Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

It's on again for the not so young and its near Goulburn so you can do any of them as a day trip if you want. Also if you want to do the Fixie century you can do the ITT on the Friday, Crit on Saturday and Fixie century on Sunday.

Now here's the interesting twist, the ITT is a race against yourself. So there's no fear of being dropped. And if there's only 12 entrants in you age and you come 12th, you can Brag to your friends that you are the 12th fastest time trailer NSW

I'm thinking of doing the road race in Gunning. I'll be in M2. Who else is keen? I've emailed the organisers to get hold of the course as it seems to still be lacking from the CNSW site.

If too hilly, i'll do the Marulan crit instead.

Found this URL which appears to have the course profiles for past years.
http://www.cyclingprofiles.com.au/HTM/C ... Index2.htm

I've entered for M2 ITT & road race

Noel, check out my strava account, September last year for course and profile (on the phone so no links...)

I am keen for this one. Will look to target the road race, I'll be in masters2.

Any suggestions on how to go about developing a training schedule? My current "training" consists of riding to work, one solid morning session at SOP during the week and waterfall/hills on Sunday. Any suggestions would be great.

I am keen for this one. Will look to target the road race, I'll be in masters2.

Any suggestions on how to go about developing a training schedule?

Happy days! Looks like we will have a good crew this year. I felt so lonely last year

Scedule for next years race?

I would suggest some 5x5 intervals and some longer duration rides in the next 3 weeks to get you ready. I'm thinking longer than 3 hours to build the endurance.

Strawburger, I've had a look at last years NSW results and AU results and its stating a distance of 25k for NSW and 22.5k for AU. Was there a variation of course?

From memory the start and endpoint were the same. My stats show it to be pretty close to exactly the same. 22.5kms. They may have corrected the length at the nsw tt as some distances for the road race were too long for the stated event (mas2 road race was one lap too long apparently, so this year it is only 3 laps not 4)

The TT and the road champs go past a set of giant wind turbines. There's a reason why they are there.

If it's windy and you don't weigh very much, I'd suggest you think your wheel choice carefully. In hindsight, I would have put my training wheels on, at least the front wheel for the TT. I did for the crit as there were gusty cross winds that were blowing women across the track on some of the fast corners.

In the TT some people got blow off their bikes. Literally. (the fact that it hailed during the ride and that my return speed was actually double the speed on the way out should tell you something about the conditions.

The road race last year, however, was great weather and I left the Zipps on and it was lovely.

Thanks Strawburger.

Looking at the data in my age category the Australian winner was 3kph faster than the NSW winner. No doubt due to the different wind conditions

Don't forget entries close tonight!

I'm not seeing much Dhbc love in mmas2

Can anyone give me a lift

I've decided to opt out as I'm not getting enough training to make it worthwhile.

I'm not seeing much Dhbc love in mmas2

I've entered, we'll see how it goes, not in the best condition. Strawburger you get the love, I get the pain.

Can anyone give me a lift

Bump

Good to see a few of us in masters2!

Mike, don't have space Friday. Probably not Sunday either but will let you know in the next week. Hopefully someone can come through as i may not come through with the lift Sunday.

I'm a last minute addition to the mmas3 road race, but I've done it without first gaining a domestic permission slip. My head may roll.

I'm sure you'll be forgiven if you win it James. No pressure.

So the DHBC entry list is;

Friday ITT
Winsor, Keith
BERRY, Simon
Hartley, Thomas
CLEMENT, Michael

Saturday Crit
Winsor, Keith
CLEMENT, Michael

Sunday Road
Winsor, Keith
BERRY, Simon
Gacitua, Philip
Rogers, James
CLEMENT, Michael
MASON, John

I don't have a car, Thomas, Keith can you help with Friday?

ITT start times up http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/site/cycl ... 0Times.pdf

Also times for Crit and Road are there too

Hi Michael,

No joy on a lift sorry. My car is full up with my bikes and I am staying with friends in Canberra and head up tonight.

