Wagga Road Opens - June 4-5
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- Posts: 595
- Joined: 04 Mar 2009, 08:27
i forgot to post up that i have entered both days.
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- Posts: 1010
- Joined: 09 Sep 2008, 01:43
- Location: Marrickville
I've entered and I believe Mat has also.
- Simon Llewellyn
- Posts: 1532
- Joined: 13 Nov 2006, 22:31
- Location: Tempe Velodrome
I decided that I couldn't afford the cost or time for the weekend away, though I would love too. I was thinking that a win or place in the Crit would of paid a fair chunk but decided that even though racing with extra on the line would of made it very exciting I've decided not to on this occassion.That's a shame. Rightio, Alex and I need somewhere to stay, how about you Simon?
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- Posts: 595
- Joined: 04 Mar 2009, 08:27
I've booked in with the missus at quest apartments. A bit pricey but worth every cent as it's just around the corner from the circuit on sunday morning. Quite handy in sub zero temperatures when trying to do a warm up!
I'll bite since I'm at home nursing a cold. Alex and I headed off to this bright and early Saturday morning. So bright and early was it that my bike looked like this:
The blur and graininess isn't from my rubbish cameraphone, that's how I see things at that time of the morning. For someone who commutes from the bedroom to the study semi-naked and in civilised daylight hours this was a big ask. By the time we got to Gundagai and stopped for what I'm led to believe was something called 'coffee' the weather had taken a bit of a turn for the worse. Looking out the window of the cafe we could see that odd yellow bike on the car next to ours was probably a better bet for the conditions.
We bravely kicked on to the start east of Wagga Wagga, where we proceeded to cower in the ute for an hour and a half while the start was delayed. Soon enough I was on the start line stone cold but with strangely glowing legs that to Alex's warming oil. Everyone in my scratch bunch had a good laugh at the start when the commissaire joked that we needed to get over 800m of dirt road. x kilometres plus 800m later and we looked like those epic Roubaix photos where the riders are just mud and teeth and noone was laughing. I won't bore myself by describing the racing, but scratch had blown off all sitters-on and then caught all other bunches by just after midway. From there only an idiot from the original scratch bunch could fail to finish in the top 10 and collect some of the good money that's on offer at Wagga Wagga. It goes without saying that I finished 13th.
So onto the crit on Sunday.
It was wet roads that greeted us in town for the loop around the very nice course they'd set up. Between my complaining about collarbone-related fear and Alex's complaining about the indignity of riding a C-grade crit we both hit the start line warmer then yesterday. While Alex grovelled around mid-bunch with the rest of the packfill I took pole position between first (last) and third (last) wheel for the first 25 mins. By then a small breakaway had formed and been away for a while so we hit out together to bridge the gap, which we quickly did before driving the break further away from the bunch. Unfortunately though the riders we'd joined weren't quite up to it, two were tired and taking slow turns while a third had evidently decided to 'race smart' (I use both of those terms in the loosest possible sense) and was sitting on, only to attack as we were brought back by the bunch towards the bell lap. This didn't even delay the inevitable and in the bunch sprint that followed Alex just missed a place, while I got second (last). Post-race debrief focussed on the faces we'd been making for all the photographers on the home straight when we were in the break. Alex had concentrated on a neutral expression presumably designed to convey his disdain for the speed at which we were racing while I went for a mouth open pain face that I hoped made it look like I was going faster than I actually was. I haven't seen the results photo-wise but we had a pretty good crack at this race and in hindsight might have stayed away had we hit out again from the break once we'd bridged. Next time.
The blur and graininess isn't from my rubbish cameraphone, that's how I see things at that time of the morning. For someone who commutes from the bedroom to the study semi-naked and in civilised daylight hours this was a big ask. By the time we got to Gundagai and stopped for what I'm led to believe was something called 'coffee' the weather had taken a bit of a turn for the worse. Looking out the window of the cafe we could see that odd yellow bike on the car next to ours was probably a better bet for the conditions.
We bravely kicked on to the start east of Wagga Wagga, where we proceeded to cower in the ute for an hour and a half while the start was delayed. Soon enough I was on the start line stone cold but with strangely glowing legs that to Alex's warming oil. Everyone in my scratch bunch had a good laugh at the start when the commissaire joked that we needed to get over 800m of dirt road. x kilometres plus 800m later and we looked like those epic Roubaix photos where the riders are just mud and teeth and noone was laughing. I won't bore myself by describing the racing, but scratch had blown off all sitters-on and then caught all other bunches by just after midway. From there only an idiot from the original scratch bunch could fail to finish in the top 10 and collect some of the good money that's on offer at Wagga Wagga. It goes without saying that I finished 13th.
So onto the crit on Sunday.
It was wet roads that greeted us in town for the loop around the very nice course they'd set up. Between my complaining about collarbone-related fear and Alex's complaining about the indignity of riding a C-grade crit we both hit the start line warmer then yesterday. While Alex grovelled around mid-bunch with the rest of the packfill I took pole position between first (last) and third (last) wheel for the first 25 mins. By then a small breakaway had formed and been away for a while so we hit out together to bridge the gap, which we quickly did before driving the break further away from the bunch. Unfortunately though the riders we'd joined weren't quite up to it, two were tired and taking slow turns while a third had evidently decided to 'race smart' (I use both of those terms in the loosest possible sense) and was sitting on, only to attack as we were brought back by the bunch towards the bell lap. This didn't even delay the inevitable and in the bunch sprint that followed Alex just missed a place, while I got second (last). Post-race debrief focussed on the faces we'd been making for all the photographers on the home straight when we were in the break. Alex had concentrated on a neutral expression presumably designed to convey his disdain for the speed at which we were racing while I went for a mouth open pain face that I hoped made it look like I was going faster than I actually was. I haven't seen the results photo-wise but we had a pretty good crack at this race and in hindsight might have stayed away had we hit out again from the break once we'd bridged. Next time.
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