Peter Clark Classic

This image is no way related to this post. But look at it. Just look at it. Artwork. If only I owned a house so I could mortgage it to buy this beautiful, beautiful machine. 

Garmin data is available here!   
I was in Perth recently and I thought it would be nice to have a brief tipple of the local racing scene. The Peter Clarke Classic is run each by the Northern Districts Cycle Club. This race has a special place in my heart; it was the first I ever entered way back in 2010. Back then it was called the "The Hell of the North" because it was usually hot, windy and the road were in such bad condition I reckon you'd have a good chance of winning on a mountain bike. Alas! The course has changed since then; it has moved to the move scenic Chittering Brook where the roads are better, the weather more pleasant, and generally a lot less hell like.

I didn't really prepare well for the course. I knew it was some number of laps of a flat-ish course. I was racing in B grade because why not. Plus I was running a bit late - it was the siren of sleep that tempted me back to dreamland. With no team members racing with me, I wasn't quite sure on a strategy - maybe something like if there's a decent looking break latch onto it, otherwise sit in and have a crack towards the end.

So, it turns out the course wasn't as flat as I thought. It was Canberra flat, but Perth hilly, those sort of power climbs that the guys with giant flesh pistons for legs love. On the first lap I worked out the race was going to be 5 laps of 15kms or so, nice to have that sorted. The pace on the first lap was reasonably subdued, bit of a coffee ride really. I noticed there were 3 teams with a metric crapload of riders (1.26 metric crapload to 1 imperial), so I knew it was going to be a very team tactic dominated race. Great. Lots of break away attempts. I couldn't go with them all, was going to have to pick them carefully.

I moved up toward the front, but not at the front. The teams were watching each other, sending breakaways off. Their team members sat at the front and slowed everything down. No one in the peloton wanted to work, so I did a couple of stints hunting down breakaways. Bad idea, it wore me out quicker than I'd hope. After a while I stopped trying to hunt them down as hardly anyone was helping. One guy from South Perth and another from NDCC helped out for quite a while, but we all got fed up dragging the pack around. So I had no idea if there were breakaways out front or not.

The pace heated up on the 5th lap. If it hadn't, I would've been very worried. The pack caught a few breakaways, but there was still a big one out the front we could see, but not catch. The finish line was about 200m after a tight left hander coming off a hill, so it was quick and the sprint at the end felt a bit silly, but you have a have a crack. I think I finished in the second pack, toward the front of it, which was nice. One of the guys from one of the three teams won, who I happened to be parked next to in the car park. We got to chatting, they went in with a really good plan, but it must be said that it helps having 9 other team members.

All in all, a nice race. Very stop and go at times, quick and constant at others. I'll have to get better at those power climbs. I think that training starts soon. Ish. I hope.

CCC Uriarra Homestead

All by my little lonesome. Photo taken by this guy.

I've been a little slack with writing of late, but hopefully I'll be able to post more frequently from now on.

The Uriarra Homestead race was 2 laps of a 25 km course, with a nice descent and climb at the first turn-around, and a false flat that destroys your soul at the other turn-around. It was one of those drizzly Canberra days, cold and pretty miserable. I arrived 5 minutes late to the marshalling area; I'll use the combination of crappy weather and not leaving enough time to ride to the race as an excuse. I was told that I could try and catch my grade, and if I wanted I could do a u-turn when I caught my grade after they past the first turn around. I wouldn't be officially part of the race, but I could still have a crack.

Off I went after them. I saw C grade pass me a few kms from the first turn around point. I was heading downhill at this point, so it took me a far while to slow down and turn in the slippery conditions (I managed to lock up the wheels in the process - luckily I stayed upright). I thought the best bet was to time-trial to catch them, the rest at the back of the bunch and then see where I was at. The first part was a little more difficult than I thought.

My heart rate was right up for most of the chase, I was putting in all I had to catch the bunch. I did see them off in the distance at one point, but I never did catch them. I past a few C graders that had dropped off the back, but by the time I got to the last turn around (~7km to go), I was completely stuffed. I'd pretty much hit the wall by that point and so I limped backed to the finish line. Hayden from the dev squad (I've still got to write about that) was thankfully still there; he took one look at me and told me he was giving me a lift home. It was very much appreciated! After a long shower and a big bowl of pasta, I promptly fell asleep in front of the heater on the beanbag. Ahh bliss!

