I raced this exact course last year and got a nice second place. It was purely attritional and came down to a sprint with the remaining 11 riders. I got handily beaten by Matt Langridge who I’ve never actually seen again but I wanted to win this year.
I had two teamates (Eugene and Kieran) with me this time. Our plan was to repeat last years strategy, make it a VERY hard race and see who had the legs at the end. The course was 5 big laps with two gradual climbs, a large open section, some tight corners and a couple of short kickers. With barely any chance to rest it’s definitely one for attrition.
I couldn’t scrounge a lift, so set off at 7:45 in the pouring rain to ride the 30km to the HQ. I took it very easy, spinning casually at 150W, I didn’t want to deplete any of my glycogen levels. I just treated it as a long warm up.
Post minute’s silence following the tragic death of Richard Taylor the day before, we rolled out from the HQ. I spent the first climb simply moving up to the front. Having two teammates meant that I wouldn’t have to chase every break and could afford to rest at the back. As you can imagine, attacks flew from the gun but barely anything got a gap. This suited me fine.
I managed to claw myself to the top 10 riders just as Tarn Flynn attacked. As I got to the front, my momentum allowed me to get off the front and gap the peloton. It was still very early into the race and as I caught Tarn I told him “just let them chase us”. Meaning this attack won’t work but it’ll help tire them out so we can attack properly later.
Surely enough we were brought back and then got shifted right to the back as some whopper took a wrong turn. Doh. Fortunately Eugene was attentive and went the correct way. Just when I was getting back to the pointy end I saw him roll off the front. Ideal for me. He was with one other rider, I think he bridged to them but not 100% sure. Either way he was up the road allowing me and Kieran to take it easy.
One quick side note here is that on the climb to the finish line, my rear wheel came out. I’d not put it in properly when I washed it the day before. So I had to reseat it and get going. I was very grateful to Matt Dudman for waiting for me and help pace me back in. He’s not even my teammate, but I’ve been getting to know him recently and we were planning tactics prerace. It was much appreciated anyway!
As it was still early and there were only two in the break, I didn’t think Eugene’s attack was THE winning move. However, if a small group could bridge to it then it would be. Kieran and I had a quick discussion about this and agreed to mark moves/interfere/slow the pace where we could. We actually did this pretty expertly and Eugene had a gap of over 40 seconds at one point.
On the main climb (lap 2), once again there were several attacks, but with us marking, they couldn’t get organised enough to establish a gap. I just sat in, biding my time. Towards the top of the climb, the gap to Eugene was around 15 seconds so I cheekily got to the front and just slowed the pace right down, I sat at 200W and cornered SO slowly that Eugene’s time went out again. All good for me.
The bunch was thinning at this point and I had a word with Stephen Feeney (Team Chronomaster) who said he had his money on me to win. No pressure then! As we climbed for the third lap the gap to Eugene was still around 30 seconds. With me and Kieran really affecting the chase there was obvious frustration from the bunch. Towards the base when there was a lull in the pace, I gave a bit of a dig and got away solo. I quickly got a nice gap and was pushing on aiming to bridge to the duo. I just had a three minute effort (at 430W) but saw the bunch chasing me so called it off, I didn’t want to aid the chase to Eugene, why have teamates if I don’t use them? As I got caught, Kieran countered dragging Tarn with him. I just slotted back in to recover.
There was now a series of further counter attacks. It was pretty hard actually. But I didn’t let anything get away. I simply followed and didn’t pull any turns. During this barrage I had a word with Tarn telling him firstly sorry for marking him and that I was going to attack as soon as Eugene was caught. I think he agreed that was a good idea.
Sure enough, as we entered the open section of road a final series of attacks brought Eugene back. I tried to counter immediately but it was just the wrong place to try. I couldn’t get a gap and decided it was pointless.
Still I kept to the front and did try push the pace where I could but it wasn’t quite working for me. Most moves were marked, but I kept pulling hard turns, really trying to get away but they wouldn’t let me.
Here’s where it kicked off though. I pulled a turn, Tarn pulled a turn and waved me through. I pulled a turn and when I looked back no one had followed me. So I kicked again and gapped the peloton. And that was that. I just hammered the climb, I averaged around 360W for the 5 minute effort and crested solo. From strava it looks like I had a 10 second gap by the summit.
I knew I had to press on during the descent so I tucked in really low, took pretty good lines through the corners and sprinted out of them to maximise speed. I didn’t really have a plan at this point. I didn’t know whether to commit to the attack solo or hope someone could bridge and help me out. My decision was made for me when I saw two riders chasing. I didn’t slow down at all but they must have worked pretty well to get me on the descent.
They were clearly pretty strong and we immediately got to work pulling long hard turns to stretch out the gap. By looking at strava we had about a 40 second lead by the end of the descent. Which was pretty good to establish in 7km.
