Wagga Wagga 15-16 June

[Strawburger]

All,

Wagga Wagga entries closes this weekend. handicap sat, crits sunday. great weekend and well run on both days.

http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/cy_nsw/ra ... /13122.htm
http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/cy_nsw/ra ... /13124.htm

Simon

[MarkL]

I'm in for both

[mikesbytes]

Entered for both

[mikesbytes]

Any Accom suggestions?

[mikesbytes]

See no one has put up any race reports...

Saturday June 15th 2013 - Wagga Wagga road race.

Wagga Wagga divides the road race into two races. A) being something like 118k and B) being something like 88k off memory. I was placed in B in the bunch in front of block, 5 minutes in front of Scratch. Lined up with the usual array of riders of ages and sizes I felt confident on the line.


But the pace was real hot and I was dropped 6k into the race. Riders had started to pop from the 3k mark. That left me by myself for a little while.


However we soon formed a bunch of 4 and worked together until block caught us were we jumped on, only to be dropped say 5k later. No sooner had this happened and scratch came by. I was feeling pretty wasted and didn't try to jump on scratch. Not too far further and I caught the riders who I had formed a small bunch with earlier and our bunch reformed and away we went. We worked pretty well together and gathered 3 more riders over the say next 20k.


Then riding along a straight road we saw a rider in the distance turn left into a side road. I asked myself "Is that the way or a shortcut home?" We asked each other and none of the 7 of us knew if we go straight or turn. I thought, if I get lost I don't even know the town that I started in. At the intersection we took a guess and turned left. Fortunately we saw a "cycling in progress" sign so we knew we were on the correct route. However somehow amongst the confusion our bunch broke up into ones and twos. I found myself alone again, but was in good spirits, as far as I was concerned, the race had been converted into a training ride.


Up in front of me some of the riders from my bunch formed a bunch with some other riders of about 8 riders. I looked behind me and there was a bunch of about 15 catching me, which would of consisted of block and scratch riders dropped early. I tacked in and felt good, there were plenty of riders to share the load. And it only took a few k before we caught that bunch of 8. A great collection of riders to take us home. But going up a big hill, it broke up. I ended up with 2 other riders. We came upon a bunch of about 10 riders who were from limit or there abouts and they didn't even try to tack onto us.

With 20k to go I decided to do some time trial training and turned up the wick. At the time I was with 4 - 5 riders and none of them came with me, I went solo, caught another bunch of 4 riders and went past them, caught 2 other riders, went past + some solo riders and finished with a time 2:33, a long way behind those who were in the race for real. I compared my time with one of the riders I was with at 20k to go, who started in the same bunch as me and he had 2:33. I doubt that I was 10 minutes quicker over the last 20k, must be some sort of inaccuracy there, but I did ride well to finish up.

Data: Garmin Strava

I did suffer a significant problem with a muscle in my back, I'm not sure which one it is, but it seems to go from the spin to the left hip over/near the back of the pelvis. It was that bad when I finished that I could barely walk. At the time I didn't consider it an injury but its still not 100% better.

Out of the 5 DHBC riders who raced, I take the dunce's hat. Simon, Mark and Craig all did much better than me in B and in A Alex was with the second bunch and was racing for 10th when he stopped to assist another rider with a few k to go.

And they still haven't posted results, not that I'll be listed...

[mikesbytes]

This happened in Alex's crit (Alex was a non starter due to a mechanical)

Language warning http://youtu.be/i4c387DWJss