Cootamundra Haycarters Handicap & Recovery Race

Just over 2 hours out of Sydney, I found myself sitting quietly in the McDonalds car park in Yass contemplating what was to come. Beside me, Alex Chubb, who had made the choice of wearing a short sleeve shirt and thongs, sat shivering, unable to gather the required motivation to open the car door. It was just after 10am and the thermometer on my dashboard was reading 8 degrees.

As the minutes ticked by, we were inexorably creeping closer to the end of the McDonalds breakfast menu. The thought of missing out on my customary pre-race hash browns soon overcame my need to maintain consistent core body temperature. As I raced away from the car towards my goal, I heard Alex yell something about pink donuts from the relative comfort of the car. My weekend as Alex’s domestique had started.

As we drove out of the Yass valley, pre-race nutrition in hand, we cast cursory glances at the renewable-energy generating wind turbines turning quite swiftly ahead of us. We didn’t give them much thought. Perhaps we should have, as they would prove to be an omen of what was to come.

Rain!!!

The Cootamundra Haycarters racing weekend, is one of the first races of the road season. With the postponement of the Tour of Canberra, we knew there would be a lot of in-form riders looking to take advantage of the legs they had cultivated for the Canberran race. With 80km to ride on Saturday and 60km on Sunday, it was going to be a quick, cold, windy and brutal weekend.

As I lined up on the start line, Alex was handicapped 2 minutes behind me. As with all handicaps, it’s hard to do any real race planning until you know how strong your group is and how well you can work together. My group set off at a cracking pace with everyone rolling through relatively smoothly. Once we hit the climbs, I was feeling strong, so much so that I was able to use them as a bit of a respite from the all out pace on the flats. Things were looking good and by the end of the first lap, there seemed to be a chance that we could stay away from scratch (the real fast guys).

Pre-race reading & caffeine

Then the wind changed, and just as Ruth Park told us would happen when we were kids, my face became stuck in a horrible expression of stem chewing, Garmin slobbering pain for the remainder of the race. My bunch, which had by this stage been whittled down to half a dozen of us, battled against the winds that seemed to blow us every which way but forward, regardless of which direction the road was headed. It was a matter of time before Scratch caught us, and when they did, I found myself hooking onto the back of a train of riders about 100metres long, all of them hanging on for dear life.

Cold!

I quickly found Alex in the bunch (there aren’t very many lime green kits on the road) and ascertained that he was feeling pretty good. I pulled in front of him and set about my job of closing any gaps and getting him to the finish line as fresh as possible. We had ridden quite comfortably with Scratch for a kilometre or so, when a sudden gust of wind split the bunch about 5 riders in front of me. All of a sudden a 10m gap had appeared and was growing by the pedal stroke. The race was riding away from us.

“GO!” I heard Alex yell from my wheel, so go I did. I gave everything I had for as long as I could. It felt like forever, but I probably only pulled for about 500m (Alex will tell you it was about 20m). As I flicked my elbow to call him around, the gap was down to about 5 metres, but starting to grow again. As Alex sprinted around me, I peeled off to the side of the road. My race was done and I was cooked.

As the bunch rode away over the rolling hills into Cootamundra, I was able to see Alex regain contact with the splintering bunch only to be dropped again when another gap appeared in front of him. We were about 10km from the finish. Half an hour later I rolled into the car park (I am fully aware that this means I averaged 20km/h). The post mortem revealed that Scratch had got up in a time of 1 hr 31’09″.

After an evening’s session of UpWords next to a toasty fire with the Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club (DHBC) crew and a good night’s rest, I awoke the next morning refreshed and keen to test my legs. This enthusiasm died about 1km into the trip back into town, around about the time I had to turn my windscreen wipers on.

Thanks to Ashfield Cycles and Specialized for setting us up. The bikes, unlike the weather, were perfect.

An hour and a half later, I was once again in a strong group of about 6, working hard in a rolling paceline. The race the day before had sorted out the group. We knew who had the legs to go and who didn’t. Who we could afford to drop and who we had to keep in the bunch to give us the best chance of staying away. Despite our best efforts and with the wind picking up, we were caught by Scratch, once again, with about 10km to go. This time however, the bunch was only about 20 riders strong (no lime green jersey in sight) and, in complete disdain of possible oncoming traffic, spread out in an echelon across both lanes of the road in an attempt to hide from the consistent cross winds.

Against my better judgment, I reluctantly drifted across the median line of the road and found myself a wheel almost in the dirt of the unsealed road. I comforted myself with the thought that at least car that killed me would be slowed somewhat by the score of riders it would have to plough down to get to me.

I shouldn’t have worried. In the end, it was the wind that was to be my undoing once again. As we turned onto the road back into town, we had the wind in our face as hit the climbs. Breaks were opening up everywhere. I sprinted to close the gap a few times, but cresting the penultimate hill, I lost the wheel in front by about 5m. As the bunch accelerated down the other side into the headwind, I was left cursing myself…by myself, as I cruised the final few kms back into Cootamundra.

A disappointing weekend perhaps for the Bernard Riders Road/Track squad (sans Matt Wallman: newly crowned NSW Masters 1 Rider of the Year 2011), but overall we were quite pleased with our form. We look forward to a better result at the Sydney Road Titles in two weeks time and wish Matt good luck, strong legs and weak winds as he races the Ken Dinnerville Memorial Handicap next weekend.

Written by: John Nguyen

James Williamson Enduro 2012

Five weekends – five races in my race calendar and 100+ hours of training in between. Tired? Not yet!!!

