Ventou Victorian Corporate Criterium Series - Round #2. April 3rd 2011

The third last crit for the summer. There is light at the end of the pain tunnel, but until then... head down, game on. This weekend Round #2 was at METEC (driving school) out in Kilsyth. 1.2kms looked a lot longer on Google Earth, it felt tiny when rolling around. Kind of like racing through an empty car park. It was a mind game with the fake intersections, double white lines, and stop signs we could ignore. Usually we're warned of the consequences if we disobey the road rules, kind of ironic we could totally ignore the standard rules at a driver education center. (But just to be clear - just in case any Herald Sun online comment submitters are reading. It was a closed private road).

The warmup consisted of taking note of the potholes and witches hats in the middle of the course and trying to clear my airways of a lingering head cold, somewhat unsuccessfully to the amusement of a team mate. The prologue was over quickly. I didn't see much of it, we had a head wind all the way down the back straight so it was eyes down and follow the lines for most of that. I almost over-cooked a corner 200m from the finish, a nice little scare to get the HR higher for the sprint to the line. I won the first battle of the day with 1:32. 

Jason Laird (Kosdown) had missed the A Grade prologue time cut and was relegated to B Grade, but we had David Holt with us this week joining Luca Giacomin and I in the A race for Team Kosdown. Tyler Spurrell (Croydon Cycleworks/Pick-a-Part) had the assistance of a team mate and put him to work early in the race. We had Giacomin off the front for the first 10 minutes as Holt and I sat back and watched the chase. I bridged across to Giacomin and we worked turns for a few laps before being joined by Holt and Spurrel. Four in the break, three Kosdown. Spurrell was out numbered and was attacked non stop. He knew what was up, and was watching me get an easy ride while the other two attacked. With 15 minutes to go I attacked then cranked a few laps at pursuiting pace. Both Holt and Giacomin sitting on Spurrel then setting the tempo that allowed me to stay up the road. I kept clear and finished around one minute up the road.

The numbers were against Spurrell in the battle for 2nd. However, the kid took it to both Giacomin and Holt and ripped out an epic sprint for second place. Great stuff, and keeps his chances very much alive at the series too. So in two weeks, its the showdown in Geelong!

Straight to the car + heater = winter racing is here!

Spurrel ripping into our team sprinter for 2nd place

Lewwwwt!!

Pre-race press release: http://www.cykelevents.com.au/article/man-flu-vs-miller
Official race report: http://www.cykelevents.com.au/article/round-2-race-report
Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42639&id=164142666965571
Series points: http://www.cykelevents.com.au/page/vccs-points-total



As an excuse not to ride Baw Baw this weekend, I've entered the Vic Masters Crit Champs in Castlemaine. Looks like there are enough MMAS1 riders for our own championship too, but I'm expecting they'll shove us in with MMAS2/3/every/man/and/his/dog. Mixed grades and races within races, argh, same year in year out... but it'll be something to keep the legs ticking over until Round #3 of the Corporate Crits - where the lunch money is!


Random Visuals:

Gold in Sydney = special Leo's treat. Gone in seconds! Love this stuff.

$3.50 stripper kit in a $2 shop. Premium goods!
The 'Ages 14+' rating is also disturbing.