Glenvale Crescent, C Grade Race Report

The Pug is going in for a service one of these days so I thought I should clean it beforehand so Mick, my poor LBSG, doesn’t get upset when he realises how I treat my hardware.

This road bike has seriously not seen a rag or any form of cleaning agent for 12 months plus. I’m a bad person, I know, I’m just so damn LAZY! (and not called hippy for nothing ya know!).

Anyway, last night I cleaned the Avanti hardtail and the Pug. The Avanti didn’t take too long, it was just dusty, but the Pug! My God.. that thing had more oil+road grime+dead animals than it did metal for the chain!!

It literally took two hours to clean using degreaser, CT18 truck wash, brushes, sponges and rags!

I wasn’t sure the driveline was even going to work once I’d removed the 4 kilos of ‘lube cake’! So unsure, in fact, that I put the bike away and saved the test ride for race morning 🙂

After some initial strange noises, the bike settled down and everything seemed fine. Getting race number 18 was good luck too.. I think?

The race started easy which was good as I was feeling a bit crook (I wasn’t lying to you Louise! :)). It wasn’t even due to a hangover which was sad – perhaps Friday night’s beers saved their effects for Sunday?

Similar to the last Glenvale race, two weeks ago, C grade was passed by D grade early on – the pace was really quite low at the start. Then the breaks began..

Mid-way through and I was doing it easy. A couple of times when the pace hotted up I checked my HR for reference and it was around the 88% mark which wasn’t too painful given the brief duration of these efforts.

The orange 3 laps to go sign was up:

“Is that really us?” I thought, it just seemed too early.

Next lap around and there’s no sign. Okay, I get it, D grade are on their last lap and they’re giving us more time to split up the finishes.

2 laps to go: I’m not in a good position, perhaps mid-field? I have to move up and I have to do it soon.

1 lap to go: A little bothered by my position, I was relieved when I easily moved up to the pointy end of the field.

I hear some pedal strikes and now I’m glad I’m up the front!

Just before the last corner, a guy cuts across the front of most of the field, drawing out some colourful language from other riders (myself included). I can’t be too hard on the guy because he leads me around the corner – thanks.

I’ve been in this situation before.. I have the power to win the sprint but not from this far out.

This time though, I had taken it easy early on in the race and was feeling good towards the end.

I was pretty sure the guy I followed around the corner wasn’t going to last to the line and I made the decision to go around him and HAMMER!

Half way down the straight, I was pretty sure no one was on me, the jump around my leadout guy seemed to have taken the others by surprise. I was getting closer to the line, head down, seated, but not backing off for a second.

I checked over both shoulders (I should sprint on one side of the road so I only need to worry about looking over one shoulder) and there was no one nearby. It seemed I was 5-10m clear and getting very close to the line…

I was thinking “This one is mine!”

I kept the power on well over the line, racing by my rule of not throwing hands up or any of that guff that has caused some memorable losses in other races.. 🙂

I got it! I was well clear and unless I’d totally stuffed the ‘laps-to-go’ count, I had won it! I rolled around and asked Mal if I’d won?

“Yep”

“Awesome!”

So, I finally have my Glenvale C-grade win!

$90 and 30min massage voucher (Carl, this voucher’s for you)

Will this mean I’ll clean my bike from now on? Doubt it, but if I need to pull out all the stops I know what to do hehehe (The Bike Gods are warming up their lightning bolts as I speak..)

Additional:

www.cyclingnews.com race report

Stats:

Time: 55 min

HR: 161/197 bpm

Speed: 39.4/54.6 kph

Temp: 18 degC

Cadence Avg: 106 rpm

Harry Potter, the Psychic Boss and the Laneways of Doom

Scene: The office

“I had a dream about you last night.” states my boss, walking into the office this morning.

“Really, you dream about me?” I joke.

“You were hit by a car. I was there. It wasn’t me that hit you, but I saw it.”

“Uh huh.. yeah.. bike vs. car.. sounds just like me.”

“You were okay though..”

(he’s thinking “pity about that” I’m sure!)

(Cue: Work montage)

Scene: The ride home

All suited up in my stylish ‘knicks and Crappy T-Shirt(tm)’ fashion statement from hell, I roll down the road, heading for home.

Cruising down the Burke Road recently made famous by aus.bicycle’s ‘dave’ and ‘hippy’ for its right-turning traffic and laneways of doom, life couldn’t be peachier. Okay, it could, but that’s a whole other chapter.

Doing my normal thing, passing all the cars waiting for Cantebury Road lights to change, I notice a 4WD. This 4WD is sticking its nose through the traffic to make a right-hand turn across my path. This large, shiny, 4WD isn’t paying much attention. In fact, I think I’m going to have to crash into it. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. Serves it right for not giving way to oncoming traffic. I don’t actually have enough room to stop, with half the vehicle across the lane in my path, so I brake and panic turn. It’s not enough and I plow into the 4WD.

I had washed off quite a bit of speed and whacked into the white ‘building-on-wheels’ with my front wheel and right knuckles.

Throw in an awkward stumble over the bike and my arse doesn’t even hit the ground – I’m still upright. Stare at 4WD’s back window as it crawls into a driveway (okay so it wasn’t a laneway THIS time). I follow – there’s no chance this one is getting out of here.

A women gets out of the car and begins apologising.

“Yeah, yeah.. I’m alive.. whatever.. Just slow down and open your eyes!”

(insert standard discussion about not seeing you, are you okay, want a drink, need help putting on your chain or straightening your bars?)

I go easy on her because she was very nice about it (much to the chagrin of some of you I bet!) twist my bars back around and walk back out to the road.

“What are you doing now?”

“Uh.. I’m riding home”

“Oh, okay, well as long as you’re alright?”

Like I said, very apologetic and it wasn’t a very hard impact.

In fact, the only evidence of the incident now is a shade of white paint on my glove’s knuckles.

I’m not sure what this makes the count, I’ve lost track now, but I think this may tip the balance in favour of ‘cars hitting me’ as opposed to ‘me hitting cars’.

The wackiest part was my boss ‘predicting’ this in a dream! I was laughing about that all the way home.. well, sort of 🙂

Just in case you’re wondering, ‘The Boss’ will remain nameless, since I’m sure he doesn’t want 1004 people ringing him up all hours asking for next week’s lotto numbers! 😀