Almost the perfect race! Fast, No B-graders, perfect leadout for a bunch sprint. If only I wasn’t slower than those four guys in front of me! 🙂

I’d been beating myself up about this race all week, worried that B-graders would sneak down a grade and steal another potential result. That didn’t happen. The last race was just what a C grade race should be – standard ~40kph pace, a few break attempts that get chased down almost before they begin, some pedal clashes on corners, a crash and me not quite getting in the money 🙂

Race morning: Listened to some Megadeth, Sepultura and some Stamba electro mixes (strange combo I know!) to fire me up. Leave a bit later than usual so I’m not riding for an hour to get there and THEN doing another hour of “warm up”!

At Glenvale Crescent the “BR” cheer squad, flyingdutch and Gags are quickly spotted.Lindsay and Jazmo appear on the line. Louise is being a wuss bag and riding D-grade 😛 The other two Bourke’s, Brian and Sean are racing C. DaveB is racing in his first crit and has also entered D grade.

On the way to the race I’d decided that I was NOT going to chase a damn thing. If someone wanted to win in a breakaway, so be it. So, for the majority of the race I sheltered in the bunch, reacting to the surges and keeping an eye on anyone who looked threatening. The pace seemed consistent all through the race. It was obvious there were no B-grade time trialists in the field this week!!

Inevitably the pace hotted up towards the business end of the race and at one stage I managed to lighten my pedals a smidge with a nice “corner grind”. Gets people off your wheel quick!! haha! 😛

3-to-go was called early at 47min. There was brief uncertainty about this but the pace soon increased to reflect the impending chaos.. It didn’t matter (this time!) as I was up near the front. Saw a clear bit of road and moved up around the outside of some more riders.

With 2-laps-to-go I heard a nasty crash behind me on turn 3. Cringe, thank Lord Shimano it wasn’t me and race on.. I later found out it was Dutchy! Poor bastard! Good into to C-grade. :S

Bell Lap: Gags and Jazmo had also come to the sharp end and saw that I was trying to move further up. Gags motioned me to sit on his wheel, which I did. He then powered up the field. We passed a few riders and on the back-straight it was Jaz, Gags, 2 guys and me as I’d lost Gags’s wheel at some point. It didn’t matter, because Jaz and Gags did an awesome job to deposit me in the optimum position of 3rd place, ready for the final corner and sprint.

There wasn’t the usual ‘last corner bunch storming’ so it was still Rider 1, Rider 2 and yours truly after the last corner.

2nd wheel made a move around the guy in front and I accelerated to go around him too.

We stayed like this almost to the line – I just wasn’t able to get past these riders! Then, perhaps I slowed or whatever, but two guys just STORMED in from behind me! Arrgh! Bastards!! That was MY place!! Oh well.. race was run and I didn’t have a place to show for it. It went almost perfectly and I was, surprisingly, very happy about the whole thing! Yay for not being a bitter loser this week! 🙂

I feel bad for Jaz and Gags, not taking a place higher than 5th, after their self-sacrifice to get me in the perfect spot. If we race together again I’ll be more than willing to punch a hole through the wind for both of them!

After the race I caught up with a bunch of racer buddies while A & B grades circulated. Eventually, everyone had talked enough crap, prize money was collected and off a bunch of us rolled.

I heard a “Seeya Stuey!” as everyone except me turned left near The Glen, and that was that. Possibly the last time I’ll see any of these guys and my last race.. .. for now..

No race stats because my Polar went nutso before I retrieved the data from it :S (I heard the average speed was 39.x)

Photos of the C and D grade races here:

https://thehippy.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=98

Thanks to a.b rider “essendon93” for taking these!

I managed to restore the Polar data, so race stats are:

Distance: 34.5k

Avg. Speed: 39.9kph (actually a bit faster, stop delay)

Avg. HR: 172bpm (snore.. piece of piss!)

Max. HR: 202bpm (see.. I WAS trying in the sprint! :P)

Temp: 23degC