Pemberton Classic Criterium - 1 March

The Pemberton Classic started with a criterium up the main street of Pemberton, in the late afternoon on Saturday of the long weekend. It was a hot day, but cooled down to a pleasant temperature by race time.

I raced in women's B Grade, we had a good sized field of about 9 women. The race organizers started 3 different race groups together: B women, C men and under 17 boys. We started all together as one peloton, but spilt up quickly and were quite spread out even after one lap.

Each lap started with a downhill into a right hand corner, then a flat back straight with a tailwind but on a bumpy pot-holed road, then a nasty little climb back up to the start line.

I was riding in touch with a small group with two other women and a couple of under 17 guys. However, with the downhill and uphill each lap the gradient controlled each person's pace and we weren't really able to work together in a bunch.

I finished fifth in Women's B Grade, not far behind 3rd and 4th, who I'd been in touch with for most of the race. I was very happy with this result, as I have not raced many crits lately and I've been training long distances for Three Peaks, which is next weekend!

It was a great atmosphere, terrific watching all the grades racing at dusk through Pemberton. We had a big group of guys and girls from Hall Cycle Training so it was a fun social afternoon.

Yanchep Crit Race Report - 2 February 2014

The ride up to the crit was pretty good, nice tailwind the whole way and I rode up with Katie Joyce so I had company and someone to share the work with. However, I didn't do a specific warmup, which may not have helped my race outcome.

The Commissaires were concerned about the final corner into the sprint finish, so immediately before the race we did a group recon lap of the course. I got dropped on the hill on the recon lap, which I figured wasn't a good start!

We then re-assembled for the race start proper. I made sure I was in the first third of the pack as we hit the hill - and I quickly went backwards through the pack and was spat out the back before the top of the hill. Nasty! That was basically it, I continued racing by myself, not at 100% pace but still working hard to get something out of the event. The corners on the course were great, nice to do something different from Tech Park. After about 15-20min, I caught up with one of the other women who was off the back, she had slowed down a bit, so I slowed my pace a bit to ride with her. We pulled off with 2 laps to go, as we had been lapped and we knew there were four B-grade women in front of us, so we were not competing for the podiums and we didn't want to interfere with the race for the front contenders.

The ride back from the crit was hell. I had been eating and drinking throughout the morning after my race, but by the time they finished the presentations it was 1:30pm and we hadn't had any lunch. So I was running low on energy. And there was a killer south-westerly cross-head wind. Thank goodness Katie was still with me, I got some protection riding basically next to her in the wind shadow, but there were not many places to hide. And I could maintain only about 150 watts, so it was slow going. We averaged 23kph to Jindalee, where we stopped to get some food and replenish our energy stores. I was practically shaking by this stage. We were both hating the wind, the sun, being sand-blasted and the fact that we wouldn't get home until after 4pm. So we phoned a friend and got a lift the rest of the way home!

It was a well-organised event by Northern Beaches Cycling Club, and a great but challenging circuit. Also loads of spot prizes from the sponsors so it was worth hanging around for the presentations! Sponsors included Just Ride It (fixie bike), Goodearth Hotel and Bike Force Joondalup.

Race report - Smashfest Crit Sunday 12 Jan 2014

I got to the race in plenty of time to register, warmup, etc for the B Grade women's race, which had been at 10am the previous week.  Unfortunately, this week the B Grade race was at the same time as the C grade race ... which was about 15 min after I arrived. I registered and went for a quick warmup, but my 5 min warmup wasn't quick enough - the race had started by the time I got back.

After all the effort of getting to the race and mentally and physically preparing, I wanted to race. So, I figured I would do A grade. I had raced C grade the first crit, then B grade for my second race, and now A grade.

It was stinking hot, about 40 degrees, so it was hard to know the best thing to do for a warmup. I needed to warmup my muscles ready to work hard straight off the line, but I didn't want to overheat too much. So my warmup was shorter than normal and I didn't feel that great after warning up. This time I made sure I did my warmup with plenty of time to get to the start line before my race.

There were about 12 women in the A grade race, including two of my fellow Hall Cycling Training riders. Due to the heat, our race duration was reduced to 25 min. Thank goodness. Unsurprisingly, it was a fast hard race, with sprints and attacks several times each lap. I had a good awareness of the race and was able to respond quickly to each sprint. But with the pace and the heat, I didn't know how long I would be able to do that for.

