, my entire sporting career for that matter! Funnily enough was funny talking to hepburn after the race who said exactly the same thing. With greenedge he always have everything at his beck and call but up here he was largely left to his own devices aswell. It's funny the small things you take for granted like race food. All of a sudden it's not all laid out for you on a table under your shaded warmup area. No your at the supermarket buying it all and worrying about what you have forgotten! Then warmup your trying to find a shady tree or something similar to set up the turbo trainer. Then there's getting your bike ready! Ok we are exactly without resources, there's heads of mechanics here whom are always very happy to help but it's still something to think about. I was jolly lucky to even have my bike on the start line as my disk wheel got destroyed in transit here. Fortunately Andrew Christie Johnston, the owner of the avanti team was on my speed dial to bail me out. Andrew is a legend and is always there in a time of need and he had me up and running with one of his fancy disk wheels. Stuy sanders who's another gem of the sport here in australia ensured that was fitted properly and the bike was running tickedy boo and I was ready to rumble. It's very good for you to realize how much is done for you at all these races, certainly makes you appreciate it even more. Everyone in a cycling team lis without a doubt all equally crucial in ensuring that the wheels go round and round as well as possible!
Back to the tt and after a bit of analyzing with our TIS team manager Ron tubby Bryan and my dad we came up with a pretty good strategy. The first half of the circuit was head wind and we figured this would be telling, particularly on the 2nd lap. The idea with this was therefore to hold a little back on the first and give it grief on the 2nd lap into the wind, pretty simple. The 2nd factor was the hill which being so short but steep still had the potential to take the edge of you if you tried to smash over it but if you backed of a little you could save the legs and drop just a few seconds which you would likely take back later in the course with fresh legs. So was decided to use a small gear there. 3rd the heat, well can't do much about that but make sure your well hydrated and mentally prepare yourself to get pretty jolly hot under the color out there so tha was a simple one. And finally combating the dead roads simply meant there was no free speed anywhere on the course, not even the fast decents, if you stopped pedaling at all you slowed down even going down hill, you simply needed to keep the pressure on the pedals all day no matter how much you were suffering. I was actually happy about this as I spend alot of hours on the ergo so this I felt gave me a little bit of an edge! So with all that considered I hatched the following race plan. Go put solid and try and keep my heart rate below 185beats (my threshold) for the first lap. Then on the 2nd lap into the wind give it some herbs and build up to around 190 beats and then simply give it all I had for the 10km run home toward 195-200beats. Pretty simple hey? Oh and above all else I wanted to give myself a chance at winning which meant at some point rolling the dice a little!! Well here's my execution of it!!
Warm up-
When I'm nervous before a TT I'm simply champing at the bit to get the warmup started. This is a good sign as I know that I'm ready to do a good ride and just want to get on with the job. Well today I was so nervous I was shaking so brought the start of my warmup forward a few min to settle the nerves and get in the zone. Sure enough as I rolled off on the road bike for a quick 30min get the legs rolling spin before the the final tune up on the turbo trainer I instantly was relaxed. Legs felt light and effortless and I was ready to go. Once the warmup begins it's all so systematic down to the minute, 30min on the Rd bike, on the tt bike on the turbo 45min before start time, off the turbo to skin suit up and helmet on 10min before start time, then off to the start between 5-6min before kickoff to check the bike, chill out, final stretch, and on the start line! While I'm on the turbo I choose the fm radio instead of the iPod and my old man is there to ensure I'm drinking the right drinks and have everything set before kick off.
Fortunately for me dad still loves coming to the races and takes great pride in his glamorous role of tyre pumper uppera! Logistics liaison! And just generally still being for those moments when I've forgotten or need something and even at 31 years old have the desperate "Daaaddd" tone in my voice when I need and extra gell, towel, or some cold water! Yep he's still doing the same things for me at these national events he's benign doing since my first rowing nationals as a 15 year old in Adelaide, I'm pretty sure he still enjoys it as much aswell. His only difficult is he hasn't ever come to terms with the fact that I can carry or pedal my own bike to and from the start/finish line! At rowing he got to carry the boat aswell so feels a little surplus to requirement a those moments during my race days but none the less he always seems pretty chirpy about being in amongst it.
Anyways back to the warmup and once on the turbo trainer the earplugs go in and I start to go into the zone. I slowly but surely warm up all the energy systems over the next 35min to be red and raring to go come start time. I start of with 10min building up to medium intensity. Have a few min off the 2 lots of 5min building up to race pace with a few min off between. I finish of with 1min at VO2 intensity then I'm ready to go. I know from the warmup if I'm a chance to do well as all the efforts should feel easy. Well let's face it your in big trouble if you struggle to do a few min at the same intensity you plan on doing 50min for!! Anyways today was a great warmup and I was ready to go. 10min before the start I was off the turbo, towel off, helmet on, dad slid the rear disc into the trusty cannondale slice RS, quick stretch and off to the start right on schedule 6min before kickoff! Bike check all good and I was finally in the starters house staring at that screen, WURF 5-4-3-2-1 go time!!
1st lap-
Out of the start ramp and I was quickly into my stride. I flung around the left hand corner that started the first 6km straight drag into the wind. I was eager to start this section as when your on a good day you don't seem to notice the head wind. Yeah sure your going a little slower than normal but it doesn't bother you, you feel like you can plow into it. Well I really felt good here and was around 2-3kmph quicker than I anticipated or planned! Yep that's where I made my first big mistake for the day. I got all amped up by how good I felt and believed I could go that extra few % harder than I had meticulously planned. In other words in those first 2-3km's I got my ambitions and capabilities a little jumbled up. Anyways I was committed and while the signs of over revving kept smacking me in the face I ignored them and charged on. My heart rate was at 180beats after 5min so around 20minutes earlier so I just put it down to the heat and freshness and it didn't bother me that much. After 6km I had taken 40seconds out of my minute man and knew I was going quick and needed to be a little reserved so backed it off a bit. Still with the carrot now there right in front of me I didn't back off much and by the time i had ridden 11km I was past him. Now with the tail breeze up my backside I was honking along at 55-60kmph toward the turn. I kept the pace on with my heart rate already settled in around 192 so I was well and truly on the rev limiter. As I came back I could see the guys coming toward me and only Hepburn looked a threat. I know seems presumptuous and impossible to tell riding in the opposite direction but you can sense atherosclerosis riders pace and his poise certainly made know I was in for a fight. Still this also gave me motivation as I was about to enter the section I was confident would make or break my tilt at the title as I began my second lap so I took a few deep breathes, rounded the cone and headed out on what was going to be a very painful final 20km!
Lap 2-
As I hit the head wind for the 2nd time I still had that good feeling. I felt ontop of the breeze if that makes any sense and was relieved that there was still some life in my pins. As I swung left onto the dead roads toward the little kicker and top end of the course for the 2nd time the questions in my head began. I was really starting to feel those dead roads and my head rate was pumping away at 195, I was at my limit. I had mentally prepared for this and knew that when I felt the dead roads I simply had to keep pedaling, everybody would be suffering backing off to gain some rest bite would be a disaster so just had to grit the teeth. When I hit the top of the little kicker for the 2nd time I knew I was in survival mode big time as this time around I was craving a respite on the decent! The lap before I accelerated nicely over the top and down the other side, I needed to stay focused. At the top turn around with 10km to go i got a few seconds reprieve as I rounded the cone and it gave me a bit of a 100wind!! I will and trully used up my 2nd-99th in the first 30km!! At this point i knew i was still on a flyer. The splits would later back me up on this as i was 2seconds up on hepburn at that final turn. Unlike him i had no idea of any splits as i didn't have a race radio. Would it have made any difference?? Maby but probably not. Sure it would have been nice to be re enforced how far ahead I was but in reality I was cooked, no amount of encouragement can make you ride any harder when you've simply put yourself way to far into the red zone in an individual TT. Infect at this point all you can hope for is that your far enough ahead that you hang on for the win or your rivals are slowly as rapidly as you are, basically your no longer in control of the outcome, just cross the fingers!! By now my heart rate had been around 190beats for nearly 40min and it was as simple as getting every last little bit of energy out of my flagging body. This was the plan all along mind you to hang on from this point, only problem was I realistically had been hanging on for around 5km more than I could handle in my current condition. Sure enough as I swung around the final right hander with 6km to go and that big tail breeze hit my backside the speed didn't go up as much as it needed to. On the first lap I was 55-60kmph comfortably, on the all important run to the finish i was flat out doing 50kmph. It was all I could do to turn the pedals around, the feeling was well and truly gone from my legs and so was the power. The pulse was banging away at 200beats and I was well and truly groveling to the finish. I could see a drapac rider up ahead around 30seconds and knew that was the race. I'd been catching adam one an who started a few min ahead all day and knew I needed to get him to win. I don't know why but just had a feeling that that was the marker. Try as I may I couldn't get going to make any further inroads to Adam and when I crossed the line I knew I was going to come up short. I knew I would be close between heppi and I as knew how draining the course was and there was always the chance he over cooked it aswell. As he had my splits and with all his experience I knew this was unlikely as he would have know with 5km go I'd slowed big time and he really turned the screws on me in those final km's. He told me he was doing 60kmph down there and that's the 38sec difference he would eventually pump into me. After going toe to toe with him all day he showed his class and superior condition by having that bit when it mattered most so was a very deserved winner so well done heppi. It was a relief to see him looking just as demolished as me after the finish as I could be content in the fact that I had at least made him work for it.
