A
Absent Husband
Guest
Hi all,
Cut-&-pasted from my blog <absenthusband.blogspot.com> for your
convenience....
---
On Saturday morning, I rode out to the Murarrie crit circuit for
another go
at the Balmoral Crits.
The morning started awkwardly - after riding 5 minutes down the road, I
realised I had left my CA licence at home!! So I had to ride back
quickly,
grab the licence, and take off again. As a result, I arrived at the
track
only 15min before the start of the Cat 2 race....
I walked over to the sign-on tent, and handed over my $8. They were
splitting Cat 2 into two divisions this week (which they have been
apparently doing for a while, due to large numbers!) and I was placed
in
Division 1. I got my bike ready, and watched the finish of the Elite &
Cat 1
races. Soon enough, it was time for me to start.....
I wasn't expecting much from myself this week. Last time I raced, I
only
lasted about 12min before being dropped. And even then, I struggled to
jump
back on each time the peloton swept past. So I was just hoping to
improve on
that performance.
And at 8am we were away!! 40min plus 3 laps. I settled into a rhythm
pretty
quickly, probably due to my late arrival (I figured my legs were still
'warm'). A quick count of the group, and I reckon there were only 17-18
in
our division. A smallish field, but I thought that might make things a
bit
easier to judge. For the first 15min, I held on easily. We were
cruising
around 37-39km/h, and had overtaken the other Cat 2 division 3 times
already.
As we neared the 20min mark, we swung onto the home straight. I was
near the
back, and cruised up along the outside of the group. Before I knew it,
I had
eased up to the front few riders in the group!! Strategy wise, that was
a
bad place to be for me. But then I thought, "Hey, I've never actually
taken
a turn before in a crit race - I wonder what its like up the
front...??". I
figured if I was gonna take the lead, I should do it properly. So I got
out
of the saddle, and took off as hard as I could past the front few
riders!!
When we reached the back straight I looked back, and saw a line of 5
riders
chasing me down (easily, may I add!!). So I sat up, and eased back to
about
35km/h. The pack settled back in behind me, so I still had lead wheel!!
Just
before reaching the home straight again, I figured that I'd gained
enough
experience of front-running, so slowed back down to the low 30's.
No-one
came around me though, so I happily 'controlled the speed' around
31-32km/h
for the remainder of the lap... As we crossed the start/finish line, a
few
of the quicker riders obviously got jack of the slowish speeds, and
took
over, moving around me. It was great fun riding up the front for a
little
while, and great experience too. But next time, I'll be staying safely
hidden away in midst of the peloton!!
The race continued on, and at the 25min mark, I got dropped!! Nooo!! We
were
on the '3rd straight', and I had drifted off the back slightly while I
was
gulping a few mouthfuls of water. Great timing as always - there was a
surge. I quickly fumbled my bidon back into its cage, and took off, but
I
couldn't bridge back to the group. D'oh!! I cruised around for a couple
of
laps in the mid-20 km/h, and then tacked back on as the group came
past.
Unfortunately, that meant I missed the Prime sprint - but I was never
actually going to be a part of that anyway, so it wasn't a disaster.
The final 10min was pretty tough. The usual suspects took control of
the
group, and pushed it hard the rest of the way. I was working my butt
off
trying to stay with them all, and was pleased to see the "3 to go" sign
come
up! I stuck with them the rest of the way, dropping off as we hit the
home
straight to the finish for the very last time. I actually felt nauseous
from
the effort of holding on! Fortunately, my peanut butter & jam sanger
from
breakfast stayed down in my tum-tum....
So, all up a great result for me - I was very, very pleased with how it
turned out. A big improvement on last time too!! My final stats were
50min
total time; 30km distance; 36km/h average speed.
---
Cheers all,
Abby
Cut-&-pasted from my blog <absenthusband.blogspot.com> for your
convenience....
---
On Saturday morning, I rode out to the Murarrie crit circuit for
another go
at the Balmoral Crits.
The morning started awkwardly - after riding 5 minutes down the road, I
realised I had left my CA licence at home!! So I had to ride back
quickly,
grab the licence, and take off again. As a result, I arrived at the
track
only 15min before the start of the Cat 2 race....
I walked over to the sign-on tent, and handed over my $8. They were
splitting Cat 2 into two divisions this week (which they have been
apparently doing for a while, due to large numbers!) and I was placed
in
Division 1. I got my bike ready, and watched the finish of the Elite &
Cat 1
races. Soon enough, it was time for me to start.....
I wasn't expecting much from myself this week. Last time I raced, I
only
lasted about 12min before being dropped. And even then, I struggled to
jump
back on each time the peloton swept past. So I was just hoping to
improve on
that performance.
And at 8am we were away!! 40min plus 3 laps. I settled into a rhythm
pretty
quickly, probably due to my late arrival (I figured my legs were still
'warm'). A quick count of the group, and I reckon there were only 17-18
in
our division. A smallish field, but I thought that might make things a
bit
easier to judge. For the first 15min, I held on easily. We were
cruising
around 37-39km/h, and had overtaken the other Cat 2 division 3 times
already.
As we neared the 20min mark, we swung onto the home straight. I was
near the
back, and cruised up along the outside of the group. Before I knew it,
I had
eased up to the front few riders in the group!! Strategy wise, that was
a
bad place to be for me. But then I thought, "Hey, I've never actually
taken
a turn before in a crit race - I wonder what its like up the
front...??". I
figured if I was gonna take the lead, I should do it properly. So I got
out
of the saddle, and took off as hard as I could past the front few
riders!!
When we reached the back straight I looked back, and saw a line of 5
riders
chasing me down (easily, may I add!!). So I sat up, and eased back to
about
35km/h. The pack settled back in behind me, so I still had lead wheel!!
Just
before reaching the home straight again, I figured that I'd gained
enough
experience of front-running, so slowed back down to the low 30's.
No-one
came around me though, so I happily 'controlled the speed' around
31-32km/h
for the remainder of the lap... As we crossed the start/finish line, a
few
of the quicker riders obviously got jack of the slowish speeds, and
took
over, moving around me. It was great fun riding up the front for a
little
while, and great experience too. But next time, I'll be staying safely
hidden away in midst of the peloton!!
The race continued on, and at the 25min mark, I got dropped!! Nooo!! We
were
on the '3rd straight', and I had drifted off the back slightly while I
was
gulping a few mouthfuls of water. Great timing as always - there was a
surge. I quickly fumbled my bidon back into its cage, and took off, but
I
couldn't bridge back to the group. D'oh!! I cruised around for a couple
of
laps in the mid-20 km/h, and then tacked back on as the group came
past.
Unfortunately, that meant I missed the Prime sprint - but I was never
actually going to be a part of that anyway, so it wasn't a disaster.
The final 10min was pretty tough. The usual suspects took control of
the
group, and pushed it hard the rest of the way. I was working my butt
off
trying to stay with them all, and was pleased to see the "3 to go" sign
come
up! I stuck with them the rest of the way, dropping off as we hit the
home
straight to the finish for the very last time. I actually felt nauseous
from
the effort of holding on! Fortunately, my peanut butter & jam sanger
from
breakfast stayed down in my tum-tum....
So, all up a great result for me - I was very, very pleased with how it
turned out. A big improvement on last time too!! My final stats were
50min
total time; 30km distance; 36km/h average speed.
---
Cheers all,
Abby
