First things first before tales of today, tails of yesterday.....
Geelong ITT - Sutherlands Creek. May 14th 2011.
Standard Melbourne rain/grey weather meant people were pulling the pin on the Northern Combine race, including the lift Von had lined up to Newham in the morning. A 2pm start in Geelong meant I could drop her there, if she could get a lift home. All sorted, and I was off on Tour de Victoria for the day. Newham was dry but insanely cold, 6 degrees on the car dash. The coffee shop was open. Newham must be an old gold digging area, and they're still at it, a coffee and small muffin set me back $8.70. I caught the riders fly past on lap 1 before trusting the TomTom iPhone App to get me to Geelong. The automated voice directions were somewhat amusing, "Right turn ahead, towards Jizzborne" (Gisborne).... but after 120kms and some small back roads later, it delivered me to the start line.
The ITT was stage 2 of the Geelong Club Tour, the race I was escorted from by ambulance last year. I would have done the tour again this year, but a clash with the YarraTri on Sunday meant I would only line up for the ITT stage. The Sutherlands Creek course has a slight rise all the way out, open and exposed to the wind, but nice roads. 30km/h side/tail wind for the outward leg made the hill a little less of a problem and was nullified on the way back as we flew down the hill. I caught my minute man Rudy Schmidt at 3km, and caught a few more along the way. The homeward leg was a blast, super fast even into the wind. Two John West riders came in sight up the road in the final km, passed one, but missed catching Blake Hose (my 2min man) by only a few meters.
I took the win for fastest time. Blake's ride secured him a comfortable gap that would eventually win him overall GC for his club tour. It was a great course and Geelong CC are always happy to have visiting riders, even for a single stage. Thanks Geelong CC!
A Grade Results: (Full tour results HERE)
1 Shane Miller* 21:58
2 Blake Hose 23:57
3 Nathan Goss 25:24
4 Peter Quibell* 25:32
5 Rudy Schmidt 25:59
6 Paul Nyko 26:22
7 Will Carlile 26:24
8 Liam McGarry 26:31
9 Steve Del Galo 27:05
10 Anthony Garnier 27:17
11 Ben Andrews 27:32
12 Tim Wilson 28:03
* Single stage entry only.
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| Blake Hose with me just missing out on the 2 minute catch.... |
YarraTri ITT - Richmond. May 15th 2011.
Home ground advantage at the local Richmond 'flat boulie' for 25kms (and 10 turnarounds). We had an 'encounter of the useless kind' when attempting to get to the start in the car thanks to a less than helpful Yarra City employed marshal. A detour through an unmarshaled intersection and we were on course.
55 riders in the ITT, and three or four teams in the Team TT. A large field for a discipline that most cyclists stay well clear of. Lots of bling on show in the car park, Zipp, Giant TT rigs, Specialized... but the intimidating visuals were soon replaced with crunching gears that were not indexed correctly. So everything was in balance. After a short warm up it was time to go. The setup they have is great, an MC on the mic reading out riders names and talking it up as we rolled to the line. People standing around watching always helps lift the effort by a few watts. My minute man was a DNS, but there were enough riders on the 5kms course to keep busy with. The south turnaround point seemed to be a little sooner than expected, on lap 1 I totally missed it and overshot it by 20-30m. No marshals at the turnaround, just a lonely orange pole with "Turnaround" stuck on it. Last year the course was well marshaled, this year, not so. No wayward cars on the course, just the odd bike path punter taking advantage of the closed road..... Their flapping fluro yellow rain jackets and flashing tail lights screamed "I'm in the way, so buzz past me really fast".... and I did. Just don't let these people near Bathurst in a car on race weekend, they'll take advantage of the closed road to get in a few laps there too.
The teams started directly after me, so I was keeping check on the passing points each lap. Team Total Rush were pegged level with me for the first two laps then I started pulling away in the later laps. (teams doing 6 laps not just the 5 we did). I still believe the course is better suited for ITT with all the turnarounds. There was great support from the sideline today too, a few cheers and claps as we passed people enjoying the show. The fastest part of the course was past the start/finish line so it was a blast ripping through there at full gas. Who doesn't love the sound of a disc wheel at speed?
The turns are the hardest part, just as you get into a rhythm you have to drop to 10km/h and get back up to speed again. The turns were wet and the south turn had moss on the road, so 'tip-toe' was the plan of attack there. Final lap came around quickly, one last turn and 2mins to the line leaving everything out on the road. 33:50... plus or minus a few seconds. The electronic timing system made a complete mess of lap 1 splits for most riders. Some riders have their times reported -1min, some -2, some spot on for lap 1. This shuffled things around a little when corrected, but rule #1 of TTs is to time yourself! (Lap times have now been corrected on the official results sheet)
Automated Results (Lap 1 times now correct as of 18th May)
Overall Top 10:
1 Miller, Shane 0:06:37 0:06:47 0:06:50 0:06:51 0:06:46 33:51.0 44.14
2 Lama, Martin 0:06:56 0:07:05 0:07:09 0:07:10 0:07:06 35:26.0 42.16
3 Chadderton, Nick 0:07:05 0:07:13 0:07:16 0:07:19 0:07:19 36:12.0 41.27
4 Areta, Jose 0:07:05 0:07:16 0:07:15 0:07:23 0:07:23 36:22.0 41.08
5 Harvey, Richard 0:07:27 0:07:21 0:07:27 0:07:25 0:07:25 37:05.0 40.29
6 Sewell, David 0:07:23 0:07:25 0:07:29 0:07:28 0:07:32 37:17.0 40.07
7 Brown, Lachlan 0:07:40 0:07:42 0:07:15 0:07:23 0:07:23 37:23.0 39.96
8 Banning, Steve 0:07:32 0:07:33 0:07:31 0:07:32 0:07:21 37:29.0 39.86
9 Lane, Stephen 0:07:18 0:07:40 0:07:39 0:07:40 0:07:35 37:52.0 39.45
10 Hanley, Harry 0:07:38 0:07:34 0:07:38 0:07:28 0:07:34 37:52.0 39.45
I was pretty happy with the splits and power numbers on the course. This time around there were presentations, medals, and a stack of free food. I demolished the lolly bananas and put a dent in the red frogs. A notable absentee was the coffee cart.... There were a number of cameras on course taking photos so they'll be out later this week sometime. The showbag of goodies was also a hit, gels, drinks, a towel, but I don't think I'll be using the 20% off voucher for the mens hairdressing place.
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| Zoom! But I've got homework do to on that position. |
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| Overall win, new course record, and Male 31-40 Gold. Happy. |
Two from two. The power numbers were good for both events, about 5% up on where I was at the Ballarat Masters Nationals last year. Still more to squeeze out of my position and maybe a little out of the legs. I've hit the limit with the TT frame I'm riding now, can't get any lower with with its large head tube and the adjustable stem at maximum downward setting. The next-gen TT frames are nice, but probably unnecessary bling-overkill to train on. A Cervelo P3C should do the job, if anyone has one laying around..... or if anyone is in, or knows people in, the 'industry' who wants their frame between my legs while chasing TTs (and some big kms training on) let me know!
Three TTs next weekend, and five next month. Suit up, its business time!
1 comment:
Hehe - At Yarra Llama beat Lama - nice.
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