When it's all said and done I was really happy with my performance. That first 5km's of excitement proved to be my undoing in those final 5km's. It's funny but just backing off 1-2kmph there could have made 5-10kmph difference coming the other way into the finish. In reality it would have made the 38seconds I needed to fend of heppi so doesn't matter anyways, I was beaten. Anyways a good lesson to trust and believe in your pacing. To be honest while I believed I could do a good TT yesterday I was also scared I wouldn't and thats the way rode it. I got my tail up and instead of riding a calculated ride I rode on the whim of hope. In other words I hoped I could handle the pace I was pushing. Its been 3 years since I rode a competitive TT so it's normal to have reservations which I won't have next time I line up in such an event. The most important thing for me to get out of this event was the belief back that I could ride a good TT again. I knew I hadn't down the work to do a phenomenal performance, I simply haunt made the sacrifices over the past 8 months to be an elite athlete but I knew I'd done enough work to get a glimpse of whether or not it was still in there. It's a huge relief to me and extremely motivating that that first 30km gave me all the answers that I needed and I'm now really excited to put my head down and focus again on the race against the clock in the future!! job done
Cjw
Sent from my iPad
While alot of people fear misfortune on todays day and date, I was optimistic it would bring me some good fortune!! By days end it would prove to be the case and while I fell short of it being a perfect day of fortune I certainly finished Friday the 13th with a pretty big smile on my dial. For the past 4 weeks I've been very focused on the Oceania TT which was held today in toowoomba and when the dust settled on the 40km race against the clock I had finally got myself back on a TT podium. It seems a long long time ago now that I was a decent time trialist. Sadly over the past few years i simpl have not done the work on the TT and I've been hopeless at it as a result! Today I was determined to simply give it all I could muster and see if I could get back amongst it on the TT rig.
The Oceania championships is quite a cool little event. While it's far from the glitz and glamour of the big european races, or even the big Aussie races we have just had over the past month, its unique in it's own way. It's held in a more remote country area usually which in 2015 is toowoomba, right on the top of the great dividing range. I love coming to events like this as I get to do it with the gang from the TIS. I have a soft spot for going to races with the tassie sporting gang as it's what interstate trips always involved in my young sporting days. I felt particularly familiar coming out to toowoomba as the last time I'd driven out the a2 highway from Brisbane I was headed to 2001 national rowing championships at lake wivenhoe. I had a pretty successful trip that time winning the school boy single skull, figured it had to be a good Oman ahead of the Oceania champs. There are no team buses, trucks, stickered up race cars, massage therapists or expert mechanics at your bec and call. No there are replaced with the Toyota hiace renta van. There is often no fancy hotels on these trips, infect this time we are staying in a caravan park. It's funny as I've been so spoilt with hotels in my time that you could get a little snot nosed at staying in a caravan park?? Nah not me, I love it and not so much because I'm in a caravan park but these types of accom represent these type of Aussie sporting trips.
I have to admit I was pretty jolly nervous when I woke up this morning. Although I could hardly call the 4 weeks I've focused on this event a hugely sacrificing period of my life it's certainly been on mind each and everyday so obviously I wanted to see some return for the work I'd put in. That's a positive and negative all in one as you are completely in control of how hard you push yourself so can dictate to an extent how well you perform. It's a negative as I've you ride like a softy you get your backside handed to you and Theres only one person to blame! So I've had m fair share of ass whippings lately so at the very least if I was going to put myself on the startline today I was going get everything out of my body no matter what shape it was in. I went into the race with a pretty clear race plan after some solid recon of the course yesterday. The course was pretty simple. 5km straight line dead flat, turn left, another 5km with a nasty 100m 20% wall half was only, do a u turn and ride back to where you started from. Once back to where you started do another u turn and do it all over again! Pretty simple! As I said Id studied the course pretty well yesterday and there were a few factors. Firstly the wind, head wind one way, tail the other! 2nd the climb, 3rd the heat, 4th the dead roads which DS Dave Sanders reiterated there condition to me by saying they were as "dead as Roy Orbison" just to ensure I really knew how slow they were!! He is an absolute crack up!
The other little factor of these events is you need to be organized! Well I'm not really used to organizing everything myself, been way to spoilt in my cycling career, my entire sporting career for that matter! Funnily enough was funny talking to hepburn after the race who said exactly the same thing. With greenedge he always have everything at his beck and call but up here he was largely left to his own devices aswell. It's funny the small things you take for granted like race food. All of a sudden it's not all laid out for you on a table under your shaded warmup area. No your at the supermarket buying it all and worrying about what you have forgotten! Then warmup your trying to find a shady tree or something similar to set up the turbo trainer. Then there's getting your bike ready! Ok we are exactly without resources, there's heads of mechanics here whom are always very happy to help but it's still something to think about. I was jolly lucky to even have my bike on the start line as my disk wheel got destroyed in transit here. Fortunately Andrew Christie Johnston, the owner of the avanti team was on my speed dial to bail me out. Andrew is a legend and is always there in a time of need and he had me up and running with one of his fancy disk wheels. Stuy sanders who's another gem of the sport here in australia ensured that was fitted properly and the bike was running tickedy boo and I was ready to rumble. It's very good for you to realize how much is done for you at all these races, certainly makes you appreciate it even more. Everyone in a cycling team lis without a doubt all equally crucial in ensuring that the wheels go round and round as well as possible!
Back to the tt and after a bit of analyzing with our TIS team manager Ron tubby Bryan and my dad we came up with a pretty good strategy. The first half of the circuit was head wind and we figured this would be telling, particularly on the 2nd lap. The idea with this was therefore to hold a little back on the first and give it grief on the 2nd lap into the wind, pretty simple. The 2nd factor was the hill which being so short but steep still had the potential to take the edge of you if you tried to smash over it but if you backed of a little you could save the legs and drop just a few seconds which you would likely take back later in the course with fresh legs. So was decided to use a small gear there. 3rd the heat, well can't do much about that but make sure your well hydrated and mentally prepare yourself to get pretty jolly hot under the color out there so tha was a simple one. And finally combating the dead roads simply meant there was no free speed anywhere on the course, not even the fast decents, if you stopped pedaling at all you slowed down even going down hill, you simply needed to keep the pressure on the pedals all day no matter how much you were suffering. I was actually happy about this as I spend alot of hours on the ergo so this I felt gave me a little bit of an edge! So with all that considered I hatched the following race plan. Go put solid and try and keep my heart rate below 185beats (my threshold) for the first lap. Then on the 2nd lap into the wind give it some herbs and build up to around 190 beats and then simply give it all I had for the 10km run home toward 195-200beats. Pretty simple hey? Oh and above all else I wanted to give myself a chance at winning which meant at some point rolling the dice a little!! Well here's my execution of it!!
