Since work commitments restrict my road racing campaign year in year out, my focus has always been the criterium season (focus might be the wrong word, because until this season, I wouldn’t say I focused on any one aspect of racing, I just rode my bike). In September of 2009 I bought myself a power meter to train with, which at least bought a bit of meaning to the riding I was doing, but it’s taken a good 12 months to reap the benefits. In July of 2010 I also built a pretty kick ass crit bike, so when the summer criterium season began, I was all out of excuses, and it was time to start getting a return on my investments.
I started the season with a “training” ride in A grade down at St Kilda since inclement weather had delayed the start to the Footscray CC season. My plan was only to enter B grade, but since I’d only finished work at 4am the previous morning, along with some prodding from some of the Footscray boys, I slept in for another hour and went around in A grade instead. To my surprise, I survived for more than half the race, which I was pretty happy with since I deliberately sat on the back so as not to get in anybodies way, and there are often some seriously heavy hitters that get around down there on a Sunday morning.
From that I took a good deal of confidence in to the first Footscray CC B grade race, which I won pretty convincingly, even if I do say so myself. I had a plan to follow one of the older sprinters wheels in the later part of the race, since they always seem to find a way through traffic, so when I found Colin Morris’s wheel, I stuck to it like glue, but he decided to have a crack with 2 laps to go, so where he went, I went. On the bell lap, the 2 of us got a bit tangled with the A grade finish and I lost a bit of momentum as a result. The way I saw it, I had to give it everything there and then, and when I went, Colin couldn’t come too and I soloed to the finish 100m clear of the chasing bunch.
The second race was very nearly a carbon copy of the first. With a couple of laps to go I found Colin’s wheel, and was set to go until someone else decided they wanted Colin’s wheel as well. Shoulders, then elbows were exchanged before I clipped the wheel in front and hit the deck, taking a good sized chunk out of my left knee, and a few other riders with me. The grazed knee didn’t hold me back for too long, but it did take a few weeks to get some confidence back, but when it did, I found myself to be a marked rider, and wasn’t given much leeway by the B grade bunch, which was frustrating to say the least.
[caption id="attachment_116" align="alignleft" width="223" caption="This is what the knee looked like AFTER I'd cleaned it up (and after I'd ridden for an hour home from the race)"]
[/caption]The first week of December bought the Tour Of Bright, which again, I was talked into by some of the Footscray CC boys (I’m looking at you Treloar), but my racing preparation had been hampered somewhat by my crash and the rubbish weather Melbourne experienced during November, particularly on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings which washed out races. The last crit before Bright looked like being rained out too, but through some kind of luck we got a start, and with half an hour constituting a race, and dark clouds looming, I attacked from the get go to ensure I got a workout in. I got tangled with A grade for a few laps until the B grade bunch got going and bought me back, and an break of 3 went up the road not long after. With rain looking imminent, and having recovered from my first effort, I bridged across to the leaders and we were never caught. I picked the wrong line down the straight for the sprint and my back wheel got airborne 3 times which spoiled my chance for the win, but I wound up with a well deserved 2nd.
The Tour of Bright deserves a post of it’s own, but that’s probably not gonna happen. To summarise, it was my first open road race, the first stage race I’d competed in for 3 years and the first road race I’d entered in more than 6 months. It was far and away the largest bunch I’d ever ridden in (over 110 starters), and there was over 3000 meters of vertical ascent over the 2 road stages. Just finishing was my goal, finishing in the top half of the field I felt was some kind of achievement.
Weather again meant there was very little racing between the Tour of Bright and the Footscray CC Christmas classic, even then the Christmas Classic itself was rescheduled after the original date was rained out. I hadn’t tried anything in the previous race since I had targeted the Christmas Classic and didn’t want to wind up in A grade ahead of it (sandbagger), and I had some mates already up the road, but I knew my form was good leading in to the race, and I intended on making it my last B grade race regardless of the result.
I had a very clear plan of launching an early attack just to see who in the bunch was going to react, followed by a more venomous attack at around the 30 minute mark that was going to break the back of the bunch. As it happened, I never had to fire the first shot, as there was no shortage of attacks in the opening laps, but what was obvious was that the international rider, Meng, was the strongest in the bunch and was willing to chase anything and everything down. The constant attacks and ensuing chases were taking their toll on the bunch, and even after only 5 or 10 minutes, the bunch was being strung out and riders were dropping wheels right left and centre. It was obvious to me that the shelter of the middle of the bunch wasn’t the place to be with all the loose riding going on, so I moved up and couldn’t help myself when attacks went, following the breaks or jumping across the gaps as they appeared. With Meng being hell bent on bringing back the breaks, I knew many of the attacks weren’t going to stick, but when Meng attacked himself, I had no option but to go with him. Meng and I spent the remaining 40 minutes of the race off the front, building a half lap gap to the chasing peleton. I gifted the race to Meng, since he was clearly the stronger of the two of us, and he had done the lion’s share of the work to build our breakaway, and even though I hadn’t left B grade on top, I was happy enough with the 2nd step of the podium and the fashion in which I earned it.
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