The Llama went a-racing

Bleve said:

Glenvale, Sunday, GPLlama has a canter. He did well, held his own in a
reasonably fast B grade bunch and wasn't one of the backmarking riders
confused by my leadout who tried to follow me into the kerb on the last
lap. Funny race, that one. GPLlama, your race report?

made em hurt on the Col du Glenvale then??? 🙄

Bleve said:

Glenvale, Sunday, GPLlama has a canter. He did well, held his own in a
reasonably fast B grade bunch and wasn't one of the backmarking riders
confused by my leadout who tried to follow me into the kerb on the last
lap. Funny race, that one. GPLlama, your race report?

I'll script up a report later tonight.. I wonder if I can type while doing an easy session on the trainer? There were a few memorable moments that I'll discuss..

7th or 8th place for those unwilling to wait for the full report...

cheers,
GPL

gplama said:

Bleve said:

Glenvale, Sunday, GPLlama has a canter. He did well, held his own in a
reasonably fast B grade bunch and wasn't one of the backmarking riders
confused by my leadout who tried to follow me into the kerb on the
last
lap. Funny race, that one. GPLlama, your race report?

I'll script up a report later tonight.. I wonder if I can type while
doing an easy session on the trainer? There were a few memorable
moments that I'll discuss..

7th or 8th place for those unwilling to wait for the full report...

When you went, I was trying to encourage Boon and/or Bo (the little
South African bloke on the Colnago) to go with you, so you'd have some
strong breakaway riders to work with. I think they were both blown
from their previous breakaway attempt though, and no-one else useful
was there. None of the Burnley riders were interested in chasing you,
so I didn't have to interfere at all (lucky! I was conked from two
earlier chases to reel in the breaks that didn't have one of my guys in
it). Mick got 5th, so he was rapt. Season goal for him was a top 5.
He lost the big scott's wheel which was his towbar to the finish, but
still managed to hang on for the 5th.

The big scottish trackie won it, as we thought he would.

CCCC Glenvale Crits 6/3/2006 - B Grade

After the Mt Hotham climbing camp the previous weekend, I rolled down to Glenvale on Sunday to do some flatland work for a change. Perfect weather for it, and no wind at all.

The pace was about what I had expected, no walk in the park around the front, but not much effort required to simply hang on.
Working out where to gain a few easy positions I moved up around the front. Can't recall it corner for corner.. but I remember putting the hammer down early on while another two guys were off the front, only to be yelled at "hey, not so hard ok!?".. right.. I guess someone didn't understand a solo breakaway is best performed alone 😉

After a heads up from Bleve I started hanging around the 'movers'... at around the 45min mark, target #1 was on the front, so I pulled through for a turn and nobody came. Screw it - head down off the front I go. Hung out for 4 or so laps (8mins or so my HRM tells me I was cranking away!) As Bleve said, nobody wanted to chase. Had the move been 5 mins later I would have been chased down a lot sooner.. Back onto the front of the bunch, nobody came past. I didn't have much left, so I kicked again for a few 100m to keep them guessing..

Sat back mid bunch for a rest... 3 laps to go I moved up around the front again... 2 laps to go there were moves on the back straight, from left, right, and middle of the road... last lap was more sensible... A wide move on the final corner had me jammed into the gutter making me wish I was running front suspension.. bogged down but kept the power on for a sprint... 7th or 8th place..

I even made it to the CCCC writeup, but they misspelled my name... I've emailed them asking kindly for the correction 🙂

Speed average 43.9km/h

A great day at the races... and as always, more training/learning required.

cheers,
GPL

gplama said:

CCCC Glenvale Crits 6/3/2006 - B Grade

A great day at the races... and as always, more training/learning
required.

My race story.

I was riding for Mick Thomas, and helping GPL where I could in his
first race at Glenvale. I need you guys in my jerseys so I can see you
better!

I helped chase down a couple of dangerous looking breaks, being a good
domestic, as Mick wanted to have a go at the sprint and GPL wasn't in
them.

When GPL goes, I try and get Boon or Bo to go with him, but they're
both shot I think, or just not interested .. either way, GPL's on his
(doomed) own dangling 50-100m off the front for a few late laps.

3 laps to go, everyone slows *right* down, it's getting dangerous, very

dangerous ... The Burnley boys don't take any responsibility (often
they do, but are a bit team-tactics shy at the moment, or maybe the
current lot are new and don't yet know how it works?) and no-one else
is going to take any action save to attack or wait, neither of which I
want to happen, Mick's worked hard for his wheel and GPL's blown his
chance with his previous attack.

I decide to do an early leadout (Mick already had a sprinter he was
glued to, so I wasn't leading him out, I just wanted him not to
get caught up in anything). I move to the front between T3 and T4 on
the 2nd last lap and open the taps, 53.9km/h up the main straight to
string everything out and get them around T1 & T2 safely and Mick in
the
right place. I peel off about 50m before T1 on the bell lap, *very*
wide, and roll around *very* slowly around the very outside of the
corner (any more brakes and I'm endo-ing the bike or I shoot off into
Springvale Rd through the barriers). Most of the field (90%?)is
through by the time I'm in the snot-zone, I figure by then it shouldn't
matter, these last few are
30th+ wheel spectators ... one of them clips me while I'm just about to

hop onto the grass median strip (I'm *right* in the gutter, doing maybe
5km/h). He spills it, and the rider behind him has nowhere to go, but
down. I'm just touched by something and have a couple of scratches
on my arm (not sure how they got there? Teeth?!). So no damage done
to
me except a scratch on my arm. the other lads lose some bark, but
otherwise seem ok. I don't think I did anything wrong, under the
circumstances, about all I could have done differently would have been
to go around the corner on the front (urgh, need more legs to do that!)
and pull off to the inside and then slow, but I didn't have the legs
to keep it up and that would have bunched up the front, where the pace
was on and it would have been really dangerous. As it was, the front
of
the field got around safely which may not have otherwise happened - I
just sensed that something was wrong and that it was going to go
mental which was why I sacrificed myself to the greater good. It was a
training ride for me anyway, I wanted to do the best I could for Mick &
GPL.

Maybe the bloke who hit me was forced up by some crazy taking a dive up
the inside (at 30th wheel?! why?! you're -out of it-), I didn't see
that happen, I was concentrating on getting out of the field's
way, not on what some kamikazi was doing to try and win the race for
35th place.

Mick ended up getting 5th, he lost the wheel of the big Scottish
trackie
we'd spotted as being the likely candidate for a leadout (he won it,
no suprise there, we spotted him early on as being the one who'd win
it, and definatly the wheel to be on if at all possible), but that's in

the money and he was very happy.

Bleve said:

... I'm just about to
hop onto the grass median strip (I'm *right* in the gutter, doing maybe
5km/h). He spills it, and the rider behind him has nowhere to go, but
down. I'm just touched by something and have a couple of scratches
on my arm (not sure how they got there? Teeth?!).

have been boxed up onto that verge a few times. wierd. like you say, it's innocuous enough but everyone starts parrying for possie to go into/thru the faster T2. T2 also seems to be the place some wood-duck does the idiotic inside run going in way too shallow. Maybe it's different in B-A but D-C aint
🙄

gplama said:

I even made it to the CCCC writeup, but they misspelled my name... I've emailed them asking kindly for the correction 🙂

woot.. they've corrected it... I couldn't have someone else claiming that effort! 🙂