Warm up-
When I'm nervous before a TT I'm simply champing at the bit to get the warmup started. This is a good sign as I know that I'm ready to do a good ride and just want to get on with the job. Well today I was so nervous I was shaking so brought the start of my warmup forward a few min to settle the nerves and get in the zone. Sure enough as I rolled off on the road bike for a quick 30min get the legs rolling spin before the the final tune up on the turbo trainer I instantly was relaxed. Legs felt light and effortless and I was ready to go. Once the warmup begins it's all so systematic down to the minute, 30min on the Rd bike, on the tt bike on the turbo 45min before start time, off the turbo to skin suit up and helmet on 10min before start time, then off to the start between 5-6min before kickoff to check the bike, chill out, final stretch, and on the start line! While I'm on the turbo I choose the fm radio instead of the iPod and my old man is there to ensure I'm drinking the right drinks and have everything set before kick off.
Fortunately for me dad still loves coming to the races and takes great pride in his glamorous role of tyre pumper uppera! Logistics liaison! And just generally still being for those moments when I've forgotten or need something and even at 31 years old have the desperate "Daaaddd" tone in my voice when I need and extra gell, towel, or some cold water! Yep he's still doing the same things for me at these national events he's benign doing since my first rowing nationals as a 15 year old in Adelaide, I'm pretty sure he still enjoys it as much aswell. His only difficult is he hasn't ever come to terms with the fact that I can carry or pedal my own bike to and from the start/finish line! At rowing he got to carry the boat aswell so feels a little surplus to requirement a those moments during my race days but none the less he always seems pretty chirpy about being in amongst it.
Anyways back to the warmup and once on the turbo trainer the earplugs go in and I start to go into the zone. I slowly but surely warm up all the energy systems over the next 35min to be red and raring to go come start time. I start of with 10min building up to medium intensity. Have a few min off the 2 lots of 5min building up to race pace with a few min off between. I finish of with 1min at VO2 intensity then I'm ready to go. I know from the warmup if I'm a chance to do well as all the efforts should feel easy. Well let's face it your in big trouble if you struggle to do a few min at the same intensity you plan on doing 50min for!! Anyways today was a great warmup and I was ready to go. 10min before the start I was off the turbo, towel off, helmet on, dad slid the rear disc into the trusty cannondale slice RS, quick stretch and off to the start right on schedule 6min before kickoff! Bike check all good and I was finally in the starters house staring at that screen, WURF 5-4-3-2-1 go time!!
1st lap-
Out of the start ramp and I was quickly into my stride. I flung around the left hand corner that started the first 6km straight drag into the wind. I was eager to start this section as when your on a good day you don't seem to notice the head wind. Yeah sure your going a little slower than normal but it doesn't bother you, you feel like you can plow into it. Well I really felt good here and was around 2-3kmph quicker than I anticipated or planned! Yep that's where I made my first big mistake for the day. I got all amped up by how good I felt and believed I could go that extra few % harder than I had meticulously planned. In other words in those first 2-3km's I got my ambitions and capabilities a little jumbled up. Anyways I was committed and while the signs of over revving kept smacking me in the face I ignored them and charged on. My heart rate was at 180beats after 5min so around 20minutes earlier so I just put it down to the heat and freshness and it didn't bother me that much. After 6km I had taken 40seconds out of my minute man and knew I was going quick and needed to be a little reserved so backed it off a bit. Still with the carrot now there right in front of me I didn't back off much and by the time i had ridden 11km I was past him. Now with the tail breeze up my backside I was honking along at 55-60kmph toward the turn. I kept the pace on with my heart rate already settled in around 192 so I was well and truly on the rev limiter. As I came back I could see the guys coming toward me and only Hepburn looked a threat. I know seems presumptuous and impossible to tell riding in the opposite direction but you can sense atherosclerosis riders pace and his poise certainly made know I was in for a fight. Still this also gave me motivation as I was about to enter the section I was confident would make or break my tilt at the title as I began my second lap so I took a few deep breathes, rounded the cone and headed out on what was going to be a very painful final 20km!
Lap 2-
As I hit the head wind for the 2nd time I still had that good feeling. I felt ontop of the breeze if that makes any sense and was relieved that there was still some life in my pins. As I swung left onto the dead roads toward the little kicker and top end of the course for the 2nd time the questions in my head began. I was really starting to feel those dead roads and my head rate was pumping away at 195, I was at my limit. I had mentally prepared for this and knew that when I felt the dead roads I simply had to keep pedaling, everybody would be suffering backing off to gain some rest bite would be a disaster so just had to grit the teeth. When I hit the top of the little kicker for the 2nd time I knew I was in survival mode big time as this time around I was craving a respite on the decent! The lap before I accelerated nicely over the top and down the other side, I needed to stay focused. At the top turn around with 10km to go i got a few seconds reprieve as I rounded the cone and it gave me a bit of a 100wind!! I will and trully used up my 2nd-99th in the first 30km!! At this point i knew i was still on a flyer. The splits would later back me up on this as i was 2seconds up on hepburn at that final turn. Unlike him i had no idea of any splits as i didn't have a race radio. Would it have made any difference?? Maby but probably not. Sure it would have been nice to be re enforced how far ahead I was but in reality I was cooked, no amount of encouragement can make you ride any harder when you've simply put yourself way to far into the red zone in an individual TT. Infect at this point all you can hope for is that your far enough ahead that you hang on for the win or your rivals are slowly as rapidly as you are, basically your no longer in control of the outcome, just cross the fingers!! By now my heart rate had been around 190beats for nearly 40min and it was as simple as getting every last little bit of energy out of my flagging body. This was the plan all along mind you to hang on from this point, only problem was I realistically had been hanging on for around 5km more than I could handle in my current condition. Sure enough as I swung around the final right hander with 6km to go and that big tail breeze hit my backside the speed didn't go up as much as it needed to. On the first lap I was 55-60kmph comfortably, on the all important run to the finish i was flat out doing 50kmph. It was all I could do to turn the pedals around, the feeling was well and truly gone from my legs and so was the power. The pulse was banging away at 200beats and I was well and truly groveling to the finish. I could see a drapac rider up ahead around 30seconds and knew that was the race. I'd been catching adam one an who started a few min ahead all day and knew I needed to get him to win. I don't know why but just had a feeling that that was the marker. Try as I may I couldn't get going to make any further inroads to Adam and when I crossed the line I knew I was going to come up short. I knew I would be close between heppi and I as knew how draining the course was and there was always the chance he over cooked it aswell. As he had my splits and with all his experience I knew this was unlikely as he would have know with 5km go I'd slowed big time and he really turned the screws on me in those final km's. He told me he was doing 60kmph down there and that's the 38sec difference he would eventually pump into me. After going toe to toe with him all day he showed his class and superior condition by having that bit when it mattered most so was a very deserved winner so well done heppi. It was a relief to see him looking just as demolished as me after the finish as I could be content in the fact that I had at least made him work for it.
When it's all said and done I was really happy with my performance. That first 5km's of excitement proved to be my undoing in those final 5km's. It's funny but just backing off 1-2kmph there could have made 5-10kmph difference coming the other way into the finish. In reality it would have made the 38seconds I needed to fend of heppi so doesn't matter anyways, I was beaten. Anyways a good lesson to trust and believe in your pacing. To be honest while I believed I could do a good TT yesterday I was also scared I wouldn't and thats the way rode it. I got my tail up and instead of riding a calculated ride I rode on the whim of hope. In other words I hoped I could handle the pace I was pushing. Its been 3 years since I rode a competitive TT so it's normal to have reservations which I won't have next time I line up in such an event. The most important thing for me to get out of this event was the belief back that I could ride a good TT again. I knew I hadn't down the work to do a phenomenal performance, I simply haunt made the sacrifices over the past 8 months to be an elite athlete but I knew I'd done enough work to get a glimpse of whether or not it was still in there. It's a huge relief to me and extremely motivating that that first 30km gave me all the answers that I needed and I'm now really excited to put my head down and focus again on the race against the clock in the future!! job done
Cjw
Sent from my iPad
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Stage 4 Suntour
Stage 4 Suntour
The final stage of the Suntour is a real doozey!! There is always suspense till the very end at the Suntour thanks to the final stage finish on the iconic arthurs seat climb. The stage is set down on the morning ton peninsula and has that many twists and turns and lumps and bumps that you feel sea sick at times, there simply isn't a flat section of road in the entire course. Through in the constant flutter of breeze that seems forever present in the area and with all the changes in direction you really have to stay on your toes to ensure your not caught out. While the previous couple of days had all been about steele, the final stage and with the summit finish at argues seat was all about our gc men chris and laughlan to see what they could. We had a fair bit of faith in particularly lauchie for today of a high finish so the plan was pretty simple, get him to base of the final climb as fresh as possible. Following a big 80km loop of the peninsula we had 3 well balanced 16km circuits including the arthurs seat climb to tackle befor the finish at the summit on the 3rd assent. Wight he tricky course and the wind and off course the importance of the final climb for the overall battle in the race, it was always going to be a pretty stressful and challenging stage and it didn't disappoint.
