Cootamundra Classic Road Race - 28-29th August

[T-Bone]

Well, it's 1 month away now, so time to get things organised for another great road open.

Saturday is a nice long 120km handicap with a few hills, though they mainly come at around 80kms. If you're doing Grafton this will probably be your last chance for a nice long road race before the big one (unless you do Warrnambool).

Sunday is another handicap, of 69km this time. The course is 3 laps, with one hill of note. In many of the years past, the early starters have had great chances to hold off the backmarkers.

Entries close August 15th.

Let me know if you need accommodation or transport.

[wallman]

I'll need accommodation thanks James.

[shrubb face]

Ill certainly need accomodation as well. Cheers.

[NOOG]

I'll need a room too. Ta James.

[orphic]

I'll need accommodation too. I think Christian said he was keen for this too, but I'll let him confirm.

[christian]

I'm in, so I'll need somewhere to sleep. Lets see if I can last longer this year then last. I'm hoping for a lack of wind.

[MarkL]

Amy and l will need accomodation, thanks James.

Now to step up the training

[PeterOS]

James, include me too for accomodation.
Thanks

[christian]

I've decided not to ride this one, so I no longer need accomodation.

[mikesbytes]

I'm leaning heavily towards doing this one. Does anyone want to split the fuel?

[T-Bone]

There should be some carpooling going on. Just have to see who is going first.

[orphic]

I won't be doing this one anymore either.

[shrubb face]

I entered today so i dont forget.


A withdrawing of the Vic/Christian combo?

[mikesbytes]

entered

[T-Bone]

Haven't been able to get onto the Shirley in Bethungra (i'm guessing they may be on holidays or something), so i've booked us in at 2 Motels in Coota. Didn't want to leave it any longer, otherwise we could have been staying 50mins drive away in Jugiong.

[williamd]

James
Peter O'sullivan and I are not going

[mikesbytes]

T-Bone, is there a space in the booking? If so I'll take it.

Can anyone give me a lift?

[shrubb face]

the plan is for me and yourself mike to go with john and james will go with al.

[mikesbytes]

Done

When are we leaving?

[NOOG]

Handicaps
http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/cy_nsw/ra ... #Handicaps

I want to leave pretty early to get a decent warm up in.
I'd like to be on the M5 by around 615-630

[T-Bone]

Handicaps look alright. Seems like they've been watching you on the track John.

I'm just waiting for a week that i'm not sick or recovering from being sick, and this weekend i think i'll still be in the slow recovering stage.

[timyone]

good luck boys and girls if you make it to the turn around with out being caught, you can have a look and see whos coming and how fast

[kiwiames]

hmm ok thats weird my names not on the start list (i assume the first group after limit) and i did enter. Ill have to ring cycling nsw.

[T-Bone]

hmm ok thats weird my names not on the start list (i assume the first group after limit) and i did enter. Ill have to ring cycling nsw.

27mins, Bunch 8. Maybe you missed it, or it appeared after.....

[mikesbytes]

Amy wasn't there this morning

I'm on the same handicap, John has moved back one bunch and James has moved forward one bunch.

Looks like its going to suit riders who can cut thru the wind

[kiwiames]

Yea i rang cycling nsw earlier this afternoon and they have added me.
im not looking forward to this race as its going to be a freakin long time trial.

[T-Bone]

According to what i'm looking at, me and John are in exactly the same bunches we were in before.

[mikesbytes]

OK as im still over the moon with this result, though im more sceptical
about how much was me being fast, and how much was an amazing amount of luck etc I will write a longer version of my account though I know every one that was there has heard it too many times! I had a goal of finishing with my bunch for the day, or at least just finishing.

I was off the 21min bunch, with Mike and John, James and Christian were a grade up from me, and Alex Chubb was in the next grade up, which sounds like a bunch of hardcore work horses!!

