March Madness Weekend 2012. Crits, TTs, Crits, lots of kms in the car...

Lots of kms in the car.

This weekend was jam-packed with racing which saw most of Team Kosdown racing two or three events over the weekend. There is a team round-up over on the website here, below are a few tales from the three events I pinned a number on for....


Coburg CC Criterium Champs 2012. Saturday, March 24th 2012.

12 riders and damp conditions at National Boulevard. Kosdown had the numbers but as a club champs it was a gloves-off affair, team mates against team mates. Kos Samaras was active early on. Chris Naumovic (TopGear) was looking sharp in a skinsuit, a clear sign he was there to race hard, or that his more-acceptable-for-a-crit knicks and jersey was still in the wash. Adrian 'Chewy' Chew (TopGear) also kept very active near the front making sure the Kosdown colours didn't dominate proceedings.

A break of four riders formed at around the 20 minute mark. Sam Lilley, Adam Katsonis, Chris Naumovic and myself. Naumovic was out numbered and was in a tactical tough spot. He didn't need to roll turns, was ridden off the back, and on the receiving end of some tactical shit-talk. To his credit he didn't crack or feed the trolling, and we were soon back with the two leaders. After Naumovic started rolling through and contributing to the break, Lilley attacked him three times in quick succession. While those two boys were playing attack-sies and Katsonis was a few lengths back, I jumped away solo.... and got away.

After 31 minutes solo I was never out of sight on the main straight. I thought I might be in for a chance. It wasn't to be. The the catch was made with 3 to go. The sprinters in the group were more than happy to go neutral on bell lap as A Grade came past. We resumed 'racing' with 800m to go. I kicked from the bunch but wise old-fox Peter Ferrie didn't let me go anywhere, giving the others a nice ride onto my wheel. 500m out and another acceleration went, without me. Lilley, Samaras, Ferrie, and Katsonis took off to contest the win. I watched them spin away... and a few riders watching my wheel missed the jump. Lilley took the well deserved club champion title, Samaras 2nd, Ferrie 3rd.

Doomed solo attempt...

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Wangaratta CC Winton TT. Saturday, March 24th 2012.

A 2pm start time meant I could get up to Glenrowan for the Wangaratta CC time trial in the afternoon. A 20-26km TT (depending on where the marshal put the turn around), on a relativity flat course that ran parallel to the Hume Freeway, with a little berg in the first and final 2km to contend with.

The turn out was pretty good. The local BikeHub boys all there including Lyster and Reeckman, along with a few familiar faces from other TTs, including Martin Lama, and Liz Randall on her shiny new Trek TT bike. Tomarsh Loki was on the rego desk for the day and had already assigned me #1, putting me off last, and estimating I'd be hitting an average of 47km/h. Not with the hill we had to contend with! 45km/h was my estimate. An unknown interstate rider was also in the mix but had missed his start time and was sent off behind me, a fatal error as the corner marshal thought I was last through and had packed up once I'd passed.

Lyster was my minute man and it took me 13.8km to reel him in. This was his first TT since the Tour of Bright so was having a pretty good day on the TT bars. The short sharp 7% rise was the evil twist in this course after the 51km/h return leg on the super-fast road... Then an all-out effort the longer gentler 4% onto the freeway overpass before the downhill to the line. My 2 minute man was caught on the overpass as I targeted the catch-and-release just as we crested the last bump.

1st place with 25:18, 45.6km/h on the Garmin for the 19.2km course. $20 for the win was a welcome fuel money bonus for the day.

A Grade Results
1. Shane Miller 25:18
2. Tully Lyster 26:59
3. Allan Thrum  27:24
4. Martin Lama  27:25 (1 second!)

Full results are up on the new Wangaratta Cycling Facebook page. Their next TT is on April 28th on the Warby Range course.

Few pics showing that you can never underestimate the weaponry people use in country club TTs. It is wallet warfare on the start line! (Cheers to http://www.tonyreeckmanphotography.com/ for the shots.)

Heads down thumbs up, 2012 edition.

Full result list. Tomarsh's handy work. Spot on!

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Cycling Victoria Masters Criterium Championships 2012 - Hosted by Castlemaine CC. March 25th 2012.