Our man of steele Von Hoff was on his home roads. Sure enough as the flag dropped for the start he was off like a rocket ship in the days early breakaway giving his family friends and fans a good chance to cheer him on all day. The rest of our lads got together in the group and began the day long stressful battle for position ensuring lauchie and chris had as easy a ride as possible. Fortunately I was feeling even better today so figured it was best I take the role of positioning the boys and make good use of the extra fuel I finally started feeling in my pins. On a twisty, windy, undulating course like today the peleton is always stretched out in one big long line so position is even more crucial as the further back you are the more yoyo you have to endure and the more sting it saps out of your legs. Therefore my role role to ensure we were always in the right spot to save the boys valuable energy and also ensure we didn't miss any potential splits in the peleton. It's a simple job really provided your prepared to use plenty of energy. It's alway easy to sit in the wheel at the front but if you can't get a space in the line in a good possi you simply have to form another line and ride in the wind. This can obviously be pretty draining but it makes a huge difference for the boys behind you not wasting energy fighting wind and fighting for position. Also when you are in the long line and it's in the gutter you not real helping your boys as if your in the gutter the guy behind gets less coverage than you do so I always sit on the outside of the wheel in front to give my man behind maximum protection. Basically on a day like today you simply think at every moment where can I ride to save energy for my team mate behind as It could be the difference between a good and greater result for the team. So around the 80km circuit i boxed on in the bunch for good posi for the boys and we were finally at the base of the climb for the start of the circuits. I was not surprisingly pretty cooked by this point so made sure I positioned the guys right at the front at the base of the climb so I would have plenty of paces to drop back through the group and stay at the front of the race for as long as possible!
So onto the climb we went for the first time in perfect posi. I set up camp behind the avanti team doing all the work on the front which meant I had a nice content rhythm to follow. Fortunately my condition seemed to be returning and I was actually finally able to recover a little on the climb as was no longer having to ride in the wind and fight for position as the pace was such that everyone was happy where they were positioned. Lauchie and chris looked good so all was going according to plan for the korda mentha national team boys. By the top I had got my second wind and was ready for my next role should I have the energy, cover any dangerous counter attacks. A few went and I quickly followed but none were at all threatening. With such small gaps on gc none of the big players were going to be able to go anywhere and we were back in the climb for the 2nd time before we knew it. The 2nd time up was much like the first and a nice solid tempo with no attacks. As expected everyone seemed keen on saving the pins for the final climb and try and make a difference there. Was funny day really as on the big 80km loop I spent so much energy holding is in a good position that I was fried by the time we reached the circuits. Fortunately then the more constant pace of the climb had actually freshened me up a little and I was ready to do whatever I could for lauchie on the final climb.
Before we knew it we were finally at the base of the final assent of arthurs seat and just 3km away form the end of the tour. The boys were in a great posi so we had done our job and given them the best chance to strut there stuff on the final climb. As expected the pace on the final time up really ramped up and now I was reminded of the work done earlier in the day as the turbo was well and truly gone! I had the chew chew train legs but anything over and I was instantly aboard the pain train. Anyways I gritted my teeth and hung in aslong as I could to be there for lauchie if required but when the first big attack came with 2km to go the leaders went one way and I went the other, I didn't have any kick in me today. Unfortunately lauchie didn't have the day he planned as he visibly had untimely cramps in the final km or so. As great as it would have been to see him do one of his devastating attacks it just wasn't meant to be today. Lauchie is having a quiet year this year so hasn't done anywhere near the racing or hard preparation he normally would for this time of the year. He'll focus on the big tours in the USA later in the year at altitude with Utah and Colorado so is slowly building up to them. I can understand where he is at as I'm in the same boat, infect I haven't even done any motor pacing this year preferring to just go out and ride and hope to have some decent race condition. I certainly paid for it in the first couple of stages but was a nice feeling to feel the legs hardening back up to the demands of racing the final couple of stages. I was certainly a tired boy but knew I needed a good blowout so was happy to still play apart in the race in the last few stages. Anyways that was that, bit of an anticlimax day for our boys but we did what we planed to do everyday in giving our guys a shot and that's all we could ask of ourselves as we were simply outgunned by better riders.
Once I crossed the line it struck me that the race was over. I felt however like I was jus getting going again and didn't want to the of the bike. I round up the Morton boys said lets ride back to Melbourne. These guys are absolute champions of men and didn't hesitate in saying rightio. It want until we had ridden 10km that they actually asked how far it was as really they didn't care. This was a chance for us to enjoy riding our bikes outside the structure of a race for the first time in a few days and the chinwag home was what the 3 of us most cared about. Besides these two boys rode form port Macquarie to uluru in the off season so riding long days isn't something that bothers them. As great as the whole team was this week riding with the Morton boys was something I'll remember for a long time. They always and I mean always have something exciting to talk about. Infect every night at dinner there stories had us in that much laugher that I had a sore stomach and saw excellent gains in m 6 pack during the 5days! The ride home back to Melbourne was our first chance to really just hang out in an environment it became apparent we share the passion for hanging out in! On a bicycle. In a year that seas the Morton boys and I headed down a similar path with or cycling i guess it was no surprise we got along pretty well. When we finally mad our way back to st kilda at 8pm we figured we may aswell stop at the bar for a quick end of season beverage. It was st kilda festival so people everywhere so I was a little scared when I rolled into the pub and ordered 3 schooners dressed in my Lycra! Fortunately I got the bears, myself, and my wallet back out to the boys with just a few wise cracks, think they were scared of giving me a hard time as I left my helmet on for safety! Always the Morton boys and I had an awesome afternoon discussing everything and everything and a little bit of cycling. We made some plans which will come to fruition throughout the year which we are all pretty excited about. That's an understatement really as some of the adventures we have come up with had us bouncing out of our skin but more on that later. Was a great way to wrap up a great week racing around victoria with an awesome group of guys. Sow to the mortons, davo, Stuy, chris, steels, nick, leanne, and of course the wonderful group of people at Korda mentha who sponsored the national tema for the event thankyou very much for being part of such a an eventful week! Next stop toowoomba and the Oceania TT.
Cjw
Sent from my iPad
The final stage of the Suntour is a real doozey!! There is always suspense till the very end at the Suntour thanks to the final stage finish on the iconic arthurs seat climb. The stage is set down on the morning ton peninsula and has that many twists and turns and lumps and bumps that you feel sea sick at times, there simply isn't a flat section of road in the entire course. Through in the constant flutter of breeze that seems forever present in the area and with all the changes in direction you really have to stay on your toes to ensure your not caught out. While the previous couple of days had all been about steele, the final stage and with the summit finish at argues seat was all about our gc men chris and laughlan to see what they could. We had a fair bit of faith in particularly lauchie for today of a high finish so the plan was pretty simple, get him to base of the final climb as fresh as possible. Following a big 80km loop of the peninsula we had 3 well balanced 16km circuits including the arthurs seat climb to tackle befor the finish at the summit on the 3rd assent. Wight he tricky course and the wind and off course the importance of the final climb for the overall battle in the race, it was always going to be a pretty stressful and challenging stage and it didn't disappoint.
Our man of steele Von Hoff was on his home roads. Sure enough as the flag dropped for the start he was off like a rocket ship in the days early breakaway giving his family friends and fans a good chance to cheer him on all day. The rest of our lads got together in the group and began the day long stressful battle for position ensuring lauchie and chris had as easy a ride as possible. Fortunately I was feeling even better today so figured it was best I take the role of positioning the boys and make good use of the extra fuel I finally started feeling in my pins. On a twisty, windy, undulating course like today the peleton is always stretched out in one big long line so position is even more crucial as the further back you are the more yoyo you have to endure and the more sting it saps out of your legs. Therefore my role role to ensure we were always in the right spot to save the boys valuable energy and also ensure we didn't miss any potential splits in the peleton. It's a simple job really provided your prepared to use plenty of energy. It's alway easy to sit in the wheel at the front but if you can't get a space in the line in a good possi you simply have to form another line and ride in the wind. This can obviously be pretty draining but it makes a huge difference for the boys behind you not wasting energy fighting wind and fighting for position. Also when you are in the long line and it's in the gutter you not real helping your boys as if your in the gutter the guy behind gets less coverage than you do so I always sit on the outside of the wheel in front to give my man behind maximum protection. Basically on a day like today you simply think at every moment where can I ride to save energy for my team mate behind as It could be the difference between a good and greater result for the team. So around the 80km circuit i boxed on in the bunch for good posi for the boys and we were finally at the base of the climb for the start of the circuits. I was not surprisingly pretty cooked by this point so made sure I positioned the guys right at the front at the base of the climb so I would have plenty of paces to drop back through the group and stay at the front of the race for as long as possible!
