Monday, 27 May 2013

Cycling Victoria - Geelong IRTT. May 25th 2013

With a funeral in Ballarat at 10am I was only a 50/50 chance of making the start line on Saturday. After the church service I was able to point the car towards Geelong to make it there. 64 riders across all grades, slightly up on last year which is good to see. A little confusion about the actual course with three different maps online. Just prior to the start we found out it was a true out-and-back. In the last few years we've never raced back on the main road.

The lead up week was a crack-up. Cycling Victoria were on board creating a bit of a rivalry discussion on Twitter....

Then I whipped up something to add to the event promotion....


That got a few re-Tweets and likes. Great to see the interest in TT growing! With the amount of Kask Bambino helmets getting around at $500 a pop, the local bike shops have to be pleased at the uptake of the discipline too. As for the actual benefits of Bambino over any other helmet, I'm not sold.


Back to the race - A 30km/h westerly wind and the true out-and-back course meant a quick game change from what I was expecting. The Zipp 404 once again got a run due to the cross winds. The course was good, no traffic to contend with at the intersections. A quick time calculation at the turn showed I was about 15 seconds up on Kelly. Back home into the head wind and I had to use a bit of course knowledge to dodge the rough sections of road. The final 2km with the wind was a blast! 53/11 mashing away at 55-60km/h, wheels whistling away, leaving it all out on the road.


A Grade Top 10
---------
1     Shane MILLER        32:23.667                46.304
2     David KELLY         32:56.538  00:32.871     45.534
3     Nick BENSLEY        32:59.217  00:35.550     45.473
4     Nicholas SQUILLARI  33:20.763  00:57.096     44.983
5     Oscar STEVENSON     33:28.639  01:04.972     44.806
6     Zac SHAW            34:12.674  01:49.007     43.845
7     John CAIN           34:14.254  01:50.587     43.812
8     Stephen LANE        34:23.171  01:59.504     43.622
9     Mark FAGG           34:28.758  02:05.091     43.504
10    Stuart Cameron      34:36.968  02:13.301     43.332 




A Grade Podium
I've had a few club TT wins recently, this A Grade Open Elite win was an awesome bonus for nailing the ride.

Full Results: MyLaps
Cycling Victoria Event wrap up
Jo Upton's Photos
Mandy Hosking's Photos (maybe locked down on FB) 

Helping Dave shave off a few more seconds.






Sunday, 26 May 2013

2013 Metro Champs, May Kew TT, Kit Giveaway!

The 2013 Metro Road Champs were back in Harcourt and back onto the extended Sutton Grange loop that was missed last year due to road resurfacing. 80km to be covered for the combined MMAS1/2 field. Adam Versteege (Zoom Video Racing) MMAS1 spent around 45km dangling off the front of the bunch. With two different championships in one race, he wasn't a rider I had to worry about, it was up to the other MMAS1 riders to chase. A few accelerations by MMAS1 riders were covered by other MMAS2 riders, so I kept those in check. A few of us finally started rolling turns at 50km into the race.... for 3km until someone rolled through like a steam train and blew the harmony. Luckily it was a bike race, not a singing contest.


With 16km left to race and the always decisive hill coming up, I threw away the idea of trying to win and went to the front and got on the gas. Smart move? No. Good timing? Yep. A few kms to string out the bunch before stomping up the climb. Across the top we had 4-5 left, sweeping up Versteege in the process. With 6km to go Nick Youngs (Zoom Video / MMAS2) puts in an acceleration that I jumped across to. No reaction from the others. "Let's do this" was the agreement. A few kms later we were out of sight. I swung off the front at 800m from the line. Youngs lead out and opened up the sprint. With a few rounds of Carl Brewer's ABOC Sprint Series a few years back still up my sleeve I kicked for the win. After throwing the idea of winning out the window 16kms before and just riding the bike as hard as I could - I was pretty happy with the result.



