S.A. Nationals TimeTrial - 40-44 age group

Personal bests don't count for much when you make stupid mistakes! These are my best ever power numbers on the TT bike! 30w average better than my Provincials race in which I got silver.

The problem was that I had a front brake block rubbing and didn't realise it! After 4km into the TT I was caught already! I could not understand what was going on - I thought that the guy that caught me must be incredibly strong if he caught me within 4km and I was averaging better than 360w.

I ended up 21st overall (out of 23) with a 360w average!

Central Gauteng Provincial Championships - Road Race

Yesterday was the Central Gauteng Provincials Road Race, also held in the deep South near Daleside (I keep expecting to see guys with white hoods and burning crosses!).

The 30km lap circuit (John Boscoe) is a lot harder than it looks, especially when the wind is pumping, which was what we were hoping for.

A short discussion with the officials before the race was held, in which the gutter section was discussed and they agreed to provide a lead car to ensure the safety of the bunch. The team tactics were to hit it hard right from lap one - and that's exactly what we did.

A short section of a couple of km's with a tailwind from the start, then we turned right into a perfect gutter - a 45degree tailwind from the left. Andrew hit the front, leaving space for myself and Issy, and went hard! Within about 2km the bunch was completely shattered. I took a turn at the front, then peeled off and nearly got caught out because I thought there were a few riders behind me and there weren't! Next thing I was fighting to close a 10m gap with Andrew Mclean driving the pace. He saw what had happened and sat up to let me get back on. The start group of probably 50 riders was suddenly down to 6. With 120km of racing left, there was no point in trying to get the group any smaller. So, Andrew, Issy, myself, a Panda rider, Deon Coetzee, and a Boss Logistics rider started working together.

By now we had turned into a long drag section, with a strong crosswind coming from the front. First off the back was the Boss Logistics rider. This was going to be interesting, because now Boss Logistics and Club 100 did not have riders in the break - would they chase?

The gap on the first lap was around 45sec, so the pace was kept up. Unfortunately my powertap CPU shot off my handlebars towards the end of the first lap, so no data for the rest of the race. Up to that point though I was averaging 345w so the going was pretty hard.

The gap slowly grew during the second lap, getting to about 1:10 by the end of the second lap. The conditions meant that there was no point on the circuit that could be used to recover. The uphill drag had a strong crosswind from the front, and the downhill section had a direct tailwind. Pushing the pace on the downhill and flat meant that there was very little shelter.

At the start of the third lap, Andrew an I rode away from the group. Not an attack, but it seemed like a couple of the guys just blew simultaneously. Andrew sat up a bit to see if he could pace Issy back into the break, but Issy wasn't able to get across.

Now it was just Andrew and myself, with a gap of under 2 minutes. Not safe by any means, so Andrew went hard up the drag! Within about 5km the time gap jumped to 2:30 so clearly the fight had gone out of the chase group. Now all that was left was pain and hoping that no punctures or mechanicals would happen. Andrew was pacing the headwind sections, and I did my bit on the flats and downhills. By the last lap the gap was up to 4:30!

Andrew was more than happy to let me take the win - he has plenty medals and gets a lot of pleasure out of team-mates winning, thanks mate!

Official time was 2h52, but looking at Andrew's powertap data, I have it at 2h59, just a shade over 40km/h in tough conditions. 23min faster than the 30+ age group, the slackers!

Thanks to Ali, Carri-Ann, and Den (+ boys) for supporting us. And thanks to Michelle Cound for the pictures!

Edit: I have removed references to a rider that would prefer not to be named, apologies if I caused any offence.

Central Gauteng Provincial Championships - TT

The provincial timetrial for Central Gauteng was held this last weekend on Saturday morning down in Daleside. I'm not sure why this location was chosen, since it falls within Southern Gauteng, which is a different cycling union.

Anyway, the course was an out-and-back course which turned out to be 20km, having been specified as a 30km TT. This is the same thing that happened a couple of years back, so it didn't come as a surprise.

The profile is quite flat, with an uphill out bound leg and a downhill return. Wind conditions meant that the out leg would also be predominantly into a headwind/crosswind, and the return would have the wind behind us.

I was hoping to have my SRM available for my TT bike, but it is not back from being serviced yet. That, along with getting some changes to the TT bike means that I had only managed to get onto the bike for one computrainer session, and one road session - not nearly enough.

Turns out that with the wind the way that it was, my Bontrager Aeolus 5.0 wheels with my powertap were fine for the conditions, so nothing lost.

I did manage to break the cardinal rule of TT - start on time! Our start times were brought forward 20min on the day, which disrupted my warmup plans quite a bit. Anyway, I went to the start ramp in time, and was told there were a few riders ahead of me still. So I quickly went to the toilet and to sort out my Garmin 705 pairing with my race wheels. Returned to the start and was waiting patiently went I was informed that my start time had gone 20sec ago!

Cursing myself, I hit the road quickly! The best thing about riding a TT with a power meter is controlling the adrenaline at the start and keeping a lid on the power! I focused on staying aerobic and got into a rhythm. Feeling a lot better on the bike than my previous ride.

I haven't done a test on the TT bike, so I was not sure what numbers I could sustain for 30min. I do know that I am not able to match my road bike numbers when in full TT position, so I started out at around 340w (I had done 370w for 38min in the Panarama TT a few weeks back on my road bike).

Then I started having problems with my Garmin CPU - which came lose and kept rotating on the bars! So I ended up fiddling with that a bit - not good when trying to keep a good position and go as fast as you can!

At the turnaround point I was feeling pretty good, and decided with a downhill tail wind I was going to really nail it. Taking a few seconds recovery every now and then would not impact my speed much. I managed to produce 13w more on the return leg.