So onto the climb we went for the first time in perfect posi. I set up camp behind the avanti team doing all the work on the front which meant I had a nice content rhythm to follow. Fortunately my condition seemed to be returning and I was actually finally able to recover a little on the climb as was no longer having to ride in the wind and fight for position as the pace was such that everyone was happy where they were positioned. Lauchie and chris looked good so all was going according to plan for the korda mentha national team boys. By the top I had got my second wind and was ready for my next role should I have the energy, cover any dangerous counter attacks. A few went and I quickly followed but none were at all threatening. With such small gaps on gc none of the big players were going to be able to go anywhere and we were back in the climb for the 2nd time before we knew it. The 2nd time up was much like the first and a nice solid tempo with no attacks. As expected everyone seemed keen on saving the pins for the final climb and try and make a difference there. Was funny day really as on the big 80km loop I spent so much energy holding is in a good position that I was fried by the time we reached the circuits. Fortunately then the more constant pace of the climb had actually freshened me up a little and I was ready to do whatever I could for lauchie on the final climb.
Before we knew it we were finally at the base of the final assent of arthurs seat and just 3km away form the end of the tour. The boys were in a great posi so we had done our job and given them the best chance to strut there stuff on the final climb. As expected the pace on the final time up really ramped up and now I was reminded of the work done earlier in the day as the turbo was well and truly gone! I had the chew chew train legs but anything over and I was instantly aboard the pain train. Anyways I gritted my teeth and hung in aslong as I could to be there for lauchie if required but when the first big attack came with 2km to go the leaders went one way and I went the other, I didn't have any kick in me today. Unfortunately lauchie didn't have the day he planned as he visibly had untimely cramps in the final km or so. As great as it would have been to see him do one of his devastating attacks it just wasn't meant to be today. Lauchie is having a quiet year this year so hasn't done anywhere near the racing or hard preparation he normally would for this time of the year. He'll focus on the big tours in the USA later in the year at altitude with Utah and Colorado so is slowly building up to them. I can understand where he is at as I'm in the same boat, infect I haven't even done any motor pacing this year preferring to just go out and ride and hope to have some decent race condition. I certainly paid for it in the first couple of stages but was a nice feeling to feel the legs hardening back up to the demands of racing the final couple of stages. I was certainly a tired boy but knew I needed a good blowout so was happy to still play apart in the race in the last few stages. Anyways that was that, bit of an anticlimax day for our boys but we did what we planed to do everyday in giving our guys a shot and that's all we could ask of ourselves as we were simply outgunned by better riders.
Once I crossed the line it struck me that the race was over. I felt however like I was jus getting going again and didn't want to the of the bike. I round up the Morton boys said lets ride back to Melbourne. These guys are absolute champions of men and didn't hesitate in saying rightio. It want until we had ridden 10km that they actually asked how far it was as really they didn't care. This was a chance for us to enjoy riding our bikes outside the structure of a race for the first time in a few days and the chinwag home was what the 3 of us most cared about. Besides these two boys rode form port Macquarie to uluru in the off season so riding long days isn't something that bothers them. As great as the whole team was this week riding with the Morton boys was something I'll remember for a long time. They always and I mean always have something exciting to talk about. Infect every night at dinner there stories had us in that much laugher that I had a sore stomach and saw excellent gains in m 6 pack during the 5days! The ride home back to Melbourne was our first chance to really just hang out in an environment it became apparent we share the passion for hanging out in! On a bicycle. In a year that seas the Morton boys and I headed down a similar path with or cycling i guess it was no surprise we got along pretty well. When we finally mad our way back to st kilda at 8pm we figured we may aswell stop at the bar for a quick end of season beverage. It was st kilda festival so people everywhere so I was a little scared when I rolled into the pub and ordered 3 schooners dressed in my Lycra! Fortunately I got the bears, myself, and my wallet back out to the boys with just a few wise cracks, think they were scared of giving me a hard time as I left my helmet on for safety! Always the Morton boys and I had an awesome afternoon discussing everything and everything and a little bit of cycling. We made some plans which will come to fruition throughout the year which we are all pretty excited about. That's an understatement really as some of the adventures we have come up with had us bouncing out of our skin but more on that later. Was a great way to wrap up a great week racing around victoria with an awesome group of guys. Sow to the mortons, davo, Stuy, chris, steels, nick, leanne, and of course the wonderful group of people at Korda mentha who sponsored the national tema for the event thankyou very much for being part of such a an eventful week! Next stop toowoomba and the Oceania TT.
Cjw
Sent from my iPad
Monday, February 9, 2015
Stage 3 Suntour
Stage 3 Suntour
It was the case of a little bit of groundhog day at the Suntour today with final few km's of the stage identical to that of stage 3. Today we not only finished in negambie but also kicked the stage off there so was a novel day of riding out of the accommodation to the start and also back there after the finish, very very convenient. On paper the stage seemed to most likely come down to a field sprint and our Korda mentha national were more than happy with this and decided to again put our support behind of man of Steele Von Hoff! The tricky part of the stage was Nasty 6km climb midway through the stage which threatened to break the field apart but fortunately we had what I felt was a good plan to ensure we can steele a chance at the bunch gallop.
The stage kicked off ideally with a manageable sized group of 6 riders skipping up the road inside the first 5km. Fortunately a couple of the other teams UHC and MTN also wanted a field sprint and decided to do the early work so our boys could chill out in the peleton before step one of our plan was called upon. The pace was like the day before for the first part of the race, not hard but not solid enough that you were never comfortable. Steele was very confident as usual and made sure we all knew he was keen for the sprint. It's always nice as a team when your sprinter shows this enthusiasm for the bunch gallop battle as latter in the stage when you working your backside of chasing down the breakaway it's always more motivating doing it for a motivated leader. So as we rolled toward the base of the potentially race changing climb the gang sprung into action.
The plan for the long climb was to simply get steele over it as fresh as possible and in a position to ensure a bunch sprint eventuates. We were prepared for the group to be split by the climbers but we wanted to ensure we were close enough and fresh enough at the top to ride Steele back to the front of the bike race. To do this the plan was pretty simple, I would employ my "safety car" technique. It's a pretty simple approach and hopefully works just the same way as in a car race. Set a safe tempo at the front to get through a potentially dangerous section of the race. In this case a dangerous section was the fear of Steele being left behind by attacks on the climb and not being able to return to the front for a crack at a sprint finish. My role was simple, ride on the front at a pace that steele could comfortably handle but also at a pace that made any potential attackers think twice about doing it. My their was that I would ride a t pace until people stopped talking within the group which usually means people are having to work at least a little hard. Also if they did attack we would be at a pace that meant they had to ride very hard to get any sort of a gap, hopefully if they did ride that hard they would be buggered from getting the gap and not be able to hold the attack the 60km to the finish. So onto the front I went and starting feeling for this safety car tempo to tap out. Another factor is by me being able To ride my pace means that I won't be tired at the top and will have plenty of juice in the tank to ride on the from and help keep the race under control to the finish. As I started setting the tempo Lachlan was my eyes on Steele to help set the pace. Initially on the steeper Ramps we had to back it off a little but once steele was through the hard middle section of the climb he really showed his class as a leader getting himself right up on my wheel to dictate the pace fro. Right behind me for the final 3km of the climb. No teams attacked fortunately, doubtful it was a result of our tactics but that doesn't really matter, if they had we were read for it and as we crested the top of the climb the break was In check, peleton was intact and most importantly Steele was feeling great! First step done.