The first five minutes were quiet hard, then I felt okay for the next five minutes or so. I was really glad to still be with the pack after ten minutes. My next goal was to stay with them for 15 min. I almost made it .... But after a couple of attacks in quick succession, it was taking me longer to get back on each time. Then there was an attack while I was still off the back, and that was it.

I lasted 14 min with the bunch. The rest of the race I was on my own, working hard on the start-finish straight into the headwind and trying to recover on the downhill and back straight. The heat was oppressive, my heart rate was really elevated. Thank goodness I had some water with me that I could spray on myself to cool down. It was also easier going at my own pace, without the sprints off the front of the bunch, and taking my own line into corners. I discovered that I was more confident cornering by myself than in the bunch.

I did the last 10 min of the race, counting down until the finish and trying to work hard to stay ahead of the bunch. The group passed me on the last lap, halfway around, and I had a great view of them preparing for the sprint finish.

It was great to do an A grade race, to see the difference between A and B grades, and to realise that I could actually stay with them for half the race. This time last year, I did my first crit ever, women's B Grade, and I had the same result as today - I stayed with them for about 10-15 min. It's really pleasing to see the progress that I've made in a year, which I attribute to the training that I've been doing with Hall Cycle Training and the race experience I've had in the past year. It bodes well for ongoing development for next year!

This was the last race in the Smashfest Crit series. Thanks to Hall Cycle Training and Vic Hotel for sponsoring the women's races, we had A, B and C grade women's events for each race which was a great opportunity for women of every ability to race in their own grade - or to try out every grade like I did!

Smashfest Tech Park Crit - Women's B Grade

I was feeling good on the warmup on the way to the race, but then sat around for two hours before my race started. I was quite nervous about moving up to B Grade and I realised when I got onto the start line that I had too much nervous energy and I really should've done a quick pre-race warmup to settle the nerves. Not a great start to the race, I missed cleating-in and then the pack (of five other riders) got away from me off the start line. Once I got my cleats sorted out it didn't take me too long to catchup with them though.

It was a very surgey race, lots of little sprints off the front and having to sprint to catch up, but then lots of times no-one wanted to work on the front so the pace dropped back down. Having a group of only six people racing there were not a lot of places to hide. Moving up from C grade, I found that my cornering was not as good as it needed to be (more practice required!). Also I had to work hard to chase down the little sprints - I did not have the instant power response that I needed.

However, that didn't hurt me too much in the sprint finish. I started the sprint at the back of the pack, but quickly passed two riders, then one more rider, and I was catching up to the second place rider as we crossed the finish line. Very happy with third place in B grade. The sprint training with Brad Hall on our Wednesday group session this week definitely paid off. Next time I will be more confident and I will continue to work on my cornering and sprinting to do even better.

Thanks to Hall Cycle Training and Vic Hotel for sponsoring the women's race series. Great to see another great turnout of women riders, and special mention to some of the up-and-coming Hall ladies - Conchita with a convincing win in C Grade and Roberta fourth place in C Grade. Kicking ass!

Return to Crit Racing

This morning I did the criterium at Tech Park in Bentley.

I chose to race in C Grade. Many people said I should do B Grade, but as my first race back after TOMR and only my 3rd crit, I was comfortable doing C Grade. I knew I would be one of the stronger riders, and I approached the race with the intention of getting first place.

I was very pleased to see that my cornering practice is paying off. Last time I did this course (a year ago) I was getting dropped on the corners. This time, I was dropping everyone else. After a few laps of having to slow down behind other riders in the corners, I made sure I was on the front for the corners, which meant that I was on the front for about 80% of the race. But I was setting the tempo, cornering well then easing off a little. Hopefully the rest of the field was having to work hard to catch up after the corners!

After 25min we got the signal that there were two laps to go, and one of the SPR girls took off fast. The pack followed. She got a gap of about 30m, but I wasn't too concerned as she was not strong at cornering. After the fast downhill corner, I sprinted up and caught her on the back straight. She looked back and saw me sitting on her wheel. I passed her going through the next corner, and I knew she was tired after her break so I just sprinted from there. Put the power down, got a big gap, gathered my breath, then up a few gears and out of the saddle for the last 200m to the finish line. After a couple of recent sprints where I have been pipped on the line, I wanted to make sure I had this one in the bag.

A new highest max HR as I crossed the finish line and normalised power for the race just below my threshold. It may have looked like I was taking it easy from the sidelines but I was working!

B Grade next time......

