More tall tales from the back of the bunch....
Yesterday was the 2nd of a 3 race handicap series up here in Brissy (the Trek Series). I'm in Cat 2 which is masters B/C/D, mens C & womens A. Groups of about 6 riders go at 2 minutes intervals and it's basically a team TT trying to catch everyone in front and not get caught by the scratchies. It's a very difficult job for the handicappers to get right and you get a few burglars 🙂 Last week was a industrial estate crit (6 laps - 60k) and yesterday was a 5 lap 65km road race on a very hilly course at Kalbar in windy conditions.
If you've got a good balanced group it's OK but if it breaks up it's murder. First week I started on 12:30 (scratch was 15:00) had a good group of around 5 but with someone calling the gaps we knew we were never going to catch the leaders. It started raining then we got caught by scratch on the last lap and finished with them in a bunch sprint, but the winners were still 5 minutes in front. It's a bit of a lottery this handicap racing, but hopefully by the third race it should be pretty even.
Yesterday started on 18:00 (scratch was 25 I think). Group of 7 not as strong as last week and we dropped a couple each lap until it was down to two of us on lap 4. The hills and wind shattered everyone and there weren't many bunches left toward the end, it was just lots of riders on their own or in pairs. The hills were tough, one long climb with a steep kick at the end and then about 5 short sharp ones. Then a flat section with a very strong sidewind and then a killer headwind all the way home up a long gradual climb. Basically there was nowhere to rest, my HR was between 85% and 90% of max just about the whole way.
Got caught by the large combined group of scratchies and other chasers on lap 4 of 5 and got dropped on the steepest climb as two scratch riders attacked at this point, but with a big effort managed to get back on just before the crest and stayed on till the end. I figured no matter how much it hurt it was going to hurt more if I had to ride the rest of the race on my own! Someone was calling out time gaps so we knew at this point that the leaders were 8 minutes ahead, and on the last lap the pace slowed knowing that the leaders couldn't be caught. What we didn't know is that there was also a second group only 1 minute or so up the road that the pair of attacking scratchies passed to get 4th and 5th. Last lap the group gave up as there was no hope of catching. So tactics wise you not only do you need to know what the gap to the winners is, but how many are in front and how close. It was all academic for me anyway as I didn't have the legs to go with the break so I rolled over the line with the bunch.
Stayed to watch the Cat 1 race at the top of the big climb and and called out split times for everyone. The scratchies were flying and had caught the lead group when they got the bell. Two riders off the front at the finish, then a small bunch, but I didn't catch the rider's names.
The final race is next week down the Gold Coast. Thanks to Byron from Victor Cycles who organises the event and all the other helpers.
Adam