HCC Kew Crits - 29/10/2008

First crit at Kew for the summer. A nice 23 degrees and a shorter race to start off the HCC crit season as we're still short on daylight at this time of year. 15 or so starters in A grade, the field was smaller than normal. Tom Crebbin wasn't racing so I had to throw in an attack on the first lap in his honor. Off the front for a lap and a bit, I was waiting for someone to bridge. The bunch was happy to shut things down but nobody was keen on getting away early. I attack again - this time I was joined by Stuart Payne who knows my riding well and knew I wanted to get away. We stick in a fair effort but were closed down.

The rest of the race was much of the same - I was continually attacking trying to establish a break, a few times we were looking good, but there was always someone in the bunch willing to shut it down. Two laps to go Stuart, Sean Hurley, and myself got a few lengths clear of the bunch. I put the hammer down on the flat section trying to drag them away from the bunch so they could sling shot off me on the bell lap and keep clear. That almost worked, but we were again shut down on the top of the hill (1 lap remaining). I was spent from the continual attacks and TTing on the flat section, so I sat up and grabbed onto the back of the bunch. After the downhill, I thought that I'd regret not having one final stab - and the bunch moved to the right, nobody wanting to lead out into the final corner. I blasted through onto the front and kept the tempo high enough that nobody would come around. First into the final corner it was all systems go to the top, 300m up the hill! I was rolled by two other riders who had raced very well for the win - I kept most of the others off my wheel in the bunch sprint. The winner rode a perfect race, I didn't see him for the entire race and he had the jump when it counted. The rest of us were about a length or two behind him. In the blur I thought I was 4th - but the officials gave me 3rd "There was nothing in it"... to be honest I can't recall where my front wheel was.

A super tough race and the power stats backed that up. Both normalised and average power were higher than any crit I'd done at Kew last year. Lets hope I can get off the front and save some energy in a break rather than keep attacking next time!

Summer Criterium No 1
Venue: Yarra Boulevard, Upper Yarra Loop

A Grade

1st Hugh Watson (CCCC)
2nd Dean Sanfillipo (CCCC)
3rd Shane Miller (HCC)