RR: Glenvale C-grade Crit, 23-Jan-05

hippy said:

I awoke this morning feeling shabby (apologies to Shabby) and
idled along to Glenvale. Warm weather this morning seems to
have encouraged extra numbers to appear in C grade. 9am we
roll out and right off the bat two riders decide to leave the
"safety" of the bunch. The's no reaction from the rest of the field
initially but soon enough a chase commences. After a few laps(?)
the field is back together. There seems to be a bunch of riders
communicating to each other and working together and when
they go, the rest of the field simply doesn't want to work to
chase them.
Another break goes away and this one does some real damage,
I think, leaving some riders behind. Some riders manage to
bridge the gap, moving up in dribs and drabs, but most of the
field are struggling to chase them down. Your's truly drives the
bunch and then looks over for support.. to find.. a bunch totally
unwilling to work! [censored]! I resume the chase and eventually
it all comes back together with some other riders joining in to
chase (thank deity!).
At some point mid-race a guy gets nice and wobbly coming out
of the corner and I lock up a nice new ProRace.. doh! (Sorry
to the dudes behind me ;-))
Basically the bulk of the race involved me spending too much
time in the wind, chasing breaks or repositioning myself - no
mistaking it was a hard race!
With one lap to go, people are smashing pedals into the ground
in a desperate attempt to maintain their speed through the
corners and I'm just waiting for someone to go down near
me/onto me/in front of me. I'm too far back and decide to
surge up near the front to find a leadout wheel. At the same
time as I surge, the peloton gets cagey and riders slow down,
waiting for some sucker to go first and provide a wheel to lock
onto. Oh [censored]! Guess which sucker just passed the field?
Yeah, muggins here..
It's too late to mess around, slow down and grab someone's
wheel and I've been telling myself all race that I would sprint to
the line no matter how far back in the field I was. So, I go for it,
sucking in huge gasps of air, clicking up a gear every time my
cadence gets high enough to allow it. I see people move up
next to me but fade back again. It's perhaps 200m from the
final corner to the finish line..
More people move close but can't pass. I'm within 10m of the
line and I'm not going to slow down! A split second later I spot
another movement to my right and BAM! a bunch of four riders
sweeps past me to take the first four places, relegating my sorry
[censored] to the non-paying zone again!! Noooo!!! I spoke to the
winner and he said the average speed was ~42.5, which is up
around B grade averages I think. It definately felt harder!
Debriefing: Even though I missed that elusive win, I was still
relatively happy with the race. I did a lot of unnecessary work
and didn't have anyone for a leadout and I still managed a good
finish after a hard race. In my mind, that's okay, I just have to
try again for the win. Did some B-graders sneak into C-grade
or something?
Stats: To Follow
from: http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=198

hippy

damn! that sounds hard.
knowing the average speed at least gives you a feeling of being 'up for it'!
I seem to be stuck in the same average speed groundhog day getting about 10-20m closer every race but havent ha to do hard yards like you describe.
Next time, Hipsta, next time...

PS maybe you should form a gang to 'communicate' with and load the field...

"flyingdutch" <[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

from: http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=198

damn! that sounds hard.

You could say that :-)

Quoted message said:

knowing the average speed at least gives you a feeling of being 'up for
it'!

This race had a lot more surges than normal. The breaks were much
more effective, not half-assed, caught 20 seconds later attempts.
That's why it felt like there were some B-graders in the field. B-grade
races tend to have more and more effective breaks.

Quoted message said:

I seem to be stuck in the same average speed groundhog day getting
about 10-20m closer every race but havent ha to do hard yards like
you describe.

Different course man and I wouldn't worry about the average speed.
You might dawdle around at the back all race and then shoot up the
front on the last lap for the win - low average speed, but you won.
It depends on the other racers and the weather a lot too.

Quoted message said:

Next time, Hipsta, next time...

I keep telling myself that.. don't know how long I'll believe it!

Quoted message said:

PS maybe you should form a gang to 'communicate' with and
load the field...

Everyone I knew has moved up or to other racing.. I'm going to
win this frickin' race and I'm going to win it without teamwork..
But, if you're free Sunday morning and wanna lead out or block
for me.. that'd be cool :-)

I reckon I'll start racing at Sandown to give myself twice the
chance of a humiliating defeat each week..

hippy

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 at 05:52 GMT, hippy (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

I awoke this morning feeling shabby (apologies to Shabby) and
idled along to Glenvale. Warm weather this morning seems to
have encouraged extra numbers to appear in C grade. 9am we

What's with you wackos and warm weather?

Still debating whether I want to do that full moon MTB ride tomorrow
night. Could be a bit hot.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
 *** System shutdown message from root ***
System going down in 60 seconds

"TimC" <[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 at 05:52 GMT, hippy (aka Bruce)

Quoted message said:

I awoke this morning feeling shabby (apologies to Shabby) and
idled along to Glenvale. Warm weather this morning seems to
have encouraged extra numbers to appear in C grade. 9am we

What's with you wackos and warm weather?