Castlemaine CC had prepared the tight street circuit well this year. Hay bales everywhere for hungry horses, and for any riders who wanted to overcook the corners. MMAS1 showing no signs of participation improvement over previous years, had only 3 riders, so we were again crammed in with MMAS2 (10 riders) for our 30 minute + 1 lap blast around the 700m course.

30 minutes isn't a lot of time to mess about in a race. So I went from the gun. The only other rider to respond get across was Haydn Bradbury (DeVer), a MMAS2 rider. Everyone had to chase this move. They tried and held us at about 50m for a lap or two before a hesitation in the chase bunch meant Bradbury and I were out of sight. We swapped one lap turns and knew the move just might pay off when the bunch wasn't closing back to us. We ended up lapping the field at the 13 minute mark and getting to sit on for a few laps. All we needed to do was mark any attacks or at least keep them in sight... oh, and keep away from the hay bales.

Shannon Johnson (Kosdown) MMAS1 went on a solo mission off the front, not long after that a MMAS2 rider followed but never made contact. The bunch accelerated and closed both riders down. In the final few laps Bradbury and Johnson rolled off the front and nobody chased. I let them go, Bradbury MMAS2 and not in my race, Johnson MMAS1 but no time to take a lap. At three to go I jumped solo to see if I could bridge across but came up short as Johnson got in a pre-NAB Showmans Crit sprint to the line. Cam Woolcock (ABOC) MMAS2 took the bunch kick to the line.

MMAS1 Results:
Gold   - Shane Miller (Coburg CC)
Silver - Shannon Johnson (Preston CC)
Bronze - Chris Zielinski (Southern Masters CC)

MMAS2 Results:
Gold   - Hayden Bradbury (Blackburn CC)
Solver - Cam Woolcock (Hawthorn CC)
Bronze - Gary Wearmouth (Geelong CC)

The racing this year, while still short, was a lot better than last time around. The course is made for a huge normalised power number, as seen on my Twitter feed. You're either stomping up the main straight into the hill or coasting down around the two final corners at speed. It was a similar race story for MMAS3 and above, small groups, or single riders getting clear and just stomping away from their fields. Even with the thin numbers in the Masters fields the hard-man (and hard-woman) racing made up for it. Top work Castlemaine CC!

See the Castlemaine CC write up of the day here: Linky

Given #2... punishment for winning MMAS1 last year....?

Start line... 1..2...3....

Attack...

Just about onto the back of the field...

State MMAS1 Crit Champ 2012. A good finish to the weekend of racing.

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Mt Buller Road Race. March 18th 2012.

700+ riders, pre-register the night before, electronic timing, event photographers on course, and more corporate sponsorship than you could poke a spoke at. That was the recreational ride, the 2012 SCODY High Country Cycle Challenge. From all reports it was a great success.

On the racing side of things, while being referred to as 'professional' by MC Rob Gaylard, we didn't have the same luxuries as the rec riders. Our 8:30am start was delayed for 20mins+ due to a 30min line up for on-the-day registration, no electronic timing, a grading "system" that had national level team riders in B Grade, and zero detail about where the actual finish was.... was it at the clock tower, around the corner, or up some footpath that people had to contend with last year? In my honest opinion, the racing is the red headed stepchild of the Tour de Flavour.

A little more on the grading.... There was a limit of 60 riders per grade so CV/someone had to perform some rider shuffling. I'm not sure exactly why a limit was put on the race fields when there were 100s in the rec ride.... National level teams such as the VIS, Drapac, Search2Retain had riders were placed in B Grade. Last years winner of B Grade was also sitting pretty again in B Grade along with other previous B Grade Open hilly race winners. This isn't a stab at the riders, they're absolute guns, most had even entered A Grade but were demoted. Everyone was questioning was what the f*ck was up with the handicapping? It wasn't a case of educated shuffling to make up numbers, it was a clear example of incompetence. The quality of racing and fairness within the grades isn't a primary concern to the event organisers. Until there is some kind of system in place to track and rank riders, it is likely nothing will change.

