RR: Murarrie Crits [BNE], Sat 17/6/06

My race report - cut-&-pasted from my blog for your convenience...

------------

On Saturday morning, I headed back out to Murarrie for another attempt
at
the criterium bike races. I was racing in Cat 2 Div 2 (which is roughly
equal to D-grade).

Got there with about 15min to go until start, signed on and handed over
my
$8. Tam was racing as well, in Cat 2-2, so I was pleased there'd be
someone
else I knew in the race. I quickly unloaded my bike of unnecessary
stuff
(lights, saddle bag, pump), and soon enough 8am rolled around for race
start.

The race was scheduled as 40min +3 laps. We set off, and I settled into
the
front third of the pack. Looking around, I guessed there were maybe
20-25
other riders in the race, with almost a third of them females. My
primary
goal was to finish with everyone else (ie. not get dropped!!), so I
decided
I'd try and sit in the front third for as long as I could, and see how
I
went.

As expected, the first 15 minutes had quite a few surges as the
stronger
riders tested everyone's legs. I nearly got spat out a couple of times,
but
gritted my teeth and was pleased to be able to hold on. A little later,
I
even pushed forward and took a turn out the front!! I didn't hold a
strong
pace or anything, but it was fun to ride in some clear air...

The whistle blew for the Prime (halfway sprint lap) at about the 25min
mark.
I decided I'd try and stick with the 'sprint bunch' - not because I
thought
I could win, but just to try and hold their pace, plus it would give me
a
chance to hold on if someone tried to attack post-sprint. I was pleased
to
make it around with the sprinters (although I was well and truly at the
back
of their pack), and was relieved when they all sat up and waited for
the
rest of the pack to come through.

At some stage (can't remember the timing), a small pack of 3-4 broke
away
for a while. I was impressed that Tam was in that group - she had
already
spent half the race taking turns up the front, and now she was in the
lead
group!! However, after a few laps, the peloton caught up and sucked
them
back in...

Eventually, after about 45min, the '3 laps to go' sign went up. I was
stoked
to still be there, and resolved to stick it out to the end. Over the
last
couple of laps, the pace slowed a little as the stronger riders played
out
there strategies - I had my eye on two or three of them, and was ready
to
jump on their wheel as soon as they started moving.

Sure enough, with half-a-lap to go, the move came. Around 10 riders
jumped,
and I managed to stick onto the back of the group (woohoo!!). I
pedalled
like crazy, stuck with them down the main finishing straight, and
rolled
over the line in 9th spot.

So overall, I was very, very happy with how the race went. I was stoked
with
my own performance, plus the race itself was a lot of fun, with
everyone
racing in good spirit and none of the nastiness I've seen in some other
races. The 9km ride home up & down the hills of Creek Rd was pretty
painful,
but the good result helped to numb that (almost!).

Final stats for the race - 36.5km/h ave, dist 31km.
----------

Gotta say that Tam was awesome in the race. I swear she spent half the
crit at the front driving the peloton, and then she took off in the
breakaway group for a while!!!! Very, very strong & impressive
performance....

Cheers all,
Abby

"Absent Husband" wrote in message
ups.com...
snip
rr where Abby and Tam did exceptionally well
/snip

Congrats Abby (and Tam). Awesome effort.
Sounds like it's time to move up :-)

Hopefully see you out there soon.

Mick

Mick wrote:
"Absent Husband" wrote in message
ups.com...
snip
rr where Abby and Tam did exceptionally well
/snip

Congrats Abby (and Tam). Awesome effort.
Sounds like it's time to move up :-)

err ...

learn to win before going up a grade. Finishing with the lead bunch is
good!
But it's not promotion time just yet .. I'm a strong proponent of
winning your way up the grades. If you can't win D grade, you're going
to -really- struggle to get a result in C, B and A, and there's a lot
more to winning a race than just being fit enough to get to the finish.

Bleve wrote:
err ...

learn to win before going up a grade. Finishing with the lead bunch is
good!
But it's not promotion time just yet .. I'm a strong proponent of
winning your way up the grades. If you can't win D grade, you're going
to -really- struggle to get a result in C, B and A, and there's a lot
more to winning a race than just being fit enough to get to the finish.


Don't worry, I won't be putting my hand up to step up to Cat 2-1 just
yet... *laughs*

Although I'll have to start doing some sprint/strength type stuff to
help me out in the sprint (I kept up with them, but wasn't good enough
to come around anyone). I'll have to introduce some "traffic
light-to-traffic light" efforts into my commutes!!

Cheers,
Abby

Absent Husband wrote:
Although I'll have to start doing some sprint/strength type stuff to
help me out in the sprint

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...ga-sprint-loop

Absent Husband wrote:
Bleve wrote:
err ...

learn to win before going up a grade. Finishing with the lead bunch is
good!
But it's not promotion time just yet .. I'm a strong proponent of
winning your way up the grades. If you can't win D grade, you're going
to -really- struggle to get a result in C, B and A, and there's a lot
more to winning a race than just being fit enough to get to the finish.