Once down of the climb the was par began, slowly winding in the days breakaway on the final flat 50km run into negambie. The gap was at a manageable 2min so it meant that we just had to keep a steady pressure on the pace as up front the breakaway would be sat ring to feel 100km on the attack in there legs. Our korda mentha boys really rode like a solid unit on the run into town sensing how the chase was going and helping out where required. At 25km to go the gap went out 30seconds or so and Laughlin and Gus showed there class by instantly coming to the front and rippin out two monster turns to rip that advantage straight back of the break and at 20km it was again a manageable 1min time gap. That little quick thinking by the guys really impressed me actually. From there it was just text boom bringing the race back together. Was now on the front with just Simon Clarke to help me as we had run out of Helpers from UHC and MTN and with 4km to go we had everything back together. From there I slid back into the group to ensure steele was where he needed to be and he was glued to caleb ewan wheel, perfect! Nick Schultz had done his job perfectly and ensured steele had the wheel he wanted and was also there to ge him out of trouble if required. With all under control with steele I went back to the front and ripped out a couple more turns until we were inside the final km. As the peleton rocketed into the uturn with 400m Steele was perfectly poised for a great result on calebs wheel. Unfortunately for Steele again his lucked out a bit on the corner with his line and lost some valuable. Showing his class and excellent summer of form he kicked hard to drag himself onto the podium in 3rd place and a great result. Today there were no regrets, we did all we planned and everyone including Steele were happy with the teams effort on the day and the result. Evan after just 2 days together as a composite team we were really riding as a unit and that's something that is really exciting to see and enjoyable to be apart off. Bring on arthurs seat!!
Cjw
Sent from my iPad
It was the case of a little bit of groundhog day at the Suntour today with final few km's of the stage identical to that of stage 3. Today we not only finished in negambie but also kicked the stage off there so was a novel day of riding out of the accommodation to the start and also back there after the finish, very very convenient. On paper the stage seemed to most likely come down to a field sprint and our Korda mentha national were more than happy with this and decided to again put our support behind of man of Steele Von Hoff! The tricky part of the stage was Nasty 6km climb midway through the stage which threatened to break the field apart but fortunately we had what I felt was a good plan to ensure we can steele a chance at the bunch gallop.
The stage kicked off ideally with a manageable sized group of 6 riders skipping up the road inside the first 5km. Fortunately a couple of the other teams UHC and MTN also wanted a field sprint and decided to do the early work so our boys could chill out in the peleton before step one of our plan was called upon. The pace was like the day before for the first part of the race, not hard but not solid enough that you were never comfortable. Steele was very confident as usual and made sure we all knew he was keen for the sprint. It's always nice as a team when your sprinter shows this enthusiasm for the bunch gallop battle as latter in the stage when you working your backside of chasing down the breakaway it's always more motivating doing it for a motivated leader. So as we rolled toward the base of the potentially race changing climb the gang sprung into action.
The plan for the long climb was to simply get steele over it as fresh as possible and in a position to ensure a bunch sprint eventuates. We were prepared for the group to be split by the climbers but we wanted to ensure we were close enough and fresh enough at the top to ride Steele back to the front of the bike race. To do this the plan was pretty simple, I would employ my "safety car" technique. It's a pretty simple approach and hopefully works just the same way as in a car race. Set a safe tempo at the front to get through a potentially dangerous section of the race. In this case a dangerous section was the fear of Steele being left behind by attacks on the climb and not being able to return to the front for a crack at a sprint finish. My role was simple, ride on the front at a pace that steele could comfortably handle but also at a pace that made any potential attackers think twice about doing it. My their was that I would ride a t pace until people stopped talking within the group which usually means people are having to work at least a little hard. Also if they did attack we would be at a pace that meant they had to ride very hard to get any sort of a gap, hopefully if they did ride that hard they would be buggered from getting the gap and not be able to hold the attack the 60km to the finish. So onto the front I went and starting feeling for this safety car tempo to tap out. Another factor is by me being able To ride my pace means that I won't be tired at the top and will have plenty of juice in the tank to ride on the from and help keep the race under control to the finish. As I started setting the tempo Lachlan was my eyes on Steele to help set the pace. Initially on the steeper Ramps we had to back it off a little but once steele was through the hard middle section of the climb he really showed his class as a leader getting himself right up on my wheel to dictate the pace fro. Right behind me for the final 3km of the climb. No teams attacked fortunately, doubtful it was a result of our tactics but that doesn't really matter, if they had we were read for it and as we crested the top of the climb the break was In check, peleton was intact and most importantly Steele was feeling great! First step done.
Once down of the climb the was par began, slowly winding in the days breakaway on the final flat 50km run into negambie. The gap was at a manageable 2min so it meant that we just had to keep a steady pressure on the pace as up front the breakaway would be sat ring to feel 100km on the attack in there legs. Our korda mentha boys really rode like a solid unit on the run into town sensing how the chase was going and helping out where required. At 25km to go the gap went out 30seconds or so and Laughlin and Gus showed there class by instantly coming to the front and rippin out two monster turns to rip that advantage straight back of the break and at 20km it was again a manageable 1min time gap. That little quick thinking by the guys really impressed me actually. From there it was just text boom bringing the race back together. Was now on the front with just Simon Clarke to help me as we had run out of Helpers from UHC and MTN and with 4km to go we had everything back together. From there I slid back into the group to ensure steele was where he needed to be and he was glued to caleb ewan wheel, perfect! Nick Schultz had done his job perfectly and ensured steele had the wheel he wanted and was also there to ge him out of trouble if required. With all under control with steele I went back to the front and ripped out a couple more turns until we were inside the final km. As the peleton rocketed into the uturn with 400m Steele was perfectly poised for a great result on calebs wheel. Unfortunately for Steele again his lucked out a bit on the corner with his line and lost some valuable. Showing his class and excellent summer of form he kicked hard to drag himself onto the podium in 3rd place and a great result. Today there were no regrets, we did all we planned and everyone including Steele were happy with the teams effort on the day and the result. Evan after just 2 days together as a composite team we were really riding as a unit and that's something that is really exciting to see and enjoyable to be apart off. Bring on arthurs seat!!
Cjw
Sent from my iPad
Friday, February 6, 2015
Stage 2 Suntour
Stage 2 Suntour
They turned on the heaters here in country Vic for stage 2 of the herald Suntour. On paper It looked like a nice easy day for all involved, a relatively flat 115km run from bendigo to negambie but as is so often the case, these little short stages cam prove to be quite the leg burner!! Having the man of steele Von Hoff in our ranks we fancied our chances for a victory for him and therefore made the plan pretty simple, if he wasn't in the breakaway we would make sure it was a bunch sprint. After not really playing any part in the race yesterday at all I was determined if nothing else to ensure I suffered as much as possible today and by the time I arrived in negambie I was that buckled that I just wanted to jump of the starting pontoons at the rowing course just 100m from the finish of the bike race! By the end of the fast and furious stage which we knocked over the 115km in 2hrs 35min steele would gallantly gallop to a fine 2nd place. As always there plenty that goes on between go to wo so here's the tail of the tape through my eyes.
As always when we have a day like stage 1 everyman and his dog who got left behind yesterday wanted to be up the road today. So that meant about 80 guys wanted to be in the breakaway! So from the gun it was on like donkey kong and before we knew it we were half way through the stage. Steele was alert as ever as where all the sprinters who figured if they got in the break it was a good bet after yesterday's stage outcome and with there rapid accelerations we knocked put 50km in the first hour, no mean feat on these cheese grater Vic country dead roads! Our boys were all on the ball and everything was going to plan. The stage was hard which we wanted as Steele is a man who can handle a hard stage and still have a kick like a mule and if something got away we would be in it. Around this midway point we had a little alarm with our young MTb climbing star chris hamilton taking a tumble off the road and that meant me and nick dropping back to bring him into the race. It was a little average timing as at this point the break was slipping away but we needed to ensure he was protected as possible and saved as much energy as possible as he is a big gc hope for arthurs seat on Sunday. Fortunately only a few guys slipped away however what they lacked in numbers they made up for in HP with the big horse will Clarke and speedster classics strongman Tyler farrar setting off in pursuit of glory. With the group happy to let them go we rolled along for a bit of a respite while we waited to see who was going to take up the chase.
