I did my first "proper" road race this weekend.
A graded scratch in Perth with the West Coast
Masters Cycling Council. Prior to this I've
only done crits and a handicap race. Here is a
write up that I did for some friends. There were
4 grades (A to D) and I rode with B-grade. Exciting
stuff, a crash, protests, verbal abuse....now read on.
"It'd been some time since I'd pedalled the bike in anger and after
my poor performance in the Shenton Park TT, I was fired up to have
another go. I wanted to go in a graded race so I would be riding
with others of a similar standard. The only option before I head
off to the UK for July was a WCMCC race at Pickering Brook last Sunday.
Spouse and kids decided to come with me so we all piled into the
car at 7:30 am to head for the hills. Forty minutes later, we park
at Pickering Brook primary school and open the car doors. We quickly
snap them shut again before any more of the freezing morning air
gets into the car. It was very still and bitterly cold. There was
thick fog hanging around the valley and it looked a lot hillier
than I was expecting. After a while, we braved the outside and
I went and registered and got my bike ready. I didn't bring any
longs but wore arm-warmers. Amazingly, by race time (9:06), it
had warmed up past the involuntary-teeth-chattering stage. I
chatted to one of more experienced riders in my grade and he was
saying things like "tough course", "if you can do this one you
can do anything", "no flat sections" and more in a similar vein.
All morale lifting stuff that had me seriously worried. Of course,
I didn't let on to "her-indoors" that I wondered if I'd made a mistake
coming to hilly Pickering Brook early on a freezing June morning.
So 24 of us are sent off for 9 laps of a 7.6km course. We initially
head down hill and from the gun, there's a rider off the front
and the chase was on. Very soon we're all together again and heading
around the first corner. I've positioned myself near the back of
the field and aim to just hold on for a few laps to see what happens.
However, the bunch is very disorganised and there's lots of
switching to different sides of the road. I don't feel
comfortable so move up to near the front where at least there is
some room. Sure enough, a few minutes later I hear the horrible
sound of crunching, scraping and yelling. There had been a prang
behind me as we were powering up a hill. I didn't see it but
apparently one rider went down and another crashed into him. Ouch.
No serious injuries as far as I know. Field down to 22.
After this, I decide to stay near the front. Another lap or
two and things have settled down and the pace has dropped off
a bit. A rider I was talking to at the start launches an
attack on one of the uphill sections, really he just rides
away from the bunch and no-one goes after him. I reckon he's
got a chance of staying away and flirt with the idea of chasing
and joining him. However, hills are not my thing and we've
only done 3 laps so I decide not too. Maybe I should have because
no-one else did and we didn't see him again until the end of the
race.
The pace starts to pick up a bit in the middle part of the race
and each time we go up the hills, I'm hurting more. I'm spending
more time at the back and notice that there are gaps forming. The
bunch is threatening to split up. I want to be near the front if
it breaks up so I put in some big efforts to move up. A good move
it transpires as soon after I look behind me and realise that I'm last
wheel
in a group of 11 riders. We still have around 4 laps to go.
I'm suffering a fair bit and thoughts of not being able to stay
with the main group start entering my mind.
Around this time, the main A-grade bunch pass us (a break-away
group had flown past a lap or so ago). Three riders who seem to
have forgotten some of the rules go off the front of our group and
grab the wheels of A-grade. There's lots of yelling etc. I was
at the back fighting my own battle and didn't take much notice.
Now my group is down to 7 riders (one other had gone off the
back I think) and I'm feeling a bit of a physical revival happening.
I can see that the other riders are getting tired. So for the
last three laps, I spend some time on the front of the group,
basically riding at my own comfortable pace. For the last two
laps, I go onto the small ring on the hills - the first time
I've used the front derailleur in a scratch race. We get the
bell and we're rolling around for the last lap. There are
several climbs before the finish but despite some attacks,
we're all together at the end. Inside 800m from the finish,
I'm riding 5th wheel but have got no sprint in my legs. The
sprint comes and I end up coming last in our group, about
a bike length between me and the front rider.
I'm not in the money but I still feel pretty satisfied. I'm
not a hills rider but I stayed with the main contenders until
the end. The attrition rate was huge. After the finish, two
of my group were outraged about the riders who had latched onto
A-grade. Apparently, they had caught the breakaway rider and
one of them won. The two outraged riders lodged a hastily
written protest addressed to the Race Commissaire. I looked
at the web page today and the results are not available. I
wonder if this is because the protest has not been resolved.
Anyway, 8th or 11th, I felt great after the race. Legs
were very sore from the effort up the hills but I was really
happy to stay near the front of the race until the end. I've
still got a lot to learn about tactics leading up to and during
a sprint. That cost me several places I think. Total distance
just over 68km in 2 hours. Average speed around 34kph. I
was sore for the rest of the day but today feel fine. Such
is the nature of cycling that you can put yourself through
that much effort but feel fine soon after.
Overall, I had a much better ride than I had feared when
I first arrived, felt the air temperature, saw the hills
and spoke to the other riders."
Ride on,
DeF.
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e-mail: d.farrow@your finger.murdoch.edu.au
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