The solution for a few of these issues? To look at what the recreational ride is doing and come up with a middle ground. Reduce the "$8,000 prize money" that only 5% of the field get to see (and that gives people incentive to demote themselves) and implement better services for the entire field, services that 100% of people will benefit from. Pre-race rego, electronic timing, more race/route information, better grading, a sprint point at the gatehouse. With a few tweaks, the Mt Buller race has the potential to be as successful for the riders as the Tour of Bright.

That is most of the negative junk out of the way, and I'm not expecting a re-tweet by CV from this race report.... if you want some sugarcoated fairytale bullshit you won't find it here, not today. I can't give you the blow by blow account of what happened at the pointy end because I wasn't there to see it.

To the race.... I'd only entered because Von was up there racing the two women's events and I didn't want to stand on the sidelines wishing I was out there too. I'd entered A Grade although I honestly don't have the runs on the board in Open road events to be there, but that'd be sorted out once all riders had entered, right...? No. I was racing A Grade! Shannon Johnson (Kosdown) driving the bunch for the first few kms out of town at a smoking pace. A group of 15 riders held a gap of 15-20 seconds for about 10km which was closed down before the climb thanks to everyone jamming up the small hills and some monster turns by leg-meat-mountain David Kelly (Total Rush).

The center line rule wasn't mentioned nor enforced. Our follow car turned a blind eye to riders ripping up the wrong side of the double whites on the way out to the climb, and up it.

A few riders went backwards through the pack on the final rise before the gatehouse. More switched off as soon as the real climbing started. I was sitting near the back and picking my way around riders for the first few km. Nathan Elliott (Charter Mason Drapac) ripped a monster turn on the front that left only 20(?) riders in touch.. at around 20 minutes into the climb I was still dangling about 10m off the back of this bunch, never getting back on. It was a solo slog to the top from then on, watching the leaders spin away. After losing sight of the bunch the motivation and power to the pedals was lacking a few percent. I made my way past a few riders that had been dropped and were just tapping to the top. Most wondering why I was still riding hard... because why not was the reason. There was no stage 2 TT to save my legs for. I wasn't in the same league as the guys up the road on a hill like this, but I wanted to see how far off I was.

Using Strava as the defacto result sheet, I was 4min30sec off the A Grade winner, Matt Clark. A handful of B Graders who've uploaded their climb times show they climbed faster than most of A Grade too. How about we take a collection and shout the handicapper a Strava subscription to help next time? :) No idea of where I ended up overall.  Plenty of time to work on that before any other lengthy hilly races pop up on my calendar.

The feed bag at the top for all riders at the top was a welcome sight. The cake, biscuit, and Gatorade was consumed in no time at all. I offered to tow Von all the way back into town if she paid for lunch..... it was agreed.... so I sat on the front for 30kms. Perfect TT training with lunch provided. We picked up one fare evader who hung on for the last 15kms. He didn't interfere so was a welcome passenger. :)

Race Results.... Only the Top 3 reported, pretty unfair on the other 95% of the field... I won't put the heat on CV for this one, it was probably due to the lack of electronic timing. There were pens, paper, and a video camera on the finish line.....

Edit: Wed 21st March - The full results for the road race have been published!

Overall winning times per grade.. (Calculated by me from Strava data and time gaps.)

Men A:   1:31:54
Men B:   1:37:56
Men C:   1:47:42
Men D:   1:51:02
Women A: 1:59:47
Women B: 2:02:03

Fastest Mt Buller climb times per grade.. (From Strava/time gaps, assuming bunch together at the base)

Men A: 40:51 (Matt Clarke)
Men B: 42:20 (Tom Hamilton)
Men C: 48:08 (Hugo Tolliday/Morgan Curtis)
Men D: 49:53 (Roland Elsdon)
Women A: 53:10 (Stephanie Ives)
Women B: 56:12 (Carolyn Fraser)

Crit: http://www.vic.cycling.org.au/?ID=45968
Road: http://www.vic.cycling.org.au/?ID=45969

