Monday 17 October 2011

13th Australian Masters Games - MMAS1 Track TT and Pursuit

Track... I do the pursuit because it isn't too different to a road time trial, and I do the kilo TT (or 750m in this event) for a bit of practice at the start gate and for a few laps at speed. I usually spend a bit of time training for track before the State and National Masters Championships. My pre-race prep this time around was 15 laps of the track the day before the competition. It'd be an interesting test to see what I could do off the back of road TTs and a few road races.

750m TT 
5..4...3..2.... launch, go full retard on the pedals, finish. That is about it. Not much involved. The high rpm made for some interesting leg burn on the final lap..... lesson learned, do more high rpm work before racing track! 

MMAS1 750m TT Resuts:
Gold   - Shane Miller  VIC 52.404
Silver - Justin Wyten  SA  55.239
Bronze - Jermy Smith   SA  55.471

MMAS1 Track TT Podium
Pretty surprised with the result! There is an easy few seconds up my sleeve if I worked on my starts and top end spin. I was beaten by John Eder (QLD) MMAS3 for fastest 750m of the day by 0.273 seconds.


Pursuit 3000m

This is more my thing. Only three in MMAS1 so there was a qualifier and a final. The qualifier went better than expected. I didn't look at the lap board, just the 1000m and 2000m splits on the big screen. I was well within the time to reach the Gold/Silver ride off so didn't have to completely bury myself. 3:34.056. Still a fair way off my PB, and a world away from David Stevens 3:24.951 at the recent Masters Worlds (MMAS3, phew!). A few things I can tweak for more speed - mostly my legs at a higher rpm! 

The final was a few hours later and Justin Wyten who I was off against said he would race me for the first lap then save himself for his sprint events that were first up the next morning. I caught him in the final at 1000m. No splits in the results so we had nothing to compare our first lap times... 


MMAS1 3000m Pursuit Resuts:

Gold   - Shane Miller  VIC
Silver - Justin Wyten  SA
Bronze - David Ladd    SA  


It was a great week of racing over in Adelaide. The weather was perfect (rained for the TT and track day!), the city is friendly, and the racing was excellent. We also saw some of the best head-to-head racing in the Masters Women pursuits on the Friday afternoon. I also caught up with Gary Simpson Executive Officer from Cycling SA - who remembered me from the Langhorne Creek TT a few weeks back, good to be noticed away from home! 

The show goes on - Hawthorn CC Road Championships this Saturday followed by the YarraTri TT in Richmond, TT #32 for the year! Bring it on! 

Gold x5 - The whole set!
No prize money at championships - This is where I'm shopping soon.



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