Canberra Tour

Canberra Tour.

Race 1.

Road Race - 38km - 01.06.23 - 34km/hr - NP 318W

The first race was an out and back course taking in two climbs. Kept myself up front and out of trouble, found myself as pacesetter for the first 10km which was good. Jockeying for position for the first climb I maintained a good position and kept with the lead bunch which splintered the rest of the peloton. 

Hit the turn around and we came back to the base of the final climb and the attacks started coming thick and fast. Managed to keep a steady tempo and reel in all the escapees. I probably have never suffered so much on a climb before, i didn't see the powermeter fall below 400W and there were a few 500W ramps in there also  (5-6W/kg).

Over the top with a group of 10 the fox and hound game began, I made a big mistake attacking the group with 6km to go... held them off for 10 minutes (360w) but just couldn't stay away. Legs were truly burnt out by this stage so I couldn't compete for the sprint, so was happy to roll over the line with the bunch incurring no time penalties.. 10th on GC!!!

Race 2

Criterium - 25 minutes + 2 laps - NP 313W, 41 km/hr.

50 people on a fast criterium certain requires very good bike handling by everyone, especially when there are tight curves. Lets just say that this group didn't have adequate skills at this speed. There was plenty of bumping and touching of bars as people weren't keeping it smooth through the corners.

I was nervous.

Decided to stay at the back and keep away from the dangerous riders... 15 minutes in I decided that I wasn't going to win a sprint with this bunch as it would require a very dangerous position up front, so I attacked the bunch. Now usually the attacks had been shut down quickly - but they didn't mind letting me go. No one bridged up to me so I was out in the wilderness by myself.

Dug very very deep and held them off for 8 minutes, finally I hit the wall and just couldn't maintain the pace, decided to re-integrate with the bunch with the hope of holding on and not losing position on GC. Managed to do that, so ended the day 10th on GC.

Would have been interesting to stay for the final day, but unfortunately other commitments meant that I had to return home.

Overall very happy with my performance. 2 years ago at the Tour I failed badly, not being able to stay with the lead bunch over the climbs. This year my hill climbing has improved immensely, but perhaps my time trialling has suffered as a result. 

Time to rest now and work out what i'll be doing over the winter months!!

Below a short clip of the crit from my GoPro Video

Canberra Tour - Trimmed from Dave on Vimeo.

Mt Keira

20.12, NP 310W, ave CAD 77, ave SP 17.1km/hr

New record by 22 seconds. Felt terrible going up - barely could hold 300w... didn't think i was in for a good time, then i looked down and saw i was in the 21 grinding it out.. did some maths in my head and figured I would get pretty close to my best time, put my head down upp'ed the cadence and rolled in.

Data just in, power wasn't up hugely - could be some efficiency and pacing improvements, also a bit more weight loss from last time...

Have pursuiters cough now.. Will be VERY interesting to see the WKO+ file on this effort... Also have some video footage i'll add later :)

Canberra Tour this weekend, unsure how I will go....

Blayney to Bathurst

I'll just preface with last years stats for this race from last year.

Blayney '08

TSS 254

261W NP

3hrs 20minutes - 110km ~ 32km/hr

Blayney '09

TSS 237

267W NP

3hrs - 110km ~ 37km/hr

So where did I save 20 minutes if my output was almost identical to last year?

Well it comes down to hiding in the bunch and keeping my nose out of the wind. Last year I got dropped from the bunch after an hour (NP 300w). This year there was a block headwind for most of the course, which kept the pace down, and being in a good position in the bunch, my overall output was fairly low.

This meant I was fresh to get over the climbs with the lead bunch and then recover on the flats. In the mid section of the race there was a 30 minute segment where we averaged 45km/hr, that might not sound very impressive, but when you are constantly bridging gaps when other riders are getting spat out of the bunch, it sure as hell takes a toll on the legs!!!

I managed to stay with the main bunch until the main climb of the day (90km in), the 5km ascent up Mt Rockley. I started to cramp with 1km to go and lost touch with the bunch.

Reformed with a smaller group and we limited our time gap by around 3minutes from the main field.

I am very happy with the results, especially as I came into the race very under done.

Will have a think about where I need to improve over the next week or so and then fine tune for the Canberra Tour in 2 weeks.

Track + More

Had a great race at the Track on Thursday night. Managed to take out a big win in the 20 lap race. Attacked off the front with 3 laps to go and pedalled like my life depended on it.

The chasers did not organise themselves quickly enough to give chase and I managed to stay away. The last half a lap my legs imploded, but I had done enough work to get myself over the line quite comfortably.

Would have been nice to look at the power data, but unfortunately only speed... managed to hold 57km/hr for 2 laps (330m track) before the speed trailed off to low 40's...

More hill work this morning up Mt Keira.. Got a little excited and really tried to attack the first kilometre holding ~ 400W, but I cracked myself - couldn't recover so I just set a steady tempo to the top. Managed to climb up to the Lookout where the gradient in the mid section varies between 18 and 25%

Pace work tomorrow, then 100laps at the track and that will be it until Race Day on Sunday!

Mt Keira

20.37, NP 318w, average cadence 76rpm

Felt ok, rode a 23/11 cassette today so the cadence was down quite a bit, found it difficult to maintain a decent rhythm. Found myself out of the saddle for the gradients that were >10%.

Legs are coming along nicely, will be resting them over this weekend with some final tune ups next week.

Heffron.

NP 306W, 37km/hr

First race back at Heffron for the year... Raced in B grade. Felt pretty good all the way through, just sat at the back for the first 9 laps and watched. Legs felt great. Lap 10 I went to the front to chase down a break which looked dangerous, the chase ended up turning into a breakaway and soon I was with my fellow escapees. Did a lot of work (5 minute peak power = 380W), but ultimately I was the only one willing.

We reintegrated with the bunch, and with all my matches burnt I thought I would just stay on the front and keep the pace as high as I could. Felt good, even with the legs burning, I dug very deep on the last lap to setup the sprint.

All in all, rather happy. Total TSS for the day 244 which comprised:

80 TSS - morning ride

60 TSS - ride to and from the race

104 TSS - criterium

Will get out for an easy ride in the morning.

On Fire

Hot on the heels of yesterdays great effort up Mt Keira, I had another great morning ride today.

Thursday club ride is a combination of fast flat work and some short sharp climbing right on the rivet.

Managed to stay at the pointy end for all of the ride and on the final climb pulled out an amazing turn of speed with some great peak power outputs. How does a 30 second peak power of 900watts sound? I definitely think the track has a lot of answer for those numbers. Peak one minute was a respectable 540Watts...

Yellow line shows current best power outputs over time. Dotted line shows best ever results. So by the looks of things, i just need to tune up my power outputs over longer time intervals and i'll be sweet....

Will rest the legs tomorrow and then perhaps do a moderate ride saturday morning and follow it up with saturday afternoon criterium and see how the legs perform there!!