Looking forward to the racing and hope to survive the weekend.

Keith

@Mike - sounds like you need to join http://www.goget.com.au/

I've rented a car from no birds, pick it up this morning. I'm coming back to Sydney Friday, that way I only need to take one bike. Saturday I'm staying overnight. Haven't booked any accom, any suggestions

Goulburn is pretty much booked out. You may have to try Yass.

Mike, I rang around accom in Goulburn and managed to get something for Sat night.

Well done Phil! I gave goulburn a crack and ran out of patience.

Phil, where have you booked?

Mike, I've sent you a PM there may be an option with room config. Phil

Thanks Phil, you've saved me a lot of leg work (gotta save them for the race)

ITT Report

Arrived in plenty of time and setup my TT bike, this time I had one more go faster part, a new front wheel.



During warmup the new front wheel made a ping ping ping sound, a loose spoke. Pretty annoying for a wheel hand built in Holland, will need to talk to the supplier.

My start position was 3rd to last, behind me was Geoffrey Baxter and behind him Michael Payne so I knew there was some serious riders behind me.

4k in I caught the rider in front of me, who started 1 minute before me and at 8k I caught the rider in front of him.

My target heart rate was 172 but I was feeling good and I pushed a bit harder into the head/cross wind.

At the 11.5k turnaround I took a swig of water. Next time I'm not going to bother to carry a bottle. There was Baxter only about 30 seconds behind me and Payne was zooming in on him, I'd say he had eaten about 1m30 into me.

On the way back it was downhill tail/cross wind and the speed was awesome. Baxter and I roughly matched each other and Payne gained about another 10 seconds giving Payne the bronze medal.

While my time was 2 1/2 minutes quicker over the 22.5k than when I did the 2012 Australian champs (sick), I was disappointed to be so far of the bronze medal, 1m44s. Still it was a good learning lesson in what I need to do in ITT's, my average heart rate was 176, 4 beats over target so now I've got a new target heart rate.

Strava for NSW 2013 shows an average speed of 38.5kph, a big improvement over Strava for Aust 2012 where I averaged 36.2, admittedly sick at the time.

Results

DHBC Results

M5 (21 starters)
Michael CLEMENT 9th 35:22.58
Craig WELLER 13th 36:17.60

M4 (20 starters)
Thomas HARTLEY 10th 35:45.31

M2 (12 starters)
Simon BERRY 11th 36:38.50
Keith WINSOR 12th 37:37.79

Crit Report

Only 2 DHBC'ers racing the Crit, Keith Windsor in M2 and myself in M5


We were at Marulan Driver Training Centre, which is a great circuit, love racing there


20 riders fronted for M5


Early on I was at the rear conserving energy, but it was clear that wasn't the best location as I was at risk of the back breaking off


The end result was that I had to ride across the gaps several times



And ended up with my mate Marcus from Waratah's


However I decided it was time to get aggressive, so I rode around the bunch up the hill and slotted myself into P2


Next lap I attacked, the intention was to get away with the 3 riders who seemed to be toiling with it at the front






The field scrambled and for a fleeting moment it looked like the 4 of might get away, but it wasn't to be. But what happened was that I split the field, with only 12 of us remaining, the second bunch can be seen at the bottom. Note also the change in the track at the bottom.


After that the race became a game of cat and mouse, no one was able to get away


This dog barked every time his owner went past, didn't bark when others went past


We played games looking for the best positions and I lost. On the last lap I was in the wrong position and didn't respond well to the attack, rolling over the line in 10 after not contesting the sprint


Overall I was happy with my effort, I felt competitive despite the ITT still being in my legs. Crafty said to me afterwards, you must be happy with that and I am


Strava (might not be perfect as the speedo didn't work all the time). Noticed that my average heart rate was 178, 2 beats higher than yesterday's ITT over a similar duration

Great report Mike!

Is that really true about the dog?!

Great report Mike!

Is that really true about the dog?!

So I was told

Great report and you need to get a pet dog!