The last few weeks have been really busy, not just with training, but also racing. 5 races in 3 states and I can’t wait to be sitting on a beach in Bali in a mere 3 weeks time.  But let’s get back to the race report.

How it all started. In the previous three races (Wombat 100, Capital Punishment and Convict100) I was really struggling and couldn’t find the reason why. I had spent many long hours in saddle, fast training, intervals training, sprints, track and hill climbs. The race plans was– slow start, then hold a steady pace until third feeding station where the plan was to hit it hard. But once I got to third station I was barely pedalling, my legs were cooked and with no power left in them. I finished the Convict 100km race in 14^th place in elite category and left really disappointed with my result. I knew I could go faster, but something just wasn’t right and I couldn’t stop thinking about it the whole way home from Convict 100.  I was so disappointed and frustrated with myself, I decided not to rest after the race and went for 120km road ride on Sunday morning in an attempt to identify what I was doing wrong and after comparing it to the last time where I analysed my riding style I realized what was causing my leg meltdown. So I tried new approach to this training and Bazinga! I found the problem. It would be too complicated to explain, but day after 100km race a was able to ride 120km in 33km/h average with 1500m of climbing and I felt completely relaxed once I finished the ride.

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While my fellow team mates were getting ready for the convict 100, I was thinking the best place to test ride my new Stumpjumper 29er ‘hardtail’ ….that’s right I have converted

Young Daniel McDonald from Merida flight center and myself headed out to Appin for a club race with the Wollongong mtb club , what a better way to try out the new bike then a race at Appin,

I had a lots of looks and questions about the new stumpy the only 29er there, I didn’t know much myself, I though this track will give me the answers that I need.

the plan was to hit it fast for the first lap then back it down and keep the tempo… it was all going to plan I was 2nd into the single track with Dan in 3rd we were putting up chase for 1st

With a 2-4min gap in between 3rd to 4th half way around the 10km track. But the Appin rock gods had different plans for me getting a pinch flat and a walk back to the car

With the podium for the race was out of reach, I was still keen for a ride on the new toy ,so fixed the flat and went for a ‘test ride’ the bike was so stiff and fast and worked so good even over the rock garden

Thanks to the 29inch wheels, I expected a lot from the Stumpjumer since the stumpy was one of the first mountain bikes ever made. Specialized have uphold the Stumpjumper name and delivered a race weapon

Thanks to Bernard rides and Ashfield cycles who put me on this ultimate race machine and Shimano for sending me some new goodies to make my bike even lighter and faster. Love new PRO carbon XCR handlebars.

Written by: Marc de Geoffroy

The Convict 100km marathon mountain bike race started slowly for one Bernard Rider last saturday.

As the dreaded alarm crackled at the ridiculously early 4AM and my understanding wife elbowed me out of bed i stumbled around  the apartment looking for my keys, scoffing my secret breakfast and getting my double shot of dirty old sock smelling chinese tea ready for the long and dark drive to.St Albans. The next hour and a half driving i spent giggling at the thought of how cold it would have been for Ondrej, Michal and others who were camping last night in St Albans, singing at full volume to the Beastie Boys tributes on the radio whilst drinking my tea at 80kms/hr. After squeezing my little car and my now painfully full bladder onto the full ferry in utter darkness i was almost there.

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The “KINGS” race report

I rolled in to the car park just outside of St Albans just before 8am. Still had an hour before the 50km start, with plenty of time to sort out my registration and warm up. Strapping my plate to the front of my bike I heard a familiar voice, turned around to see James Heron fully kitted and raring to go. We rode to the start of the race together where we met up with our other teammate Michal Kafka who was also competing in the 50.

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4 Races, 3 States, 1 Month.

For me, this was the first race I had raced before, the first this month where I had slept in my own bed the night before the race.

I had stepped up on the podium a few years back in the 50k and finished in the top 20 with a time of 2.15. Last year on a well groomed track that made for fast times, I cracked out a personal best time of 2.05, finishing 5^th in my class and within the top 20.

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Capital Punishment 2012

The Bernard Riders team van rolled into Canberra on a cool Friday evening loaded up with our Specialized Bikes. Most of us were worried the 7am start would make for a cold ride, and potentially frosty morning. We should not have worried. My Czech team mates seem not to have their own internal thermostats. When it’s warm, air conditioning, and these are guys that rode for 10days in 40+ heat on the Croc Trophy. When it’s cold, every heater is max’d out.

The crew had fought the urge to sleep, something that is induced by the hypnotic, but not relaxing vibration that starts when the van hits Mach 0.1. We located the squeaking so that will be fixed for the next trip, so we will be massaged only by the van and not ultrasonically tenderized.

Some quick bike maintenance in the car park, a new Shimano 10 speed derailleur in place of the emergency 9 speed in my case, so I could use all 10 and not have to 1.5 shift to change up anymore. Ahh ! ! ! what a difference Shimano components make.

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Like the opening scene from Lord of the Rings, the clouds and wind swirled around Bowral Velodrome, welcoming three slightly timid Bernard Riders to the newly resurfaced track.  Whilst the previous track surface would have been more suited to the Bernard MTBers, the fresh green ribbon of tarmac that lay before us on arrival looked perfect for some 160 PSI racing. Unfortunately the 11 degree temperature and 60km/hr winds were not, and it took about twenty minutes of self motivational speeches, before we could convince ourselves that getting out of the car was a good idea at all. Perhaps on reflection it was simply the thought of Ondrej telling us stories about six hour rides through the snow in the Czech Republic prevented us driving straight back home.

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