Protip: Get to races on time!

Ride data available here.

Canberra CC - Race 3

The last of the three 'twilight' races for the year, this was my second foray into road racing in Canberra. A shortish course, only 27 km, but with two significant climbing sections. The first section was a long, fast decent into valley of the Murrubidgee River and a few break-away attempts were made, though all were reeled back in rather quickly. After crossing the river, there was a short sharp climb up towards the ACT/NSW border where the turn around point was. I was about halfway along the peleton at the beginning of the climb and saw this as an opportunity to move up a bit. A group of four riders, myself included, made it to the turn around with a bit of lead over the rest of the field.

Oh yeah... some topo action. Please note how Lake Burley Griffin looks like an angry octopus about to devour parliment.

After the turn around, I could see a massive storm front moving in our direction. There was quite a bit of lightning - I was wondering if it would turn into a wet race. The decent back to to river went fine but somewhere along the line we lost the fourth rider. The climb started out of the valley and my legs were already screaming at me. About a km or two into the climb, the other two riders started to pull away. I caught up two or three times, but they finally broke me after a little while. They stayed in sight, but slowly kept pulling away. Someone started to come up behind me and finally made contact. I jumped on his wheel for a while and then started taking turns, thinking we could have a crack at catching 1st and 2nd. However, he broke away up a hill after I'd taken a stint at the front. I did manage to catch him but it meant I was knackered when it came down to a sprint finish for 3rd place. Just missed out on the podium by a wheel length.

Riders on the storm

I was really happy with the way the race went. I'm glad it didn't rain - apparently it poured at the start/finish line while we were out. We were treated to a spectacular lightning show as we gobbled down post race hotdogs and coke.

Goals

Everyone needs goals. Here's my cycling ones for the year.

Racing

• - Place well (top 5) in B grade in road racing
• - Place well in C grade in criterium racing
• - Enter the Tour of Canberra in May 

Non-racing

• - Get up Mt Ainslie in under 9 minutes
• - Get up Black Mountain in under 10 minutes
• - Ride to Lake George and back
• - Ride to a country town and back (Bungendore, Yass, Goulburn)
• - Ride to another city (one way)

That last one will take a lot of preparation and training, but if I aim for something on the coast, it's mostly downhill!

PDCC - North Dandalup Handicap

This would be my first handicap race. I didn't really know what to expect. I had a bit of an idea how it works in theory, but not really in practice. It would be an interesting course; a 200m climb right of the bat, then a general saw-toothiness up to the turn around point just out of Dwellingup. I found out at registration that the organisers had put my in with the A-graders. Hmm. I wonder how this was going to go.

We all lined up for the race. Each group went off with a few minutes in between. Turns out I was in the last group, with, I assume, was all the A-graders. So after a long wait we were off. My gameplan was to stick with the group as long as possible and try to finish with them. Had a nice roll through going for the first few kms until we hit the big climb. I found myself at the front of the group doing my turn, but as I went to pull off, everyone followed. Hmmm. Fair enough. I was feeling pretty good, so I just sat at the front for a while. A couple of minutes later I looked behind, and there was only two other guys behind me. After another couple of minutes, it was just me and another guy, Wade Longworth. We both started taking turns at the front, and to my astonishment we started passing people that had left before us. We were setting a pretty cracking pace, no one had yet jumped on the back of us two. One guy managed to jump to just before we passed Dave, but we dropped him at the next major hill.

PDCC - Serpentine/Karnet Race Report

A lovely overcast day in the farmland on the outskirts of Serpentine provided a dramatic backdrop for the second of my forays into the PDCC racing events. I was joined by Toby and Dave in cat B. After all the pre-race formalities, we were off and going in a group of about 15. The first lap and a bit (of seven) was reasonably sedate, we even had a nice bit of rain to cool us down. Someone started to push hard at the front, and before we knew it we were pedalling along in the low 40s. The group lost a few of its members off the back. Toby and I tried to cool the pace a little to allow Dave to jump back on, but the rest of the bunch were having none of it.

After another lap or two, the rider in the blue kit started attacking. Toby was keeping a very close eye on Blue man and followed each and every of his attack. I was a little bit slower, but managed to find Toby's wheel most times. These attacks kept going on, but none were successful. The rest of the bunch seemed keen to not let anyone get away, but no one looked particularly enthusiastic about launching an attack themselves.