Thanks to Brad Hall, who sponsored the prizes for the women's categories. Also thanks to SPR and RCCC for organising at great event.

Tour of Margaret River - race schedule

The Tour of Margaret River starts today. It is a four-stage race over three days.

The first stage is a team time trial, our team starts at 3:20pm. We will do two laps of the course for a total distance of 25km. It is mostly flat with a few undulations.

The second stage is at 8am Saturday morning, a short road race. Again it is two laps, the total distance is 32.6km. We should be done in an hour.

The third stage is a kermesse, which is a short course that you do lots of laps of. The distance of the kermesse is around 30km, which is 8 laps of the course. The kermesse is also on Saturday morning at 11am. The first three stages are all based around Cowaramup town.

The final stage is a longer road race, 75km from near Cowaramup to Augusta. It is on Sunday morning starting at 8am.

Hall Cycling Training has five teams entered in total. Three female teams, including the Pink Unicorns, and two male teams,  including the Unicorn-Specialized Racing Team. It will be a fun weekend of racing and comraderie.

State Team Time Trial Championships

The state team time trial championships were held today in Pinjarra. We entered two Hall Cycling Training teams and two Unicorn Racing teams, which resulted in the biggest women's field to date: seven teams in total. There was strong competition for the three podium positions.

The Hall and Unicorn teams were finalised about two weeks before the event. I was teamed up with Tracie Dawson and Liz Nathan. The three of us had all ridden in the UWCT in Italy in September and we knew each other well. We were reasonably well matched. And we all lived within 5 min of each other, which made it easy for team training sessions.

We did two training sessions together as a team. The first session we tried lots of different methods of rolling paceline, doing very short turns (basically continuously rolling), very long turns (up to 5 min) and moderate turns of 30 sec to 2 min. We decided the last option was the best. We also practiced rolling in both directions, which was really helpful for the event as it was an out-and-back course with a cross wind, so the wind was coming from different directions each way.

Our second training session we focused on working together and riding as a tight bunch. With TT bikes we were a little more nervous riding close to the bike in front. Our training sessions paid off though, as today we were riding as a nice tight unit. That may have had something to do with the fact that we were working on our limit in the wind, looking for every bit of protection we could find!

I was really happy with the way we rode today. We worked well together, communicated, checked in with each other, and enjoyed the experience. On the way out, we started at a sprightly pace of 40kph - with fresh legs and a tail wind! We did fairly even turns on the front on the way out, although I started to shorten my turns as we reached the turnaround point because I was on the limit of what my legs could manage!

Just before the turnaround point there was a stop sign, with marshals controlling traffic. Unfortunately two cars passed us just before the stop sign. Then of course they stopped. Which meant that we had to slow down to almost stationary. It was only about 200m further on to the turnaround, so we did those 200m much slower than if we hadn't been stopped. Then at the hot dog turn / U turn our cornering skills on TT bikes were put to the test and one teammate almost rode into the dirt. It wasn't until after the stop sign on the way back that we regrouped and got back into the rhythm. Our problems on that part of the course would have added at least 30 sec, maybe longer, to our time.

On the way back, we had a cross head wind. Not my preferred conditions! Lucky for me I had two strong teammates who did almost all the work on the front on the way back. At least my short 10 sec turns would have given them a brief respite. And drafting behind two is easier than drafting behind one!

For the last 5km, Liz got on the front and was riding at a strong steady pace, with no sign off pulling off. Tracie and I were clearly not in a state to argue with her. We saw the 1km to go marker, then just before the 500m to go marker Tracie pulled to the front to relieve Liz. By this time, my legs had a chance to recover and I knew we only had the last sprint to go, so I went straight past Tracie and started accelerating. I thought I was accelerating slowly enough to pull the others with me, but I must have had fresher legs than them, because I looked behind and I had gapped them by about 10m. I eased off and kept looking behind until I saw Tracie come up alongside me and we crossed the finish line neck and neck.

Unfortunately in my excitement or delirium post-race I deleted my Garmin ride �� I do know that we averaged around 37.7kph for 29.6km, and our time was 49:34. I'm stoked with that, definitely so much faster in a team than an individual event. Also we probably would have been sub-49 min if not for stopping for cars.

Next weekend there is a 2 person time trial event, so I get another chance to practice my TTT skills! ����

Thanks Tracie and Liz for a fun ride and for being great team mates! And well done Peel District Cycle Club for a great event.