My group went strait into a pace line, and was working pretty well for the first 20 or 30km, but after we had lost a certain amount of riders and slowed down a bit, where the pace line stopped working. Eventually around the 60km mark, I had started talking to the Randwick guy and a few of the young guys about making a break away, as no one would do the work. I think It was about 70km mark or so that 8 of us sped it all up, and tried to drop every one down a massive hill, it wasn’t totally working, but in this time we caught the next bunch, I sat on the front as we went past them trying to make sure not too many people jumped on keeping the pace up etc. this didn’t totally work, we picked up a few of them, but then reached a turn around on the actual road, where we went back down the same street, where we realised how close every one was to us! There was a bunch nearly on us, then a small group of red riders, then another bunch, the red riders were Drapac Porsche, and all these groups were flying. So yeah, I re had a talk to the lads I was doing all the work with and said, lads we are stuffed, Drapac are on us etc, I went up and down the bunch telling the lads that mattered, I don’t know if this did it, but we slowed down a heap, as well as hitting a massive head wind! So we then started to ride up a massive hill going heaps slowly, I jumped off the front so no idea how windy it was.

Now that I was mucking around on the back of a big little bunch, I was just moving left and right, staying out of the wind, talking to a young guy from Wagga, I told him my plan of jumping on Drapac as they flew past, no idea if I was serious or not, but yeah, I eventually jumped into the line again, and went to the front, where I jumped around a bit, until out of the corner of my eye I saw red going past, I was like here we go and I pushed in behind the fourth rider probably pushing some one else off the back of them I sat on them for a bit, to start with I think there was a bunch on them, But I looked back again and there was one guy, then no guys. They weren’t going that fast I don’t reckon, but I have heard since that they were, it was up hill into the wind. So yeah, after a bit on the back of the four man pace line I asked if they would be cool for me to do turns, they said yes so I did turns for a while, maybe 10km? but started to get a bit warn

At the point I stopped doing turns one of the lads came back to talk to me, and I explained that I was just a track lad, that had never ridden a road race before etc, and he then said that as long as I didn’t contest the sprint, they would look after me, so for the next 10 or 20km I sat in, when we were approaching the end of the race I tried to do turns again, and both legs completely cramped up?! I’ve never had this before! It was at the 110km mark! At different times I had lads come talk to me, mainly the track guy Tom Palmer! (who no one else seems to know! But he was a junior world champ, etc, I didn’t realise who it was until after it all?! I used to watch this lad off scratch on the track all the time!) But yeah long story short, they warned me 50 times not to contest the sprint, and I came in 5th

Now as a result I have a new handicap, lasted 5km of the Sunday race.. but im still smiling! This was beyond my dreams of one day finishing a road race

[T-Bone]

That explains it, you meant compared to last years race....

[mikesbytes]

Forecast for Saturday
Isolated early showers in the southeast. Partly cloudy. Light to moderate west to southwesterly winds.

Wagga Wagga : Partly cloudy. Min: 1 Max: 14
Albury : Shower or two. Min: 2 Max: 14
Young: Partly cloudy. Min: 0 Max: 13

Forecast for Sunday
Partly cloudy. Light winds.

Wagga Wagga : Partly cloudy. Min: 0 Max: 16
Albury : Early frost. Min: 1 Max: 16

http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/western.shtml#SWS

[timyone]

the boys (and girl) all did well, alex was in the top 20, and did too much time on the front, every one else werent far behind

[mikesbytes]

I've scored a size M Santini arm warmer. Who wants to claim it?

[mikesbytes]

[T-Bone]

Was it 10th place in the end??

Either way, Great effort!!

[timyone]

nice unlabeled photo of you shaking some guys hand mike

on a racing note, did any one go well in the second days race?

[shrubb face]

Its a knee warmer mike and id like to claim it please

Race report to come soon.

[geoff m]

hmmmmmm,,,,,,, waiting for a race report......waiting.....waiting......waiting.

