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What Ziggy saw:
Category: 3
Result: 1st
Our first home win on this course! Zig wins his third Cat 3 criterium - soon after he upgrades to Cat 2.
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What Tim saw:
Category: 5
Result: 25 & Off the back
For this race I decided to give it a shot mixing it up at the front of
this race. I found a solid wheel in a webcor rider that was pretty
strong. He actually led is fair share of the first 20 minutes of the
race and so I often found myself in second during the early portion of
the race. A foolish mistake I did was trying to cover an attack, which
caused me to leave webcor's wheel and pooped me out as the attacker was
a little guy and didn't give much draft for a bigger guy like me.
After covering that attack I never again found webcor's wheel. I found
myself moving back and forth in the peleton drafting off various riders.
However, I did try blocking for a small breakaway that either Jorge or
Mike was in. I don't think I was very effective because when I got to
the front and tried to soft-pedal, about 5 riders passed me in a sprint
position.
Toward the end of the race, with 2-3 to go, I was really exhausted and
just latched onto a wheel, and didn't even look up (only concentrating
on keeping my wheel as close as possible to his). Apparently, this rider
wasn't very strong as I found myself and this rider off the back with 1
to go. I knew I didn't have energy to catch back onto the pack, so I
just stayed on this guy's wheel. I think we picked up about 2 other
riders on the last lap as there was about 4 of us that rolled in
together at the finish.
One of the more interesting things during the race was watching my hear t
rate level. My previous high was 182 (at Tuesday sprint practice).
However, during the race, I was constantly seeing low-to mid 180s. I was
like "This is crazy, I'm staying at and above my max for extended
periods of time". After the race, I saw that my max was 190 and my
average was 175. I guess racing really is the best training.
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What Mike N. saw:
Category: 5
Result: Mid-pack
I had a good warm-up for close to an hour. Coach Matt told me to
buddy up with Jorge and do some small attacks or reel in some
breakaways. When the race started, I followed Jorge up to the front.
After a couple of laps I somehow drifted to the rear of the pack, it
was probably because I have trouble inserting myself into the pack
and get stranded on the outside by myself.
For the first half of the
race (10 laps), the pace is fairly slow, but then there was a
breakaway with Jorge in it. The gap was about half a straight, or 15
seconds, so the pack sped up and we were going 1-2 wide for most of
the last half of the race. Some parts of the pack started to break
off and I noticed that the second rider in front of me couldn't
bridge the gap. I was hesitant to go around and bridge it myself, so
I stayed put. Eventually the rider directly in front of me jumps and
I follow him and we connect back onto the pack.
With only a couple of
laps left I see Jorge falling back to where I am, but with the pace
set so high, there was nothing much we could do. On the last straight
we sprinted and I managed to pick off one sprinter and two or three
sitters to snatch 15th. Overall a fun race, no crashes, but after
looking at the pro/1/2s, they take the corners very wide so they can
keep pedaling, whereas the 5s just stay on the right lane within the
botts dots. At least that will come to my advantage because I
accelerate fairly well at lower speeds.
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What Garry saw:
Category: 3
Result: Off the back
On the downside of a race peak, it's never easy to conjure enough of anything to help in race preparation. The only mitigating factors in making me ride was that it was our race, and we should fly the flag if possible, and Ziggy has been in screaming form, and could possibly perform well. Maybe I could help him win and get that up grade to Cat 2.
My morning posting had me working as first point of contact for cars coming in to the race. What that equated to was a continual stand up sit down interval workout. By 11:30, I was knackered, my legs were sore and I knew that I would not have much to offer in the race at 2:00 PM. Thankfully, after 12:00, I swapped jobs with Jorge and got to sit at corner 4, under the mid day sun.
The warm up on Zig's rollers was poor, the HR was not coming up after the efforts, but the morale had improved, so I was keen to go. Our line up was with some 60 other dudes, and in the FFBC team we had Zig and Pritpal, fast losing weight and gaining strength. Maybe the three of us could do something. The wind was blowing strong now, probably a consistent 12-15 mph with gusts up to 20, coming form the north east (Turn 2). What joy!
A short time in to the race and the peloton is groveling down the right gutter between T1 and T2 when Ziggy, who is right on the curb gets bumped on his left shoulder by Matt Moseby of LG. Now we all know that Zigg is vertically challenged, so the collision is a no win situation, cos Moseby is a porky young junior 3 with little bike handling skill. Ziggy is going dow......no, he bunny hops onto the side walk and spends half a lap off the course, keeping pace and rejoins on the back straight. Well done Ziggy. As he said afterwards, he actually had the most vertical feet gained in the race and so should be awarded KOM.
A break of 7 or so went up the road, some tried to get across but came back. the gap was not closing and Zigg ask's me to take a pull to bring them back. I completely overdo the effort and end up riding off the front with a 28-29 mph, now I am no man's land and almost blow up. Thankfully I recover just enough to get back in to the pack at the rear of the field.
Several laps later, at 5 to go, another breakaway is threatening, so I do a second, more measured effort and close the gap down to 30 yards, with field in tow. Job done, completely spent I pull off and warm down, to rejoin the main field after it has finished and to find out that the Zigman won it..............BRILLIANT!
Let's have a Guinness...
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