Cycling Victoria wrap up (and results)
Jo Upton Metros Photos



Back to Kew the next morning for an over-and-under ball breaker TT with Blackburn CC. The good conditions we unequally matched with not so good legs. Thankfully the other hitters on the A Grade start list were in the same boat. Tom Leaper (Croydon CycleWorks) had smoked a massive 170km on the day prior, and Dave Kelly (Total Rush) had been lighting up the dance floor at a wedding just a few hours prior to hitting the start line. I've been doing TTs against these guys for a few years, so I'd overlooked who was knocking on the door at the last round. The next generation are coming! Specifically Oscar Stevenson and Tom Russel. Oscar had ridden a 29:59 for his first TT at Kew last round. Thankfully these guys have been spotted a few months ago by Kosdown team boss and are both team mates.

A Grade
-------
  1    1    MILLER, SHANE              29:19     29:19 Coburg Cycling Club Inc    
  2   13    STEVENSON, OSCAR           29:31        13 Hawthorn Cycling Club       
  3   19    KELLY, DAVID               29:58        40 St Kilda Cycling Club Inc   
  4   22    RUSSEL, TOM                30:14        56 Hawthorn Cycling Club   
  5    2    LEAPER, TOM                30:27     01:09 Blackburn Cycling Club Inc  
  6    5    LANE, STEPHEN              30:38     01:19 Coburg Cycling Club Inc    
  7    4    ARETA, JOSE                30:51     01:33 Coburg Cycling Club Inc  
  8    3    CAIN, JOHN                 30:55     01:36 Carnegie Caulfield CC 
  9   12    ROSS , MATTHEW             30:55     01:36 Carnegie Caulfield CC     
 10   15    DONOHOE, ALISTAIR          31:13     01:54 Blackburn Cycling Club Inc
Full Results

Four Kosdown riders in the top 6. Ace! I was a few seconds off my time last round, good enough for my 10th A Grade TT win at Kew over the years.... but as I said, the next generation are coming! Oscar's time in 2nd place is only a few seconds off Alex Morgan's previous course record that stood for a few years. Tom will crack the 30 minute barrier this season too.

I think my words were - Watch out for this kid!
With the little help from an anonymous artist, we've graphed the Winning A Grade times over the last few years. Very interesting to see the downward trend of the times. Sub 30 minutes in dry conditions is the new benchmark.




I've been supported by Kosdown since 2009, amassing an impressive wardrobe of team kit over the years. There is only so much 'training kit' I can use in a week, so it was time to do something with it.


A few weeks back I put the word out on Facebook that I'd send a top to anyone who'd wear it, and who'd send me a picture of them wearing it. The kit was gone in about an hour....

Trip #2 to the post office...
Now the pics are starting to flow in! It'll be good to see this kit out and about again.

Smiths Gully!
Tony Reeckman - 10/10 for creativeness!
Ben Culton rocking the K - 427m above sea level!

Thursday, 23 May 2013

The Anti-Power Movement

In the past few weeks the new trend for idle Internet hands has been to speak out about power meters and their negative influence on competitive bike racing. From professional journalists through to your weekend warrior, they're all on board. We can't all come up with original thought provoking content, so it is easier to latch onto the coattails of some anti-Team Sky commentary and chip in with self-qualified minimal/non-experience with said technology.

"Power meters are ruining racing" - No. What is ruining racing is the drugs, Pat McQuaid, the UCI, Pat McQuaid, the corruption, Pat McQuaid, the race radios, Pat McQuaid, the lack of funding, and Pat McQuaid. To blame power meters for your lack of entertainment is ludicrous. "Sky are just looking at their numbers banging out a tempo". Why not blame the other riders for not attacking them and pushing them past their limits? "Because they're at their limits".... So they'll have to train harder, smarter, employ cutting edge sports science? Maybe with the help of pow..... oh hello, we've just looped back on ourselves.

"Peloton robots" - As in US Postal juiced up to their eyeballs in a team time trial? NO! That was entertainment! The new table thumping issue is that the (hopefully) clean peloton are applying a little science to their endeavours to squeeze the last few 0.1% out of themselves.