The three of us climbed pretty strongly on the penultimate lap but when I checked behind me I saw three riders approaching. It was the ominous figures of Matt Dudman (who paced me back in) and Tarn Flynn. I was pretty confident that beat my group in a sprint but Matt has a mean sprint on him so I did not want him to catch us.
They were still 20s or so behind but I once again raised the pace; just trying to make it harder for them to get on. It took them nearly an entire lap to finally bridge but they all made it. Matt was very close to not making it but he just managed to.
Now there were 6 of us and just over a lap to go I knew this was THE move. Having more people with me meant I could puller weaker turns. As I was wanting the win I pulled weak turns and tried to bring my average watts down. About halfway up the climb we were told the gap to the peloton was 2 minutes 20 seconds! There was no way we were going to get caught so I really eased off the turns.
Well, I almost did. Towards the top of the climb Matt started to suffer with cramp. I encouraged him to bare with it and hang on whilst simultaneously getting to the front and ramping up the pace to drop him. I was successful… well kinda. He was dropped initially but then clawed his way back to us on the descent.
As we were cresting the final climb I was in second wheel as Chris Booth attacked. I followed immediately and saw we’d dropped Matt and one other so I yelled “PUSH PUSH PUSH”. I didn’t want to make the effort so got him to drill it for a bit. I then followed through and quickly pulled off. I was waiting for a sprint. Now there were just 4 of us left we kept the pace high but no one committed to a solo move.
We crawled up the final kicker before the finish, no one wanted to lead it out. I slotted in second wheel with 400m to go when Charlie Paige went for the sprint. It was way too early but I jumped onto his wheel. As we went around the final bend to the line I unleashed my sprint and passed him. I was leading with 50m to go but just faded with 30m to go. I was passed by Tarn and then Chris in the closing meters. Gutted.
I put out my best sprint of the season so far, just under 1000W for 15s but I went too early and got it wrong. I got thrown off by Charlie going too early. I’ve been playing it over in my head to figure out how I could have won and I think I should have let Charlie go. He’d blow anyway and someone else would have chased him letting me release my sprint later but I didn’t.
I was so frustrated to come 3rd. I just cannot seem to win. I don’t know what it is. My race craft is so good now, you cannot let me get a gap. Once I’ve gone that’s it. I’ve placed in top 10 in 9 out of 12 races this year and two of those I punctured out of. In the last seven races I’ve been in the winning move. 7 winning moves shows I have the potential to win but I just cannot finish it off. I keep getting it wrong in the final meters. Not sure how I’m going to overcome this issue…
I had two teamates (Eugene and Kieran) with me this time. Our plan was to repeat last years strategy, make it a VERY hard race and see who had the legs at the end. The course was 5 big laps with two gradual climbs, a large open section, some tight corners and a couple of short kickers. With barely any chance to rest it’s definitely one for attrition.
I couldn’t scrounge a lift, so set off at 7:45 in the pouring rain to ride the 30km to the HQ. I took it very easy, spinning casually at 150W, I didn’t want to deplete any of my glycogen levels. I just treated it as a long warm up.
Post minute’s silence following the tragic death of Richard Taylor the day before, we rolled out from the HQ. I spent the first climb simply moving up to the front. Having two teammates meant that I wouldn’t have to chase every break and could afford to rest at the back. As you can imagine, attacks flew from the gun but barely anything got a gap. This suited me fine.
I managed to claw myself to the top 10 riders just as Tarn Flynn attacked. As I got to the front, my momentum allowed me to get off the front and gap the peloton. It was still very early into the race and as I caught Tarn I told him “just let them chase us”. Meaning this attack won’t work but it’ll help tire them out so we can attack properly later.
Surely enough we were brought back and then got shifted right to the back as some whopper took a wrong turn. Doh. Fortunately Eugene was attentive and went the correct way. Just when I was getting back to the pointy end I saw him roll off the front. Ideal for me. He was with one other rider, I think he bridged to them but not 100% sure. Either way he was up the road allowing me and Kieran to take it easy.
One quick side note here is that on the climb to the finish line, my rear wheel came out. I’d not put it in properly when I washed it the day before. So I had to reseat it and get going. I was very grateful to Matt Dudman for waiting for me and help pace me back in. He’s not even my teammate, but I’ve been getting to know him recently and we were planning tactics prerace. It was much appreciated anyway!
As it was still early and there were only two in the break, I didn’t think Eugene’s attack was THE winning move. However, if a small group could bridge to it then it would be. Kieran and I had a quick discussion about this and agreed to mark moves/interfere/slow the pace where we could. We actually did this pretty expertly and Eugene had a gap of over 40 seconds at one point.
On the main climb (lap 2), once again there were several attacks, but with us marking, they couldn’t get organised enough to establish a gap. I just sat in, biding my time. Towards the top of the climb, the gap to Eugene was around 15 seconds so I cheekily got to the front and just slowed the pace right down, I sat at 200W and cornered SO slowly that Eugene’s time went out again. All good for me.