THis is all I know


Results Handicap
Place Competitor Category Club / Sponsors Time
1 MCDONALD, Kylee WMAS3 Harlequin
2 BARROW, David MMAS5 Cootamundra CC
3 HALE, Geoff MMAS3 Wagga Wagga CC
4 CARROLL, Stephen MMAS2 Cootamundra CC
5 GREGORY, Declan JM19 Albury-Wodonga CC
6 O'CONNOR, Anthony MMAS4 Vikings Cycling Club ACT
7 MASSEY, Kingsley MMAS5 Griffith CC
8 MOILER, David JM19 Bankstown Sports CC
9 TESS, Daniel MMAS4 Sydney CC
10 CLEMENT, Michael MMAS4 Dulwich Hill BC


.....waiting............waiting....waiting

[mikesbytes]

10 CLEMENT, Michael MMAS4 Dulwich Hill BC

That's me

I've had to back up the weekend with 4 spin classes, I'll do a write up after they scrape me off the floor

[timyone]

so a girl won it
where was amy!!!!!

tenth go mikey
(i keep going over my smile limit on this?! seriously who put that in there?!! what if its a long post?!

[mikesbytes]

She had an 18 minute handicap, 20 minutes by my computer

[timyone]

and she won!!!!!

[mikesbytes]

Cootomundra 120k Classic Handicap - Saturday 28th August 2010
Start: 3rd Group from the front, 21 minutes behind limit
Result: DNF
Report;
After spending Friday in bed, I wasn't expecting to put the world on fire, but I did a lot better than last year
0 - 13k Rode fine within my bunch, taking my turns until we hit the first hill, which is a 2 stage hill. Now I wont say who drove the bunch up that hill but he dropped me on the first hill section, then I managed to ride myself back on, in fact I was the only rider to ride themselves back on and then I blew completely on the second stage of the hill. During this stage I saw Amy and she looked gone, she didn't even try to get on.
13 - 20k Made some reasonable pace solo
20 - 27k Two riders caught me and we worked really well together. They were under the illusion that the bunch behind us wouldn't catch, or should I say delusion. I was thinking about where was the most suitable place to get caught, I didn't want to get caught on a hill
27 - 49k And that's exactly what happened, but luckily John's bunch wasn't going that fast uphill. Soon I was working in that bunch, but after we turned right we hit a small hill and I was gone.
49 - 65k Unfortunately Alex's bunch came almost straight away and I hadn't recovered so I didn't get on. I got on the next bunch for a couple of K's and I was happy that I had managed to get 60k without getting caught by scratch. Then Scratch came by and I jumped on but only lasted about 2k.
65 - 70k So close but so far away, rode to the checkpoint in a bunch that consisted mainly of numbers in the 30's, 20's and 10's fast riders that had been dropped by Scratch. I was wondering if being so close to Scratch and still in a bunch they would let us ride into Harden, but they didn't and we had to take our numbers off. Average speed to this point was 36.7kph
70 - 110k The bunch were faster at getting their numbers off and left before I got on. Ron was there so I told him to suck my wheel, as there was a headwind, but I wasn't paying attention and accidentally dropped Ron. After a while I got bored of riding into the wind and decided to slipstream cars, but the officials got narky about that and made me ride at the side again. The k's went past and I got to watch the race fan out as the various riders went past. Alex looked comfortable, a candidate for a placing, Mark looked dead, James looked like how James normally looked and John was MIA. Later I found out that Alex had just missed out on a placing.

Post Morton
So close to making it to the checkpoint before Scratch, so close to not being eliminated. In my bunch I needed to get up that hill with them but alas I didn't. I actually worked better in the following bunch.

[T-Bone]

Saturdays Race
I started in the same bunch as Mike, and we were working well until we got out of town, and then everyone just stopped rolling through, except for 3 of us trying to keep the pace up above 40 while the wind wasn't too much against us. Then the hill came along, and being really annoyed with the bunch, i decided to keep a bit of pace on to try and lose some of the hangers on, unfortunately that dropped Mike....
A bit further down the road we came upon Amy who jumped on for a little while, but then she disappeared out the back as i was sitting at the back of the bunch having a meal. Luckily this was also when the bunch started working together much better, and after turning at Young we started closing down the gap to the bunch in front much more quickly. With about 100-150m gap after turning to Harden, we kicked the pace up and swarmed past the leading bunch by the bottom of the downhill, giving our bunch a chance at the 3rd sprint.
Following the turn around we still had a bit of a gap on the chasing bunches, but my legs were starting to feel it a bit, and i was temporarily dropped climbing out of Harden before chasing back on during the following descent. I remained in the bunch comfortably until scratch came past, and then was out the back with the increase in pace.
Then final 20km i had gotten myself into a small group with Mark, and we had a reasonable ride to the finish, though i was just making sure my legs kept turning.

