This is an event held by LACC (get.to/lacc) each year. It's a stage race
held over 3 consecutive weekends and by as per the clubs description
it's a unique event in the Australian club racing scene. It's a points
based event with points for participating and placing with additional
points for sprints and a king of the mountain along the way.
The 3 stages were:
1) ITT
2) Criterium
3) Road
As this was my first season in competitive racing (and I was yet to race
an ITT) I decided 'C' grade was my speed.
The ITT was 30km on the Macarthur circuit. It's a pretty decent run with
a couple of good climbs in it, though the biggest obstacle turned out to
be the wind which definitely stung on the run out to the turnaround. The
race while held in grades, wasn't started in grades, it was just
approximate signon order to the start line which was a ute that you
could lean on, with riders going at minute intervals.
To cut a long story short ITT hurts. I went home that night after riding
my heart out and felt very wasted. While it hurt the upside was that
I've really been struggling to find my way in a pack and this eliminated
that part of the racing. A day later when the results were published
..... hey I won!! The pain turned out to be worth it.
Race 2 was a 20 lap crit on the Bankstown CC Lansdowne track. The track
is a 2.2km winding affair with a really fun downhill part and a couple
of grinding type uphills, which naturally were into the wind. In
addition to the points on offer for race placings there was an
intermediate prime. I'm still learning the whole race strategy thing and
leading out lots and trying to hold the field on a full lap sprint to
finish all seemed like a good idea at the time. The end result was the
entire field riding past me down the home straight. On the upside I did
hold most of the field out on the intermediate sprint using the same
tactic of just hammering a full lap. 1 point for third place.
The final race was 56km on LACC's Horsley Park circuit and I was leading
the GC by a couple in the grade. It's always a great turn out for the
road racing and today was no exception. There were additional points for
king of the mountain which was a 200m sprint up a hill which was
probably around 8%. Today I had a plan (I think for the first time).
Given I can't sprint I thought the best strategy was to get out in front
on the run up the king of the mountain sprint and try and hold that
through the climb. It was Groundhog Day as I watched about 5-6 riders
cruise by me about 25 meters before the line. The rider in 2nd position
overall won the climb and pulled about even overall in total points.
Given in the crit stage he'd out sprinted the field to win the
intermediate sprint and the overall run to the line I figured any hopes
I had were basically done.
I sat back a little to regroup. OK so leading out hasn't worked (3 times
..... I'm a slow learner obviously) maybe I should sit back a little,
work on positioning myself well for the sprint home and try to follow
someone out. There was clearly nothing to lose at this point. I took a
few leads at the front of the pack, as no matter how this panned out I
don't feel right about sitting in the pack for the entire duration not
doing any work. The last few km's flew by and we turned onto the 1000m
straight home. I was very concsious of not getting boxed in at this
point and took a wide line. The pack seemed to split around me with
riders on the left dropping off the pace and riders lurking on the right
who I knew all had game. About 200m out a rider went and I started to
give it everything I had. With around 50m still to go he had me by a
couple of wheel lengths and my legs were unpolietly telling me that now
would be a good time to stop peddling. My mind on one hand was trying to
process why I still hadn't been passed, and on the other was screaming
that I'm a lazy [censored] and if my legs knew what were good for them they
had better keep going.
And just like that we were done. I'd claimed a place in a sprint ...
holy [censored] Batman!!
As it turned out it was enough to take the GC. So it's 'B' grade here I
come, just in time for the Goulburn to Sydney race. Highlights of the
event were the crit in which the winner of the prime and run home turned
out to be a 15y/o (who also won the KOM) and did it all without a 'big'
chain ring as per UCI rules for juniors. Impressive riding. The other
was an older guy who went out solo on the road stage and got away for
over a lap before being caught. He did a load of work through the
remainder of the ride, and chatting with him on the way back to the car
park it turned out he was 61. Also a very impressive performance.
In all a very enjoyable 3 weeks of racing that was run flawlessly by the
LACC committee.
brett