Don't worry, I won't be putting my hand up to step up to Cat 2-1 just
yet... *laughs*

Although I'll have to start doing some sprint/strength type stuff to
help me out in the sprint (I kept up with them, but wasn't good enough
to come around anyone). I'll have to introduce some "traffic
light-to-traffic light" efforts into my commutes!!

Send me an email offline, I'll give you some suggestions for sprint
training.

Bleve wrote:


For anyone else that's interested, here's what I sent to Paul :

Your basic race progression is :

finish
finish with leaders
win
go up a grade & repeat until you find your limit


So you've done 1 & 2, now you know you need to be able to sprint!

I don't know how good your knees etc are, so I can't guide you
re strength training with much safety, but I'll give you some
general suggestions for sprinting.

sprinting involves
* power, which is the rapid appliation of strength.
you break this up into 3 chunks - strength, pedal speed, and
then combine them into high speed sprints
* timing and position
This is the "art" of sprinting. You need to study how the
pros do it. Get DVDs of tour stages, watch (don't just look, really
watch) the a graders and how they do it. Practice your timing for
when to come off a wheel etc. Try and work out who's doing what,
and *why*, if you were in Melb I'd get you to
come to a few of our road racing skills sessions where we
practice this stuff a lot, but you're not, so you'll have to
get Tam to lead you out

Strength : I get most of my riders doing strength training on the bike
-
strenth is specific, and gym work, more often that not, is
inappropriate
in my opinion.

Try these, for 3-4 weeks, 2-3 times a week with 2 days between them :
big gear sprints. Pick a hill, about 100m or so long, around 3-5%.
Get in the big ring, and maybe start in 53:17 or so (I'm guessing,
don't
know how strong you are yet). Roll up to the base of the hill at
less than 10km/h (in that big gear!). Stand and sprint up the hill as
hard as you can for 15-20 seconds. 2-3 mins rest, and repeat. Once
you
feel that you can get up to 75rpm or so, it's time to use a bigger
gear.
do 5-6 of these per session. Get sore knees? *stop* Expect DOMS
in the early stages if you're prone to pushing yourself too hard
early. It's difficult, but not impossible, to get DOMS from
on the bike strength work - usually the limiting factors are your
arms & back & core. Concentrate on smooth application of strength
and trying to keep your hips solid. Don't pull up much on the
upstroke,
it'll just lift your back wheel and waste energy, your strength comes
from the stomp. Everything else is just trying to keep you in the one
place so you can fire those quads.

On your off days, do HCLR work - high cadence, low resistance - in a
*very* easy gear (39:17? maybe easier!) on the flat with a tailwind,
spin up to the highest cadence you can hold without bouncing for 10
seconds. 2-3 mins rest and repeat. again, 5-6 times per ride - you
can slot these in to normal training rides.

Once you've got your hillsprints going for 3-4 weeks, then start doing
downhill sprints (w00T!). Pick a hill that flattens out at the bottom
that you can safely ride down fast. Ride down the hill until you're
about 50m shy of it leveling out, then sprint in whatever gear you
want, as hard as you can for ~200m, so you get the initial sprint
down the hill, but then you keep sprinting on the flat - this simulates
a leadout and then a final sprint. Pick whatever gear you want to and
keep a record of yuor maximum speed each time. This speed is your
target, and each time you do this drill, try and beat your previous top
speed. If you feel up to it, you can do the hillsprints (HS) first,
give yourself 10-15 mins of easy twiddling, and then do 5-6 DHS
(downhill sprints). Same sort of 2-3 times a week as the HS only
stuff.

That'll get you some speed.

The other thing is timing and position. You can practice
timing with a willing leadout (I nominate Tam, she's a trihardalete,
doesn't know how to sprint, good for a leadout!). Get her to
ramp up her speed to 40km/h or more, while you suck wheel, then
you pick a finishing line, and jump around her to sprint to the
line. Try & time it so you beat her by 5m or so. As you get
better, get her to lead you out faster & faster. Eventually,
you may want to use a motorbike But, that'll be when you're in
A grade!

Have fun!

Crits this week, I will be there to either race or cheer on all forum
members....


--
Rhino-x

Absent Husband Wrote:
My race report - cut-&-pasted from my blog for your convenience...

[snippo]

Cheers all,
Abby

Hey nice one Abby (and Tam) !

If you want some practice sprinting maybe try one of the upcoming
points style crits at Nundah on saturdays (see link below). Like a
points race on the track, there are a series of sprints throughout the
race. Sounds like fun to me, and you get more than one bite at the
cherry!

http://tinyurl.com/gpx6z

Adam


--
adam85

adam85 wrote:
If you want some practice sprinting maybe try one of the upcoming
points style crits at Nundah on saturdays (see link below). Like a
points race on the track, there are a series of sprints throughout the
race. Sounds like fun to me, and you get more than one bite at the
cherry!

http://tinyurl.com/gpx6z

Adam


Hey adam!!

I saw those races listed, and was interested - but I got the impression
that they were A & B grade races only (at least for us 'young' Elite
riders... *laughs*). A bit out of my league, I think....

However, if I can string a few more good weeks together of riding, I
might even get the courage up to head over your way for some more
"handicap punishment" at the hands of HPRW... *grins*

Hopefully will catch up soon,
Abby