"I ride on feel, power is a waste of time" - Great. We're all pushing the pedals for different reasons. If you don't want to get into the number crunching, fine. If you don't want to enter into a w/kg pissing contest, no problem. What you can't do is deny the effectiveness and influence power has had on cycling performance in the past 25 years. A few quotes in an article by Rachel Neylan over on CyclingTips:

    “Power meters have provided new insight into demands of competition and the relationship between training and race relevant fitness.. allow the coach, trainer and athlete to better evaluate how the preparation process is influencing fitness.” Dr David Martin (AIS)

    “ power meters have been my primary scientific tool as a cycling sport scientist. Like a microbiologist has a microscope and a doctor has a stethoscope I have had my cycling power metres.” Dr David Martin (AIS)

"You can't ride without your numbers, you're tied to them" - My own experience says otherwise. I've had my power meter read too low during a TT, I've even had it drop out on the start line. It was an inconvenience, nothing more. Did it influence the result? No. If a rider is dropped in a road race or crit because they don't want to 'go into the red', this is user error. In the IT world this is known as PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair), maybe in cycling it would be PEBRAP (...Between Rider And Pedals).

Although, when reading the any anti-power article, Twitter post, or Facebook update, I still think PEBKAC best sums it up.

But who knows, the UCI could agree with them. After all, they've banned aero drink bottles, regulate our sock height, and are now banning shoe covers. Banning power meters can't be far off?


Relax... this is fake!

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

If you're cut off in the supermarket by a person holding onto one of these:

They'll likely apologise to you.

If you're cut off on the road by that very same person holding on to one of these:


They'll likely abuse you.


........still a long way to go.


Thursday, 9 May 2013

2013 Cycling SA - Masters State Time Trial Championships

With Von being looked after by her parents in Ballarat, I snuck over to South Australia for their State TT Championships last weekend. This was my third year in a row I'd made the trip to their event held in the sleepy/dead little town of Langhorne Creek.

My mum also made the trip to keep me company on the drive. I did a course re-con on the Saturday and we stayed overnight in Strathalbyn.

The turnout was the biggest Cycling SA have had at a TT championship. 175 riders. A bit of a let down they didn't have an event sponsor and didn't promote the event more online like they have in previous years. Looks like their Executive Officer, Gary Simpson, who has been running the show is moving on... He wasn't around and his position has been advertised on their website. Gary has always welcomed us to their events and has remembered us when we've said g'day at the Tour Down Under support events.

Von and I get a mention in the race booklet from last year!
The day ran without a hitch. From the juniors at 9am through to 2:30pm when the last Masters were set off. I had a good ride out into the head wind, and sailed with the wind all the way home. They'd extended the course a few 100m at the turn, so while I was 1km/h or so faster than last year, the times are slower. I've still got a lot of work to do on the equipment side of things. New TT helmet and ski-bends are on the cards.... along with the never ending quest for more power to the pedals.

MMAS2 Gold and fastest 20km on the day. The Championship title goes to the first SA rider, which is how I think State Championships should be.


Bling!

Look where I'm going? Ain' nobody got time fo' that!
Event photo by http://www.chameleonphotography.com.au

Photo by http://www.chameleonphotography.com.au
(at a hefty $45/jpeg I'll use the tiny watermarked one...)
The pub presentations were a popular. Must have been the beer.

MMAS2 podium... This is the best mum could do with my iPhone :)
Just around the corner!
Missed it by that much....... OCD overload.


Random Pic....

So on the topic of time trials.... The recent NRS round "Battle on the Border" banned the Elite Men from using TT bikes. While NRS women and support Masters racers could use them. Yet the most promoted, most publicised, most watched field had to ride road bikes? Aren't all these teams sponsored by well known bike brands? Shouldn't they want their blinged up TT equipment on show at the top level?

The rumoured reason? The old budget/costs excuse. The result? The teams with the budgets brought along disc wheels, aero helmets, deep front wheels, skinsuits... everything except TT bars. Making a mockery of the limitation. In fact, a lot of the riders rode with their hands in the TT position, dangling out the front in mid air. I'm not pointing the finger at the riders here, they'll always push the limits, they're there to go as fast as they can. I'm just pointing out that by 'banning' something that IS regulated (by CA/UCI) they introduce other problems like ambiguous definitions of what is 'a road bike' which puts lower level teams, or those who don't want to push the rules, at a disadvantage. All in the spirit of fairness, right?

I don't understand. Neither do they, because this is the photo they've plastered on the event promo website:

#BoB Marketing Team: DSQ