At this point I was pretty nervous and apprehensive about letting these strong men have too much breathing room. We had only ridden 55km and had only 60km to the finish!! Sure enough 10km later when UHC finally started to form some sort of a chase the gap was 3minutes and I knew this needed to be shut down as these boys were sting and we had only 50km to pull them back. The reason that I knew there was some urgency was that it's one thing to chase even 3 strong boys for 50km after 150km but to do it after only 60km means they still have alot of fuel in the tank. It meant the pace had to be pretty much full from behind specially with only a few guys working to make up the 3kmph difference in that final hr of racing. So up to the front I went and immediately told the UHC boys we needed to booggy! They agreed and we ramped up the pace. To give you an idea usually you can build into a chase which I do using heart rate. First pull 150ish 2nd 160ish and then settle into where need to be which in the final 50km is somewhere between 160-190pulse. Well today I had a far amount of respect for the men up the road that my first pull was at 190!! And there wasn't one pull that dipped below that, they fluctuated between 190-195 for my 90second to 2 minute pulls. After a good struggle with the strong men up the road the gap finally got a manageable 1min 20sec with 25km to go. At this point I went back and grabbed nick to give me a hand as we were Helpers and I wanted to ensure we all stayed as fresh as possible, me included despite to work i had been doing on the front, to ensure steele didn't get in an trouble in the final part of the race. Nick and Gus did an awesome job in helping shut down that final 90seconds which while we managed to do with 10km to go was a real fight all the way till we had them in the group. Will and Tyler both knew that there chances were not over until they were absorb fully by the peleton which awesome to see them put up such a huge fight and really make a great bike race. With the race together at 8km to run I dropped back into the group to ensure Steele was all good. While my HP for an type of lead out or positioning had well and truly been used up I still had just enough energy to get him out of trouble and back to the front if he needed it. Sure enough and every great spinters does Steele was surfing away in pole position in the peleton ready to follow whichever lead put train was the best. Steele is a free styling sprinter that doesn't rely on a train so the best you can do for him is ensure there is a sprint and he is in the washing machine of top sprinters to choose the right wheel. Today however we had a made a little blunder with having Gus and nick ride as ideally one of them should have stayed with Steele to help him position that final time in the final km as he did get boxed out on the final corner. Being so far out of position really made his 2nd place fantastic as he came from the clouds which obviously leaves yo thinking what could have been but it is what it is. On one hand we made a fortunate call by going up and riding hard as otherwise there ma have been no sprint but then we lacked a little in the end. Still with a composite team there will always be teething problems so we have hopefully another day tomorrow to get it right.
From my part i was happy to really suffer again. While the stage was short bu sweat in only 2hrs 30min which I was still 165heart rate average which certainly let's your legs and lungs know you've done something so hopefully the racing body is waking up a little and I can get amongst it all again tomorrow!
Cjw
Sent from my iPad
They turned on the heaters here in country Vic for stage 2 of the herald Suntour. On paper It looked like a nice easy day for all involved, a relatively flat 115km run from bendigo to negambie but as is so often the case, these little short stages cam prove to be quite the leg burner!! Having the man of steele Von Hoff in our ranks we fancied our chances for a victory for him and therefore made the plan pretty simple, if he wasn't in the breakaway we would make sure it was a bunch sprint. After not really playing any part in the race yesterday at all I was determined if nothing else to ensure I suffered as much as possible today and by the time I arrived in negambie I was that buckled that I just wanted to jump of the starting pontoons at the rowing course just 100m from the finish of the bike race! By the end of the fast and furious stage which we knocked over the 115km in 2hrs 35min steele would gallantly gallop to a fine 2nd place. As always there plenty that goes on between go to wo so here's the tail of the tape through my eyes.
As always when we have a day like stage 1 everyman and his dog who got left behind yesterday wanted to be up the road today. So that meant about 80 guys wanted to be in the breakaway! So from the gun it was on like donkey kong and before we knew it we were half way through the stage. Steele was alert as ever as where all the sprinters who figured if they got in the break it was a good bet after yesterday's stage outcome and with there rapid accelerations we knocked put 50km in the first hour, no mean feat on these cheese grater Vic country dead roads! Our boys were all on the ball and everything was going to plan. The stage was hard which we wanted as Steele is a man who can handle a hard stage and still have a kick like a mule and if something got away we would be in it. Around this midway point we had a little alarm with our young MTb climbing star chris hamilton taking a tumble off the road and that meant me and nick dropping back to bring him into the race. It was a little average timing as at this point the break was slipping away but we needed to ensure he was protected as possible and saved as much energy as possible as he is a big gc hope for arthurs seat on Sunday. Fortunately only a few guys slipped away however what they lacked in numbers they made up for in HP with the big horse will Clarke and speedster classics strongman Tyler farrar setting off in pursuit of glory. With the group happy to let them go we rolled along for a bit of a respite while we waited to see who was going to take up the chase.
At this point I was pretty nervous and apprehensive about letting these strong men have too much breathing room. We had only ridden 55km and had only 60km to the finish!! Sure enough 10km later when UHC finally started to form some sort of a chase the gap was 3minutes and I knew this needed to be shut down as these boys were sting and we had only 50km to pull them back. The reason that I knew there was some urgency was that it's one thing to chase even 3 strong boys for 50km after 150km but to do it after only 60km means they still have alot of fuel in the tank. It meant the pace had to be pretty much full from behind specially with only a few guys working to make up the 3kmph difference in that final hr of racing. So up to the front I went and immediately told the UHC boys we needed to booggy! They agreed and we ramped up the pace. To give you an idea usually you can build into a chase which I do using heart rate. First pull 150ish 2nd 160ish and then settle into where need to be which in the final 50km is somewhere between 160-190pulse. Well today I had a far amount of respect for the men up the road that my first pull was at 190!! And there wasn't one pull that dipped below that, they fluctuated between 190-195 for my 90second to 2 minute pulls. After a good struggle with the strong men up the road the gap finally got a manageable 1min 20sec with 25km to go. At this point I went back and grabbed nick to give me a hand as we were Helpers and I wanted to ensure we all stayed as fresh as possible, me included despite to work i had been doing on the front, to ensure steele didn't get in an trouble in the final part of the race. Nick and Gus did an awesome job in helping shut down that final 90seconds which while we managed to do with 10km to go was a real fight all the way till we had them in the group. Will and Tyler both knew that there chances were not over until they were absorb fully by the peleton which awesome to see them put up such a huge fight and really make a great bike race. With the race together at 8km to run I dropped back into the group to ensure Steele was all good. While my HP for an type of lead out or positioning had well and truly been used up I still had just enough energy to get him out of trouble and back to the front if he needed it. Sure enough and every great spinters does Steele was surfing away in pole position in the peleton ready to follow whichever lead put train was the best. Steele is a free styling sprinter that doesn't rely on a train so the best you can do for him is ensure there is a sprint and he is in the washing machine of top sprinters to choose the right wheel. Today however we had a made a little blunder with having Gus and nick ride as ideally one of them should have stayed with Steele to help him position that final time in the final km as he did get boxed out on the final corner. Being so far out of position really made his 2nd place fantastic as he came from the clouds which obviously leaves yo thinking what could have been but it is what it is. On one hand we made a fortunate call by going up and riding hard as otherwise there ma have been no sprint but then we lacked a little in the end. Still with a composite team there will always be teething problems so we have hopefully another day tomorrow to get it right.
From my part i was happy to really suffer again. While the stage was short bu sweat in only 2hrs 30min which I was still 165heart rate average which certainly let's your legs and lungs know you've done something so hopefully the racing body is waking up a little and I can get amongst it all again tomorrow!
Cjw
Sent from my iPad
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Stage 1 Suntour
Jolly long time since I put finger to iPad keyboard but with the Suntour now underway for 2015 figured it was a jolly good time to get back into the blogging groove! The race kicked off yesterday in the sensational setting of downtown melbourne with a nice little 2km leg and lung opener prologue and was dully won by the big horse wilba Clarke. Don't think there would be a single rider in the race not happy to see wilba win such is his popularity of being such an all round champ of a bloke. He let me in on the secret of where he felt he could take a few seconds on such a tight event which really made me laugh. The start was a little technical with a drop of a stage in fed square and into a 180 degree u turn on tiles and cobbles. You then dropped 50m or so down to a sharp left hand off camber corner on the slippery tiled footpath before heading across the bridge. As you could imagine everyone took this a little cautious there as to ensure no early race crashes and this is where wilba spotted his chance. He said he saw everyone had gone easy so he just decided I'll go full gas and take some time and try and hang on! Easy as that! Yeah not really, yes he was 3 seconds up at halfway but to hold his advantage over the field on the final km was seriously impressive and showed that no guts no glory was rewarded so big hats off to wilba. With the win that put him in yellow for stage one out on the road today but sadly for wilba the jersey was basically ripped off him before he even got the chance to try and defend it thanks to mount Matherson!!
