Chewin' the bars

No not those bars….the handlebars! Consider the points score. 120 laps (30km) with sprints every ten laps. He with the most points wins. Sounds easy. First sprint and I’m in the points. We all roll up the track and roll around until ten laps later when we do it again. In the points again. Two sprints, two placings. So far so good. Third sprint – legs are starting to feel the accelerations, I’m not going to place, so ease off a little. A small gap opens up when a rider goes on the attack. Look around – no one wants to chase. I have a brain cramp & decide I will chase it down. I pull a big turn, look around and I have a gap. Which is great until 2 riders come across, I roll up the track but they’re too fast and I lose the wheel. Not good, the rest of the riders fly by and I’m off the back. The race has exploded! Riders everywhere. Eventually a group of 7 form at the front, another four spread out around the track chasing behind. I am one of the four. Catch one rider then we work turns to catch another two in front. So it’s seven up front & four at the back. There is no time to recover, we’re all deep in oxygen debt and suffering! We are half a lap down. We work turns and start to slowly reel in the front group. The pace comes off at the front before each sprint, a couple of times we nearly get on, only for the gap to blow out again at the sprint. Feels like we’re never going to catch them! This goes on for a while, but eventually we make it across the gap with about 45 laps to go. Any thought of sprinting for points is out the window, I’m “happy” to just hang on now. A couple of riders have dropped out. My body is in purgatory, right arm is numb and neck & shoulders feel like rigor mortis has set in. There’s no chance to recover even when the pace is off, it’s all I can do to hang on. Every acceleration means another chance to get dropped but there’s no way I’m letting that happen, it’s too close to the finish. Eventually it ends. After all that pain & suffering, I ended up with 4 points and finished 6th. But I finished, that’s the main thing. The average speed was a shade over 45km/h but the pace often comes off between the sprints. It’s the constant speeding up & slowing down combined with the relatively long distance that takes its toll. Definitely a survival of the fittest type race…

Results etc are here http://www.vic.cycling.org.au/2007AustralianMasters/07masters.htm

Next up is the Criterium at Bacchus Marsh on Saturday.