On the last lap, I found myself at the front of the bunch with about 3 km to go. Blue man was behind me, so I thought he might be keen for a bit of a quick breakaway before for the finish. So I took off expecting him to be on my wheel, and Toby right behind him. After a little bit, I looked behind to make sure everyone was still there. No one was. Thats a bit peculiar I thought. For a second or two I thought of waiting up for the others, but then I decided I might as well have a bit of a go at it myself and took off again. Toby told me later that the bunch were fighting a bit about who was going to chase me down. They looked at him, and he said no way. Thanks Toby :) I hit the final straight, looked over and saw two riders after me; Blue man and his accomplice. One of them dropped off after a little bit, but the other powered on. He was slowly catching, but I managed to cross the line with a good 100ish meters to spare. Managed to grab first place again. Toby came in 3rd (or 2nd according to the official results, I'm not sure). What a fine day of racing!

Highlight: Winning!
Lowlight: Umm, not much. I did run off the road once, but I do that normally anyway.

PDCC - Casuarina Race Report

I've been meaning to go to a PDCC road race for a number of weeks now, so I thought it was about time to get off my ass and actually go. This weeks was a lovely seven laps of a 9ish km course in Casuarina. Lovely weather for it too. I decided to chuck myself into B grade, cos thats where all the cool kids were hanging out.

With 15 of us setting out, the first few laps were pretty tame. A couple of attacks here and there, nothing too threatening. We dropped a couple of riders somewhere along the line. The action started just after crossing the start/finish to commence the 4th lap. The pace was right up and someone in the middle of the bunch decided to start going a little bit off vertical (tyre rub?). I don't really know what happened next, it all went by really fast. I think the first guy knocked someone else over and it went from there, domino style. Dave has a lot better write-up of the incident than this! Unfortunately someones handlebars got lodged in his nice new rear wheel. Luckily neither he or the bike was badly damaged.

Those not involved in the crash waited for a little bit to see if anyone was going to jump back into the race. I thought I saw Dave making a dramatic comeback, but it turned out to be a Cat C or D rider. Anyway the pack (now at 8 riders) was back together and off we went. The next 2 laps were reasonably docile, I know I was a bit worried about a repeat of the crash.

Things started to heat up on the last lap. The pace increased a bit. Toby told me to keep an eye out for Jelly Belly man (there were jelly beans on his jersey) as he was looking pretty strong. Halfway around the lap another rider was dropped. Soon after the guy in the pinkish jersey and his mate had a crack at breaking away from the rest of us, but to no avail. I found myself at the front of the pack with Toby and I thought, if it comes down to a bunch sprint I'm not going to do too well (with my little legs). A little hill was coming up so I thought I'd give it a crack and break away up the hill, and then somehow make it to the line before everyone else. So I took off up the hill and down the other side. After a few hundred meters I saw the pack was gaining on me, so I got up out of the seat and had a bit more of a go at it. I reached the last corner and almost clipped some traffic furniture going around it. Got up out of the seat again to get down the finishing straight. I had a look around me and the bunch had backed off a little. I was pretty sure I had it in the bag then. I didn't let up though just to make sure. Crossed the line to grab first place! YAY! Toby outmatched everyone in the sprint to grab second. 1st and 2nd for SPR, pretty nifty!

Highlight: Looking around on the finishing straight and knowing that they weren't going to catch me.
Lowlight: The crash. I was pretty lucky to avoid it.

Dardanup Open C grade Report

What an incredible race this was. It was a lovely day down in Dardanup, one of those little one pub towns just out of Bunbury. It was nice and overcast, so my ranga skin wouldn't burn, but didn't threaten with any rain and a nice stiff breeze blowing in from some direction (north maybe). SPR was well represented in C grade, with 7 of the 30ish riders.

In the SPR jerseys: (left to right) Ashley, some guy (Chris?), me, Carlos's head,  Daniel (spoiler: he got 3rd)

The start was very relaxed and the first 20km were pretty civil. Most of the SPR guys were sitting up towards the front of the group for this period. I found myself falling off the front a couple of times before a nice gentleman from Collie CC informed me of what I was doing.