Not sure why the didn't use the timing chips today. The masters 2 results don't have the correct numbers matching names, and masters 5 results are inconclusive!

On a positive note, Mike smashed the field up in the 5's! I am extatic with a top 20 finish.

The commonsure told me that M2 and M5 were the hot divisions today

Glad we picked the fast bunches today Mike!

Crafty announced at the start line that if we know of any riders in the men masters 1 race that we should bag them out. The bunch that started 10 mins behind mas1 caught and passed them. The bunch was the women's masters 4 apparently. So either the mas1 was slow or was4 was an equally fast division!

I put myself in for M3 road race, and was really on the fence about actually going. It was a 1.30pm start for M3, and I have some sort of problem with "late" starts that I can't really explain. On the way down I found the only CD in the car and listened to Pop Will Eat Itself for the first time since 1993. It wasn't as good as it seemed back then. Skipped a bunch of tracks, and ended up listening to some country warbling on the radio. This didn't raise my mood, which for whatever reason got darker and darker. This was in stark contrast to the weather which got better and better. Or so it seemed – and here's a hint – close to Gunning there are some really impressive wind farms...

The race was delayed by about 10 minutes while we waited for the M? (I didn't hear) who started in the earlier time slot. I saw Simon Berry come in just as we were started, and then saw Keith, glimpsed John M, but didn't spot Mike (who was probably turning himself inside out off the front of his group at that stage). There was a few K of neutral, and then we were off. I felt totally uncommitted, but the pace was on from the start.

There were attacks going off constantly and the group was pretty unsettled – clearly there was a simple plan to smash the field from the get go. And they did. Strava leaderboard speed. Riders were being dropped constantly. Garmin says I did 37.7kph av. up the main hill, and the first 40km we rode at a 40kph average (if that is any indication of the pace). Clearly these were age denying middle-aged men, damn it.

Because it was an out-and-back course, we had to negotiate a turnaround, which pretty much guaranteed another attack off the front. Too bad if you were up the back still getting around. I made it through that ok, and felt pretty good on the return leg. But I wasn't so lucky on the next turnaround, and ended up badly positioned trying to get past a few riders. Off went the guys on the front, while I fumbled my way around. Bugger.

A gap opened which really wasn't looking good. It became more demoralising when the commissaire and then the spares car slotted in front. I reckoned I would be able to catch them on the hill, but gradually more cars filtered (pushed?) through, and my mood and fighting spirit faltered. I ended up chatting with another guy who got shelled out the back and had a smear of snot across his cheek. He was clearly beyond caring. I decided to pick up the pace again, and enjoy the ride.

Estimated that the group was about 500m ahead by the next turnaround – meaning the buggers had eased off – but I had no desire to chase. I took the return leg at my own pace, and my mood greatly improved. In fact, in one of those weird country moments – as if a scene from Bambi opened up in front of me – two rabbits gaily frolicked by the roadside, an echidna shuffled through the leaves, and six different magpies charmingly took exception to my presence and attempted to puncture my cranium. A lovely afternoon in the country. Then the wind started again. I'd had about enough. Going home sounded like a good option.

Coming into the start/finish/turnaround, it didn't seem like the main group was any further ahead, on the other hand I hadn't gained on them either. The glass was definitely half empty, and I was thinking about a sausage sandwich from the Rotary bbq. Sixty-six kms in, I abandoned for all the softest reasons. Driving home I felt a rising sense of guilt for running away. As a pathetic note of self-defence, half the field did not finish, and M3 were faster than M2 by 3 minutes... which just shouldn't be the natural order of things...

On the bright side, I have the memory of gold fish. Next year, I'll attempt to redeem myself.

James sounds like you rode the wheels off your bike, you must be happy with that

Don't feel guilty James. I finished the Nowra to Sassafras road race and, to this day, dearly wished I hadn't and instead should have packed up and gone home after 2km.

Very enjoyable race report James. You definitely have to try again next year and your goal is to write up an even more enjoyable read for the clubsters.