A Chance Meeting

This afternoon I was in the park with my son, who was playing with a neighbour's daughter and I met another dad who was there with his daughter. He had a Blackwell Composites T shirt on and that slightly hungry look that indicates a cyclist or runner, so I introduced myself. It turned out that he was not just another recreational cyclist, the likes of which flourish in Melbourne's leafy suburbs, but had his own company that fabricates carbon parts for cycling, rowing and other sports, as well as consulting on aerodynamics, and doing testing at the Monash wind tunnel. He had preeviously been employed by the AIS doing a lot of their technical work with SRMs and other technical issues. I, of course, was very interested by all the things he did, and fortunately he seemed more than happy to talk about his work.

Some of the highlights were talking about the powertesting he had been involved in with the Australian track cyclists, such as Brad McGee and in the new generation, Jack Bobridge, who reportedly can do 470watts for the duration of a pursuit, and has done 4.18 recently. We also talked about aspects of the different powermeters that were about, and his experiences with them. Apparently some of the AIS ones that they still use on the track are from early 90s when they were first brought out. They need recalibrating every so often but if they are installed and maintained well, can last for a long time.

We also talked about aerodynamics, and how important it was. He had a fairly low opinion of Zipp's dimples and also of ceramic bearings, having not been able to demonstrate any difference at 600watts, down to a resolution of 0.5watts, between normal and ceramic bearings. His experience was that the leading edge- hands, aerobar position, forks and front wheel were overwhelmingly the important factors. Apparently Bridie O'Donnell was able to gain 20watts by changing her aero position in the tunnel, a gain of 7%! He also was impressed by Edge composites wheels- thought they handled beautifully, largely due to the materials. 

I asked about front disc wheels, and he thought they were far and away better than trispokes and the like, if you could use them. He thought even outside on a still day was worth considering. The other thing was that an aero helmet was of even more benefit.

Oh, I could go on...

The people that you meet...

Vic Masters Track Championships 2009

My preparation for these championships differed somewhat from the last big meet that I had gone to, being the Worlds in Sydney, October 2008. At that point, I had a winter of interval ergos, combined with 2-3 track interval sessions, that had me jumping out of my skin over the period that the championships were on. When people talk about peaking, this was what they meant. PBs ensued, but still a ways off being truly competitive. This time round, a combination of the time of year, work going bananas and the usual family commitments meant that my total hours to train was curtailed, and my motivation to do those ergos that just hurt was not there. After a January with a fair base in the legs, largely due to a holiday in Bright, I decided that the way forward was to prioritise racing above all else, and just do road kms as I felt like. Hence, I made it to most Thursday track races at DISC, and did the Austral, and tried to do a crit each weekend. The general approach to all of this racing was to either win or cause maximal pain to other riders by leaving it all out there. As an approach, I have to say that his has been pretty enjoyable, largely because unlike last year, I have been racing in a recovered state. And racing is fun when you are doing more than just sitting in the pack.

Anyway, we come to Saturday morning just past, after putting work to bed for the weekend. My traditional approach to these meets has been to do the Kilo to work out the nerves, and this wasn't going to change. There was a fairly large field in masters 2, about 15 starters. I was one of the later starters, so I got to see most of the others. Despite the heat and what felt like a fast track, most of the times were in the mid teens, with the exception of Matt Chessum who rode 1.09 and looked the one to beat. A couple of others rode 1.11s. I felt good moving up to the start gate, and got the bike in without a hitch. Went around to the upper side and then mounted the bike, with the clock counting down from 30. Sounded 10 secs. 5. 4. 3. 2 and up. 1 and behind the saddle. Pop (not really a gun...) and throw the body forward. I always feel like I am going to storm out of the gate, but the combination of 100 gear inches and my paucity of fast twitch fibres means that I am also always dissapointed. Nonetheless I do get a bit of momentum going by half way through the turn and start really stomping on the pedals in the back straight. I sit as I go into the corner and try to spin up as fast as I can, and get into the pursuit bars smoothly (I still go one arm at a time- both together would be better) as I come back past the start. The second and third laps are all about pushing the cadence for me, and trying to stick low down near the black line on the track. The last lap is the killer in this event as the last vestiges of your fast twitch fibres have deserted you and your rising lactate levels are well and truly biting hard. Keeping up the cadence that was easy a lap ago becomes incredibly hard. Fortunately for me, my start is such that my fade is not so bad as some, and I push through in 0.6 of a second slower than the 3rd lap. The unfortunate corollary of this, given that your start speed is the strongest correlate of final performance, is that I am never going to win one of these against real sprinters. Nevertheless, I look up at the board and I have done 1.12. Super happy with a PB of one second. Only later do I find out that I have come fourth. It feels good to go this well in an event that I consider one of my weakest.