Sundays Race
Mike had the pick of the bunches with the biggest bunch of the lot, though they were still starting 18min after limit. I was in the next bunch with John, and although we worked well and consistently and closed the gap down from 4.30 to 3.30 we just couldn't get any closer. John disappeared at the start of the 3rd lap with a puncture and although the race was over for us, the bunch kept working well. We were finally caught at the bottom of the main climb, and i jumped in for a nice ride to the finish.

[mikesbytes]

Cootomundra 70k Recovery Handicap - Sunday 29th August 2010
Started on 18 minutes behind scratch but my clock said 20 minutes when we left, I'll assume it was 2 minutes fast. Large group, but only about half working. 3 laps of 23k each, course hilly.
Result: 10th, which was the final paying place - $30
Average Speed: 36kph

Lap 1. My strategy was to be near the front when I hit the Hill around the back and the returning Hill. I implemented this strategy and each time got up with the bunch. We were working well and bit 8 minutes out of limit on the first lap. Lacy disappeared. Found out later he had a broken spoke.

Lap 2. On the back hill I blew up causing a split in the group, I had to roll and let the other riders fill the gap while I used the other riders to get me up, rolling to the back but still being on at the top. On the return hill I managed to get up no problems, but I had a headach and felt nauseous, either it was the that flu bug or I had hit Lactic Acid tolerance limit. On the hill we were told we were only 6 minutes behind limit so it was looking like we were going to catch them. I fully understood the situation we were in, there was the smell of victory. I knew I had to put everything into it to stay with this group.

Lap 3. We hit 48kph on the flat, that was a fast section of road. On the back hill I went entirely for position and didn't worry about wind protection, clawing my forward on the early slopes so I was still there when we got to the top but I dug deep and cursed at myself to get over and I did. Along the back flat section I was wasted and got dropped. After composing myself, I put myself into TT position and rode myself back on. Looking up the hill I could a single cyclist with 2 official cars in front and another 2 official cars behind. Too far ahead for us to catch, but I didn't realise was this was the last of Limit who had blown apart and we were actually racing for 2nd place. I was thinking we didn't catch limit and they had taken it. I looked back over the valley and couldn't see any other groups, where on earth were they????

This time up the hill I was feeling good, there was a two rider attack, I should of responded, attacking myself. Then another 2 riders attacked, this time I responded and chased them down, eating heavily into their lead on the downhill and catching them on the next little hill, along with a limit rider who had attached on. We rode back as a group and sprinted for the line, I responded holding my position, not really pushing that hard. Crossing the line 7th in the group. Afterwards I found out there was 1 limit rider then the 2 breakaways and the main bunch. I had finished 10th. Al saw the sprint was annoyed at me for not trying.

Post Morton
1. Survived death row at least 4 times
2. Misread my real position in the race
3. Didn't respond to a significant attack
4. Didn't sprint hard when I should of
5. I've now placed in a NSW road race

[williamd]

Great ride Mike and everyone.

Grafton's next

[shrubb face]

Well i guess i better finally put my write up.

Saturdays race.
Felt pretty good from the start, once we got going we were averaging around 45 to 48 on the flats and about 40 up the hills. For some reason ive now found myself being the guy who is yelling at everyone to work and trying to keep them motivated, im not quite sure when this change occured. I felt strong till about the 100km mark, then the legs started to die a little. Managed to sit in the 20ish riders in the scratch bunch for the majority of the last 20 kms, despite a small argument (and some elbows) with another rider. I got push out of the front on the last couple of corners before the sprint and had to come from a long way back. I sat up about 30 metres from the line concluding that i had missed a place and was rolled by about 4 or 5 riders. In the end it turns out that the guy who finished just in front of me got 20th, so if id continued sprinting i would have achieved a decent place.

Sundays report to follow.....

[geoff m]

Nice riding all. Great place Mike