A few clarifications:
- I believe the rec ride was organised by Bikevents.com.au/Mansfield CC, not CV... however all the events this weekend came under the Mansfield "Tour de Flavour" umbrella.
- Don't flip your shit at me for having an opinion, especially if you're an organiser, volunteer, or someone who takes offense to what I've said. Your work is appreciated. As I have done in the past, I'm echoing a number of topics discussed by a number of people over the weekend and putting them in writing.... because I want to see things get better. What you have to worry about is the riders who've done it once and won't return. You'll never know why.
- The weather was good, the roads were good, there were no major dramas affecting the racing itself. The fastest guys and gals in each grade won.
- I'll go back next year if I'm not banned... or sued by Happy Fun Fapper Pics for using their images.
- I sat on this post for most of the day, thinking it was all too negative. The response I've had on Facebook about this topic shows that there are a lot of people who are interested in the weekend and some of the details on and off the bike... so here it is.
- Just bear with me and I'll come up with good content again.... maybe.... ;)

Anyhows... for some calming visuals to finish...

Don't ask. Blame Rod Upton.

Saturday recon.... Mt Buller is in there somewhere.

Saturday recon ride.

Hey Shannon, how do sprinters rate big hills?

FUN PHOTOOTOS1111BILIILLLSON - Me not doing the rec ride.
Person in the image (c) 2012 Me.

FUN PHOTOOTOS1111BILIILLLSON - Me STILL not doing the rec ride.
Person in the image (c) 2012 Me.

FUN PHOTOOTOS1111BILIILLLSON - Me not FINISHING the rec ride.
Person in the image (c) 2012 Me.

Seymour Broadford CC - Avenel Loop Handicap. March 10th 2012

With an unfortunate stack in B Grade at National Boulevard on Saturday morning, all racing was called off 15 minutes in. I still managed to get my racing fix with Seymour Broadford CC later that afternoon with a handicap race on the large Avenel loop (~40km). I've earmarked the SBCC Time Trial in a few weeks, so I was keen to get out there for a race before that.

At the rego desk at Burgess Signs I was greeted with "If your last name is Miller, we knew you were coming. You're off scratch!". hah! I'd mentioned to SBCC member Alan Adams who was at National Boulevard that morning that I might drive out for a race, he spread the word. All up there were 21 riders with limit being 13 minutes ahead of the scratch bunch of four containing Alan Adams, Shane Kirby, young Sam Fuhrmeister, and the new ring-in, me.

The course - Avenel large loop.

 

Elevation. Not much to it, two small bumps.

A slight tail wind meant the first 20mins was fast. 47km/h fast. Looking up to see a long open road in the distance is such a welcome sight, so much nicer than going around and around in circles in a crit waiting for the clock to tick down. We pulled back second scratch (3mins) to 60 seconds after 18kms. We only pulled back another 20 seconds in the cross wind 8km section at the top of the course along Avenal-Nagambie Rd.

Adams played navigator as we raced through the small township of Avenel. A few locals who'd seen the other groups come past stopped and watched the chase. Past the old cemetery (containing Ned Kelly's father!) and back out of town into the headwind home. A slight rise in the road was the nail in the coffin for the front two bunches that we swept up in quick succession.

All together at 8km to go. The race had turned into a scratch race. I sat out a few turns and had a look around at how big the bunch was. Too big, so off the front on the attack I went. Head down driving for a few 100m before checking the damage. A few out the back, a few poker faces I couldn't read still in contention. A few kms later Adams rolled off the front with nobody chasing. I let him go then launched across with a few others on my wheel. Only five or so riders left now with a few km to go. I hit them again trying to go solo to the line. After a few 100m it was looking good.... until Fuhrmeister had other ideas. He was coming across to me solo and fast approaching. I backed off and waited for him to get across then kept driving the pace. Adams and Kirby were chasing hard. If Fuhrmeister and I could keep clear I would have kept driving on the front to the line. Bets were off as soon as Kirby bridged across with 800m to go. Fuhrmeister reversed my plans, he was driving to the line with me on his wheel. I backed off to see if Kirby was going to kick early, he didn't.... no more time to think, I jammed down the gears and hit them at 350m out. 10 seconds all out, check for damage. Fuhrmeister only just lost contact, Kirby drops his head, spent.... I roll over the line for the win and fastest time. Kirby 2nd, Fuhrmeister 3rd, Adams 4th. The scratch bunch cleaned up!

30km team time trial, 10km red-hot scratch race. 325w/348w normalised. A pretty solid afternoon. At presentations we divided the winnings, enjoyed listening to everyone's race stories, and I was welcomed back at any time. Country club racing at its best.