The bunch was thinning at this point and I had a word with Stephen Feeney (Team Chronomaster) who said he had his money on me to win. No pressure then! As we climbed for the third lap the gap to Eugene was still around 30 seconds. With me and Kieran really affecting the chase there was obvious frustration from the bunch. Towards the base when there was a lull in the pace, I gave a bit of a dig and got away solo. I quickly got a nice gap and was pushing on aiming to bridge to the duo. I just had a three minute effort (at 430W) but saw the bunch chasing me so called it off, I didn’t want to aid the chase to Eugene, why have teamates if I don’t use them? As I got caught, Kieran countered dragging Tarn with him. I just slotted back in to recover.
There was now a series of further counter attacks. It was pretty hard actually. But I didn’t let anything get away. I simply followed and didn’t pull any turns. During this barrage I had a word with Tarn telling him firstly sorry for marking him and that I was going to attack as soon as Eugene was caught. I think he agreed that was a good idea.
Sure enough, as we entered the open section of road a final series of attacks brought Eugene back. I tried to counter immediately but it was just the wrong place to try. I couldn’t get a gap and decided it was pointless.
Still I kept to the front and did try push the pace where I could but it wasn’t quite working for me. Most moves were marked, but I kept pulling hard turns, really trying to get away but they wouldn’t let me.
Here’s where it kicked off though. I pulled a turn, Tarn pulled a turn and waved me through. I pulled a turn and when I looked back no one had followed me. So I kicked again and gapped the peloton. And that was that. I just hammered the climb, I averaged around 360W for the 5 minute effort and crested solo. From strava it looks like I had a 10 second gap by the summit.
I knew I had to press on during the descent so I tucked in really low, took pretty good lines through the corners and sprinted out of them to maximise speed. I didn’t really have a plan at this point. I didn’t know whether to commit to the attack solo or hope someone could bridge and help me out. My decision was made for me when I saw two riders chasing. I didn’t slow down at all but they must have worked pretty well to get me on the descent.
They were clearly pretty strong and we immediately got to work pulling long hard turns to stretch out the gap. By looking at strava we had about a 40 second lead by the end of the descent. Which was pretty good to establish in 7km.
The three of us climbed pretty strongly on the penultimate lap but when I checked behind me I saw three riders approaching. It was the ominous figures of Matt Dudman (who paced me back in) and Tarn Flynn. I was pretty confident that beat my group in a sprint but Matt has a mean sprint on him so I did not want him to catch us.
They were still 20s or so behind but I once again raised the pace; just trying to make it harder for them to get on. It took them nearly an entire lap to finally bridge but they all made it. Matt was very close to not making it but he just managed to.
Now there were 6 of us and just over a lap to go I knew this was THE move. Having more people with me meant I could puller weaker turns. As I was wanting the win I pulled weak turns and tried to bring my average watts down. About halfway up the climb we were told the gap to the peloton was 2 minutes 20 seconds! There was no way we were going to get caught so I really eased off the turns.
Well, I almost did. Towards the top of the climb Matt started to suffer with cramp. I encouraged him to bare with it and hang on whilst simultaneously getting to the front and ramping up the pace to drop him. I was successful… well kinda. He was dropped initially but then clawed his way back to us on the descent.
As we were cresting the final climb I was in second wheel as Chris Booth attacked. I followed immediately and saw we’d dropped Matt and one other so I yelled “PUSH PUSH PUSH”. I didn’t want to make the effort so got him to drill it for a bit. I then followed through and quickly pulled off. I was waiting for a sprint. Now there were just 4 of us left we kept the pace high but no one committed to a solo move.
We crawled up the final kicker before the finish, no one wanted to lead it out. I slotted in second wheel with 400m to go when Charlie Paige went for the sprint. It was way too early but I jumped onto his wheel. As we went around the final bend to the line I unleashed my sprint and passed him. I was leading with 50m to go but just faded with 30m to go. I was passed by Tarn and then Chris in the closing meters. Gutted.
I put out my best sprint of the season so far, just under 1000W for 15s but I went too early and got it wrong. I got thrown off by Charlie going too early. I’ve been playing it over in my head to figure out how I could have won and I think I should have let Charlie go. He’d blow anyway and someone else would have chased him letting me release my sprint later but I didn’t.
I was so frustrated to come 3rd. I just cannot seem to win. I don’t know what it is. My race craft is so good now, you cannot let me get a gap. Once I’ve gone that’s it. I’ve placed in top 10 in 9 out of 12 races this year and two of those I punctured out of. In the last seven races I’ve been in the winning move. 7 winning moves shows I have the potential to win but I just cannot finish it off. I keep getting it wrong in the final meters. Not sure how I’m going to overcome this issue…