RR: West Coast Vets "A finish line too far"

This week's racing moved north of the river to Wangara. A nice
industrial area course with an uphill finishthat kicks about 50 metres
before the line.

After a nice warmup to get familiar with the course it was time to let
the legs get cool and watch the A and C grades battle it out. C grade
had no real breakaways and one of my training buddies, Trevor held out
for 2nd. A grade was ripped apart early on by some rude buggers
attacking just where the road kicks up before the finish line. Within 5
minutes there was a 500m gap between the front 10-12 riders and 5 guys
off the back. Watching was awful (my mate Rob was in the chasing group)
as you could see the hurt on their faces. There was a lesson for me
though as I watched the remaining four of them work together and
actually get back to the bunch with 2 laps to go. They came nowhere in
the sprint but the never-say-die attitude was inspiring.

The B grade race started immediately after and similar tactics were
tried. Attack after attack came and went, with some staying out for 2-3
laps. I found myself off the fron for 1/2 a lap but had no support and
was swallowed by the bunch at the top of the hill. Maintaining 40+ km/h
uphill into the wind was too much to ask. The pace was all over the
place with the bunch going faster uphill than down the back straight.

Not soon enough, the bell was sounded. Another of my training mates was
alone 40m off the front with another pair of riders 20 m behind him. The
guys at the front of the bunch did not appear to be concerned as they
stayed there up until the last corner with 500m to go. I followed a
wheel from the last corner (A conscious effort to be smarter in the
sprints.) and we had soon caught the front runners, but I was fast
running out of steam. The finish line was still a long way off.
Holding on in 2nd we were passed by a recent South African inport, Mark,
who i met before the race. I attempted to get on his wheel but failed.
It was the beginning of the end. Before I knew it I was being
overtaken on both sides with about 50m to go. Realising I was out of
the money I cruised over the line in 7th. It's sadly not like the
training ride sprints where you can 'call' where the line is as you hit
the front ;-)

Lessons learned:
(Some of these are familiar so maybe I haven't learnt them...)
- Stay out of the wind. There's plenty of strong fools who will do
this. ;-)
- Don't bother trying to break away. (Unless I do some more time trial
training)
- Don't sprint too early. 500m is a long way to wind up from when you
are a 35 year old B grader...

--
Cheers
Bretr

"Brett" wrote in message
...
Not soon enough, the bell was sounded. Another of my training mates was
alone 40m off the front with another pair of riders 20 m behind him. The
guys at the front of the bunch did not appear to be concerned as they
stayed there up until the last corner with 500m to go. I followed a wheel
from the last corner (A conscious effort to be smarter in the sprints.)
and we had soon caught the front runners, but I was fast running out of
steam. The finish line was still a long way off. Holding on in 2nd we
were passed by a recent South African inport, Mark, who i met before the
race. I attempted to get on his wheel but failed. It was the beginning of
the end. Before I knew it I was being overtaken on both sides with about
50m to go. Realising I was out of the money I cruised over the line in
7th. It's sadly not like the training ride sprints where you can 'call'
where the line is as you hit the front ;-)

Don't ya hate that! It's hard not to totally give up when you start fading
and riders start coming past. Better luck this week.
Adam