Check their website for race info (Downloads->Fixture): www.seymourbroadfordcyclingclub.com

Course recon... on hold for a minute.

Coburg CC - Evolution Cycles IRTT Series - Round Three. March 4th 2012.

Humevale road surface.

Coburg are banging out TTs faster than Bakers Delight bangs out their Hot Cross Buns after Christmas..... Round 3. Humevale. 2.5km flat then 7km of bone shaking hill. Not a very steep hill, big ring all the way, the 'gotcha' is the dodgy road surface. Calling it "rough as guts" doesn't do it justice.

It'd been a while since I'd ridden the course so I was out there last Wednesday for a roll around. 37 Watts more up the hill and 28 seconds slower than my PB back in 2010. I was hoping the go-fast bits on race day would help out.

The competition: Jono Lovelock (Genesys) was a notable absentee with team commitments over in Tasmania (Mt Wellington Challenge). Stephen Lane (Kosdown) was exited to be on a goat-ish course that suited his skinnyarse stature. 1988 Australian Ironman winner, Gerard Donnelly (Giant-Celtic) is defying the age gods and keeping us honest. Gerard brought along team mate BIG John Cain to flatten out the bumps on the road before we raced up it. Nathan "E DOG" Elliott (Charter Mason Drapac) was a last minute entry in the non-aero category, making that field a little nervous.

The pre-race pit stop in Whittlesea was amusing. It looked like someone had murdered a Ninja Turtle in the public toilets. I've no idea what this was and holy hell it smelt bad.

WTseriousF is that!? I can still smell it now. #upchuck

Not many people out on course for a warm up. I rode my warm up with James Singleton who'd come out to the event to see what it was all about before taking the plunge and becoming a CA member so he can enter some TTs and test himself against the clock (and his power meter). That was a good 20 minutes of chatting and cleaning sticks and junk off the road (not only was the surface bad, there was crap all over it too!). A few others were doing the same further up the climb.

The race: I'd opted for the road bike with clip-ons. A gamble between lightweight, being somewhat aero, and dealing with the rough surface and corners. I'm still not sure this is the optimal choice. With little variation in the course it was a case of pegging the watts to a number and holding on! All went to plan for the first 10 minutes then I dipped a little. With no sign of my minute man I lifted the effort a few % in the final km and managed the win. SLane had his best TT yet, coming in 2nd place. Simon Welsh (Kosdown) stomped to the line making it a full Kosdown podium in the aero category!

Aero Category:
1  Shane Miller    17.54
2  Stephen Lane    18.18  +0:24
3  Simon Welsh     19.03  +1:09
4  Gerard Donnelly 19.36  +1:42
5  Stephen Bick    19.47  +1:53
6  Jose Areta      20.06  +2:12
7  Tom Donald      20.17  +2:23
8  Martin Lama     20.50  +2:56
9  John Cain       20.54  +3:00
10 Von Micich (F)  24.58  +7:04
11 Gavin Wright    25.10  +7:16

Full Results: Coburg CC Facbook Page. E DOG took out the non-aero category with a storming 19:00.

Pics thanks to Mrs Rod Upton (again):

BIG John Cain.

E DOG putting out the massiffff power.

Simon Welsh after a catch and release.

Finish line cheer squad. Good turnout.

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And in other news...

"Cycling Victoria Announce the Club Teams Premiership" - Linky

A yearly three-round series for all Victorian clubs to participate in. Two track events, one road event. A nice way to help promote club event participation. An incentive for clubs to enter teams for these CV events. A good thing all around..... 

BUT

There is always a 'but'. This was announced a week AFTER the first two events had already been run! Clubs who didn't participate in the State Teams Track events are out of the running for 2012 already. Not exactly fair on all of the clubs under the Cycling Victoria banner is it? You just can't invent something as prestigious as a "Premiership" series after 2/3rds of the events have already been run. In the inaugural year of the premiership, the value of the win is watered down. Not ideal.

The solution? They should have kept this one under wraps until November. Announce it for the 2013 season onwards just as the track season was getting underway for 2012-2013, giving clubs enough time to inform their members, pick teams, train, and enter.