Today's stage start was a real beauty, 4km flat then a nasty 6km climb straight of the bat. As expected everyone was a little nervous about the start and the fight for prime position was quite fierce. The apprehensive peleton rolled through the first 4km very gingerly, everybody knowing what was coming and wanting to save there bullets. This week I am pretty honored to racing with the Aussie national team and we were all nicely lined up on the front ready for the battle ahead. Sure enough about halfway up the climb things started to heat up and the pace was lifted by the big favorites for the race in Orica greenedge. I was nicely placed and assumed that the were riding a nice pace to ensure they get there gun sprinter caleb ewan over the climb and put some pain into the rest of the sprinters for the bunch sprint. Oh how wrong I could be! As the pace continued to lift I started to feel an extreme amount of fatigue and thought gee this seems a little hard to soften up the sprinters and sure enough it was. I was on the rev limiter and didn't want to look back, figured I would just drift back and hopefully recover a bit and stay near the front over the top of the climb. Quickly I realized the move was no softener, well it was a softener alright, to blow the field to pieces. I was on my limit as only 15-20 guys In the race were not and they were now riding away from me! Obviously I have done bugger all racing work for a very long time but didn't think I would suffer like that, just 10km into the bike race I felt like I'd been riding for 200km already! I was getting put to the sword. I didn't panic as we had our 2 best climbers in the team in chris Hamilton and laughy morton in the front group so switch to the only option I had, go back to the next chase group and see if they ended up riding me back to the front group. I knew straight away however as they got around 30seconds on us over the top of the climb that would be the last we would see of them today.
With all the strongest guys up the road it's pretty unlikely anyone could pull them back even if they tried. Infact the only people capable of pulling them back would be if those exact 15guys somehow got cloned and put on the front to pull themselves back! Anyways we plummeted down off the other side of the mountain and I instantly knew I was in big trouble. Usually I'm fighting to be right at the front of the group when my legs are spinning along well but today I was retreating to the peleton for whatever shelter I could find. Why I felt that way I have no idea but for some reason I just really really suffered. It's not unusual for me to all out of sorts in the first days of a race I was exactly the same last year on day, was dropped but in that case had to chase it down as we had nobody in the front. Then 24hrs later I came to life and ended 2nd on the stage and 2nd on GC. To be brutally honest while it would have great being up the road to help out the laughy and chris today, there is no way I would have been a gc threat on archers seat this year, I'm simply not in the climbing shape to be up there so the result would have been the same, just could have delayed the inevitable for a few days! So a big gc result is not going to happen this year obviously now but I just hope that I wake up tomorrow feeling alot more spritely than I did today! also means your off the leash a little I guess and while the objectives will be to keep chris and laughy and well protected as possible for Sunday and the gc battle, we will also be looking to deliver our man of Steele Von Hoff to the line in the upcoming sprint stages. Gc might be gone for me but there will be plenty of things to keep me entertained over the next few days.
So on a day like today I can't really comment on what went on in the bike race as basically put, I wasn't really apart of it! It's basically a procession of the laughing group as they like to call it as we simply ride our way to the finish lime at a very leisurely pace and anxiously await the outcome of the stage results from the team cars. In today's case we were some 25minutes behind so the race result came around 14km from the finish which as we hadn't exactly gone slowly if you like, when strong men are going fast the quickly put a huge amount of real estate between themselves and the rolling procession which is the peleton. It's a great chance to catch up with buddies you only get to see at races and save your legs for the days ahead but in reality you ain't here to do either of those things, your here to race and to suffer and get the rush from the combination of this two things. I've fortunately always been in that breakaway taking that time when I have been at the Suntour so I can tell you first hand it's definitely more exciting when the shoe is on the other foot and your up the road racing! Anyways take the good with the bad I'm this sport and the good news is we had some talented rock spiders up the road so was a great day for the Aussie national team and plenty of more ash-felt between here and the finish of the race to get stuck into some racing.
Cjw
Sent from my iPad
Today's stage start was a real beauty, 4km flat then a nasty 6km climb straight of the bat. As expected everyone was a little nervous about the start and the fight for prime position was quite fierce. The apprehensive peleton rolled through the first 4km very gingerly, everybody knowing what was coming and wanting to save there bullets. This week I am pretty honored to racing with the Aussie national team and we were all nicely lined up on the front ready for the battle ahead. Sure enough about halfway up the climb things started to heat up and the pace was lifted by the big favorites for the race in Orica greenedge. I was nicely placed and assumed that the were riding a nice pace to ensure they get there gun sprinter caleb ewan over the climb and put some pain into the rest of the sprinters for the bunch sprint. Oh how wrong I could be! As the pace continued to lift I started to feel an extreme amount of fatigue and thought gee this seems a little hard to soften up the sprinters and sure enough it was. I was on the rev limiter and didn't want to look back, figured I would just drift back and hopefully recover a bit and stay near the front over the top of the climb. Quickly I realized the move was no softener, well it was a softener alright, to blow the field to pieces. I was on my limit as only 15-20 guys In the race were not and they were now riding away from me! Obviously I have done bugger all racing work for a very long time but didn't think I would suffer like that, just 10km into the bike race I felt like I'd been riding for 200km already! I was getting put to the sword. I didn't panic as we had our 2 best climbers in the team in chris Hamilton and laughy morton in the front group so switch to the only option I had, go back to the next chase group and see if they ended up riding me back to the front group. I knew straight away however as they got around 30seconds on us over the top of the climb that would be the last we would see of them today.
With all the strongest guys up the road it's pretty unlikely anyone could pull them back even if they tried. Infact the only people capable of pulling them back would be if those exact 15guys somehow got cloned and put on the front to pull themselves back! Anyways we plummeted down off the other side of the mountain and I instantly knew I was in big trouble. Usually I'm fighting to be right at the front of the group when my legs are spinning along well but today I was retreating to the peleton for whatever shelter I could find. Why I felt that way I have no idea but for some reason I just really really suffered. It's not unusual for me to all out of sorts in the first days of a race I was exactly the same last year on day, was dropped but in that case had to chase it down as we had nobody in the front. Then 24hrs later I came to life and ended 2nd on the stage and 2nd on GC. To be brutally honest while it would have great being up the road to help out the laughy and chris today, there is no way I would have been a gc threat on archers seat this year, I'm simply not in the climbing shape to be up there so the result would have been the same, just could have delayed the inevitable for a few days! So a big gc result is not going to happen this year obviously now but I just hope that I wake up tomorrow feeling alot more spritely than I did today! also means your off the leash a little I guess and while the objectives will be to keep chris and laughy and well protected as possible for Sunday and the gc battle, we will also be looking to deliver our man of Steele Von Hoff to the line in the upcoming sprint stages. Gc might be gone for me but there will be plenty of things to keep me entertained over the next few days.
So on a day like today I can't really comment on what went on in the bike race as basically put, I wasn't really apart of it! It's basically a procession of the laughing group as they like to call it as we simply ride our way to the finish lime at a very leisurely pace and anxiously await the outcome of the stage results from the team cars. In today's case we were some 25minutes behind so the race result came around 14km from the finish which as we hadn't exactly gone slowly if you like, when strong men are going fast the quickly put a huge amount of real estate between themselves and the rolling procession which is the peleton. It's a great chance to catch up with buddies you only get to see at races and save your legs for the days ahead but in reality you ain't here to do either of those things, your here to race and to suffer and get the rush from the combination of this two things. I've fortunately always been in that breakaway taking that time when I have been at the Suntour so I can tell you first hand it's definitely more exciting when the shoe is on the other foot and your up the road racing! Anyways take the good with the bad I'm this sport and the good news is we had some talented rock spiders up the road so was a great day for the Aussie national team and plenty of more ash-felt between here and the finish of the race to get stuck into some racing.
Cjw
Sent from my iPad