Sunday dawns after not enough sleep. Just how many different ways can you race a pursuit- there seemed to be too many while I was trying to get off to sleep. After a cafe stop and play in he park with my son, I headed into the velodrome. Sat on the road bike on the trainer, pushed out a warmup, and felt happy that the weather was still warm. Warming up takes me a long time, but less when the temperature rises. It feels better if you are dripping in sweat. Soon enough we have passed through the women's and older men's categories, and watched some great performances, by people that I have come to know over the last couple of years. Men's masters 3 and 4 are particularly strong. And Hawthorn's Meg Marsh sweeps all before her. The last few minutes go fast and before I know it, I am rushing up to wait by the start gate again. Let the previous race finish, take the bike up with the cranks in the right position, and walk around behind the bike (why behind? don't know, but it is always behind for me.) The start pops again and I am off. Pushing 102, so am even more sluggish than yesterday, but solid. Build speed through the first lap but hold back just that little bit. The second and third laps feel easy, but I know when I am seeing 17.6s that I where I want to be. Just got to hold it. I do a 17.8 as I coming up to pass my opponent at halfway, and I can't work it so I pass him in the straight, taking him in the second half of one of the turns. Not ideal and it plays with my rhythm a bit. Next lap is an 18.2 and I am on the slippery slope down, where you just keep scrabbling to hold on. As you get better you work out a few tricks- move about a bit, count pedals, focus one lap at a time. Mostly it is forcing your body to do what it doesn't want to do, and promising it that it will all be over soon. Holding it together til the end is at least as much mind as body, and today I manage to contain the bleed of time to 18.5 as my slowest lap. Pretty shattered at the end, but I deliberately did not totally leave it all out on the track, with the hope of making the final. 3.41. A PB by one second and into the final for the 3-4 race off. My opponent is my nemesis, who I have raced many times and have never beaten- Harry Fricke. He is so regular, with laps sticking within 0.2 of a second of each other, rides a huge gear and pushes out a 3.37. Still, I feel I have a sub 3.40 ride in me today, so I feel optimistic. Bring it on.

Without too much wait, I find myself back at the start gate, with Harry across the other side of the track. The count heads toward zero, and I feel good. The start is good, but as usual, not as fast as I feel. Through the second lap I try to hold a bit more speed than in qualifying, and stay down on the black line. My coach Simon holds up the numbers for the 3rd lap- 17.2. He is indicating I should cool it down, but  am feeling good, so I let the speed go.  By the start of the second kilo, I have gone out to 17.6, and it feels like I am holding it, legs good, not working too hard. Afterwards, people tell I have a couple of seconds on Harry. Somewhere around here, coming down the front straight, my front disc pulls me left without an warning. It is over in a fraction of a second. Wind from the entry doors. Straight away I am nervous, but tell myself to concentrate. Lose a few tenths of a second on that lap. It happens again, and I have to correct my line into the corner. I am thinking about holding my line through the back straight too, where I am worried will be another gust. I am bleeding time, with 18.8 flashing up. I can't hold my speed, I am thinking too much about what might be coming up in the front straight. There is no gust for a couple of laps- the fear of it makes my line through the curve too conservative, and in correcting, on the other side of the track (it takes a long time to change direction with a disc front wheel) I run down onto the blue. No big one in training, but today there are foam blocks to stop you taking a shorter line. I have always wondered what it would be like to hit them. Now I know. No worse than any number of bumps you might meet on a mountain bike, but definitely more embarrassing. The wind gusts at me one more time for good measure, and I roll in the last couple of laps at a mid 19sec pace. 3.45. Not good. I want to tell everyone what went wrong, so I start and as I do, I hear how it sounds. I tone it down. Harry did 3.39 and remains my nemesis. I am disappointed that I didn't get to ride a good race, but it is the first final I have made at this level, so I am happy.

The scratch race was later in the afternoon, but it will have to wait for another day!

Sunday sun... or not

Got out for a ride at Port Melbourne. It was raining a bit on the way down, but not enough to dampen my enthusiasm for a race. A strong coffee from the cart got me primed, and soon enough, Graeme, Peter and I were testing the waters in amongst the other riders. Graeme went off the front for a while, but got pegged back. A solid headwind in the back straight didn't help. Peter and I had fairly easy races, and when the call to pull out came from Graeme when it started raining with about 5 to go, and the field spreading itself across the road, it didn't take too much convincing. Vindication came in the form of a crash with two to go. Cracked carbon is never good. A relaxed spin back up through north calrton made for a good day's riding.

Fun Racing

Club teams pursuit was today, and it dawned sunny but soon came over stormy. The rain pelted down for a while, after a couple of glorious sunny hours whilst I was inside seeing  my patients at work. We headed up to DISC, only to find that the roof had leaked and the afternoon's action my or may not go ahead. A while later after spending a some lazy time in a cafe in Fairfield eating a light lunch, the call came. We were on, with a delay of about an hour. I got a warm up of sorts riding from home in the rain, and gathered all my stuff together at the velodrome. It turned out that one of the guys from my team (one of two from Hawthorn) hadn't turned up, so another guy who had come along for a quiet day's spectating was ducking home to dust the cobwebs off his track bike, all in the cause of the greater good.  The other blokes on the team had significant road TT credentials, but little experience pursuiting, so I was off first, from the starting gate, while they all had holders. Our other team had a messy but fairly strong ride, and had the strongest time of the day. Our time came, and our third rider broke, so it was back into the gate after a roll around the track. This time, I was focused, and got away to a strong start. Held a strong upper body into the first turn and powered into the straight. I looked around towards the end of this, and was gobsmacked to see the rest of the team coming out of the first turn. Much backpedalling ensued, and I sped up again as the team got back together by the end of the 3rd turn. Pulled up at the 4th turn, and onto the back. The other guys were holding it reasonably through their laps, but I could see that they were going to flag by the end. I took a 2 lap turn, modulating my effort so as not to gap anyone, and swung off again. As I thought, there were a couple of half lap turns and we got through again and I finished it off on the front for a couple of laps, but pulled through a bit hard. We finished in 3.51, which was not a bad time given how disorganised we had been and the lack of team practice. Kind of bittersweet as a ride, as I would have loved the opportunity to ride 3.36 with the others, but still had a fun ride with the team I had. Not sure whether it was a good thing for the individual ride coming up next weekend. Have to ride a lot faster than that on my own.