What's with you and cold weather?! :-P
Move to England if you don't appreciate this fine, warm
land. oh.. um.. nothing!

Quoted message said:

Still debating whether I want to do that full moon MTB ride tomorrow
night. Could be a bit hot.

Pfft! It makes the post-ride beer taste that much better..

hippy

hippy said:

Everyone I knew has moved up or to other racing.. I'm going to
win this frickin' race and I'm going to win it without teamwork..
But, if you're free Sunday morning and wanna lead out or block
for me.. that'd be cool :-)

I reckon I'll start racing at Sandown to give myself twice the
chance of a humiliating defeat each week..

hippy

aaah. see Im working on the theory that every dog has his/her day and the faster ones get booted u and if I keep racin' and standin' in line my day will come. yers too, no doubt.

F"racin like a dawg"Dutch

hippy said:

I awoke this morning feeling shabby (apologies to Shabby) and
idled along to Glenvale. Warm weather this morning seems to
have encouraged extra numbers to appear in C grade. 9am we
roll out and right off the bat two riders decide to leave the
"safety" of the bunch. The's no reaction from the rest of the field
initially but soon enough a chase commences. After a few laps(?)
the field is back together. There seems to be a bunch of riders
communicating to each other and working together and when
they go, the rest of the field simply doesn't want to work to
chase them.
Another break goes away and this one does some real damage,
I think, leaving some riders behind. Some riders manage to
bridge the gap, moving up in dribs and drabs, but most of the
field are struggling to chase them down. Your's truly drives the
bunch and then looks over for support.. to find.. a bunch totally
unwilling to work! [censored]! I resume the chase and eventually
it all comes back together with some other riders joining in to
chase (thank deity!).
At some point mid-race a guy gets nice and wobbly coming out
of the corner and I lock up a nice new ProRace.. doh! (Sorry
to the dudes behind me ;-))
Basically the bulk of the race involved me spending too much
time in the wind, chasing breaks or repositioning myself - no
mistaking it was a hard race!
With one lap to go, people are smashing pedals into the ground
in a desperate attempt to maintain their speed through the
corners and I'm just waiting for someone to go down near
me/onto me/in front of me. I'm too far back and decide to
surge up near the front to find a leadout wheel. At the same
time as I surge, the peloton gets cagey and riders slow down,
waiting for some sucker to go first and provide a wheel to lock
onto. Oh [censored]! Guess which sucker just passed the field?
Yeah, muggins here..
It's too late to mess around, slow down and grab someone's
wheel and I've been telling myself all race that I would sprint to
the line no matter how far back in the field I was. So, I go for it,
sucking in huge gasps of air, clicking up a gear every time my
cadence gets high enough to allow it. I see people move up
next to me but fade back again. It's perhaps 200m from the
final corner to the finish line..
More people move close but can't pass. I'm within 10m of the
line and I'm not going to slow down! A split second later I spot
another movement to my right and BAM! a bunch of four riders
sweeps past me to take the first four places, relegating my sorry
[censored] to the non-paying zone again!! Noooo!!! I spoke to the
winner and he said the average speed was ~42.5, which is up
around B grade averages I think. It definately felt harder!
Debriefing: Even though I missed that elusive win, I was still
relatively happy with the race. I did a lot of unnecessary work
and didn't have anyone for a leadout and I still managed a good
finish after a hard race. In my mind, that's okay, I just have to
try again for the win. Did some B-graders sneak into C-grade
or something?
Stats: To Follow
from: http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=198

hippy

Can we call you 'Pou-Pou' yet? 😉

(Raymond Poulidor - no botty references intended)

M "c'mon Hippy, we KNOW you have an A-Grade wheelsucker in you!" H

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 at 10:47 GMT, hippy (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

"TimC" <[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

Still debating whether I want to do that full moon MTB ride tomorrow
night. Could be a bit hot.

Pfft! It makes the post-ride beer taste that much better..

I'm not taking beer with me on the panniers!

Not like <insert forgotten name here> who took a bottle of wine, and a
6 pack to the weekend trip. He also took his tent and full camping
gear, despite us staying at a fellow riders house with lots of floor
space. He had front and back panniers loaded, and a huge roll of
*something* over the rack. I never did fully ascertain what it was.

I don't think this guy passed me up the hills.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
"I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There's a
knob called `brightness', but it doesn't work." -- Gallagher

"mfhor" <[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

Can we call you 'Pou-Pou' yet? 😉
(Raymond Poulidor - no botty references intended)

I had to look him up.. but, yeah, like the French
version of Jan Ullrich..

I'd be more like l'Eternal Cinque.. eternally fifth ;-)

Quoted message said:

M "c'mon Hippy, we KNOW you have an A-Grade
wheelsucker in you!" H

Oh, if only that were the case! It amazes me how
much faster "everyone else" is!
I mean.. I didn't even drink on Saturday night!!

hippy
"We regret to inform, the sacrifice required is too great."