Stats for the ride can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/r4dlmh

It is interesting to note that I did the same time in the return leg as Andrew Mclean (overall winner), showing the advantage a bigger rider has in a downhill tailwind situation.

This was good enough to get me second place in the race - with some confusion over the results as I was initially told I was third, but found out I was second at medal presentation! My official time also didn't quite match my powertap times so who knows??

MTN Panarama Tour

Stage 1: White River - Sabie

The first stage of the Panarama Tour heads out from White River towards Hazeyview.  About 25km into the race there is a KOM prime, on a short sharp climb that can be decisive in the stage.  This prime was not for our category (Veterans), so the main focus was just to stay in touch with the front bunch.

After that, the race turns off the main road, and descends a narrow road with plenty of potholes!  This got quite hairy, and it was important to stay close to the front to make sure you could see what was coming.

The race then heads out to Kiepersol, and winds it's way through back roads until meeting up with the main road between Sabie and Hazeyview.  The bunch regrouped and things were comfortable heading towards Sabie.  The climb out of Sabie would be critical, so everybody was saving themselves.

Turning left out of Sabie, the race really started.  The bunch shattered, and I found myself a few seconds behind a small lead group of about 15 riders.  I was on the limit, so I didn't try to get back on, just kept a constant tempo and waited for the bunch to slow a bit.  At the top of the steepest section, the bunch did sit up a bit as riders looked to see if their partners had managed to make the split.  This gave me the chance to make contact again.

This was the first opportunity to see which teams had a combined strength to be dangerous in the race.  Andrew and I were the only Veterans to make the split.  The break group contained Dave Garrett & Moolman Welgemoed (Daiken Gu - one of the favourites for the overall win), Jaco Ferreira & Pieter Henning (TCS), Brand du Plessis & Alwyn Scheepers (TCS), Hanco Kachelhoffer & Mike Hewan (BH Medscheme), David and Johan Labuschagne (CycleLab Brothers), Alex Pavlov & Henry Uys (Northcliff Cycles), and Jade Muller & Conrad Viljoen (NMMU Mecer)

The route would comprise of rolling hills all the way back to White River.  A chase group had formed with Nic White and Jacques Fullard in it.  Blayne Wikner, Jacques partner, was up with us in the lead group.  A situation that could have caused them a major problem, as Jacques crossed the line just under two minutes behind Blayne, and nearly fell foul of the 2 min separation rule.

The group stayed together to the finish, with Daiken Gu taking the sprint at the finish.  Andrew and I came in 4th, but 1st overall in the Vets category.

Power stats for this stage can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/p75ey4

 

Stage 2: White River - Nelspruit

Stage 2 heads south from White River to Nelspruit.  We needed to be attentive early in the race because some of the descents would be very fast.  With the tandems in the bunch, it would be possible to get away with a tandem and open up a big gap on the bunch in the first part of the race.  Well, a tandem did get away, Jurie Krige and his son Adolph came flying past the bunch!  Aparently they hit speeds of over 105km/h on the descent and opened up a gap of over 3 minutes.  Fortunately for us, none of the half bike teams managed to get on their wheel!

The bunch arrived at the 60km mark pretty much intact, now the real racing would begin.  The road back up to White River is a set of short sharp rolling hills, and attacks started coming quickly.

For me, this was the worst stage!  I was really struggling with the constant accelerations, and then on the short descents, riders that had been dropped on the hills would come flooding back to the front of the bunch, and it became a constant battle to try to stay close to the front and not pick up dead wheels on the next climb.  I watched in amazement as Andrew maintained his position in the bunch while I wasted lots of energy trying to get up there!

I got dropped on the second last climb, and managed to re-join but only to be dropped again coming in to White River.  Andrew came back to pace me to the finish, but we lost about 25 seconds on the GC, but held our lead in the Vets category!  Brand du Plessis & Alwyn Scheepers (TCS) took the stage.

A very hard day for me, with the last 20km reing really tough.  Power stats can bee seen here: http://tinyurl.com/r9xy8b

Stage 3 - White River - Sabie (return via Long Tom Pass)

The third stage was the longest stage with two major climbs (Spitskop and Long Tom).  I wasn't feeling confident after losing some time on Stage 2.  Fortunately we had the Vets category to race for as well, so if things went wrong from a GC perspective, we could still win the Vets.

The race started on the road out towards Hazeyview.  We then turned left on one of the smaller roads and joined up with the main road to Sabie.  Quite a few attempts were being made to get off the front, but the main contenders were waiting for the first major split point - Spitskop.  This was also the KOM prime for the Vets, with a Nokia Cell Phone up for grabs, so we wanted to make sure of that as well.

At this point we were about 25seconds behind on GC, but had about 8 minutes on the next Vets team, Gary Marescia & Adrian Enthoven (Cyclelab SuperCycling Cape Town).

Spitskop duly arrived and a small group containing TCS and Daiken Gu went off the front.  We were in the chase group but a gap was opening up.  A number of times I had to rely on Andrew for a bit of a push up the climb to keep the speed up!  Once again, the main teams that made the split on the first day were there again.  We won the KOM prime and started the long descent into Sabie in a small chase group of about 10 riders.  Jaco Ferreira was having a tough time, having fallen on Day 2 and damaged a rib.

Surprisingly, the chase group did not gel very well and the chase was very haphazard.  Andrew was trying to get things going, and telling me to keep as much as possible in reserve for Long Tom.

We went through Sabie with the gap standing at over 1 minute!  The climb up Long Tom was hard, but he gradient is quite consistent so the speed did not vary much.  Once again, Andrew kept me from going over the limit with some help!  We reached the top and started the long descent.  Hanco Kachelhoffer started to drive the pace really hard and started eating away at time gap.  At some point the TCS guys suffered a puncture and the break slowed and was brought back in.  Now all that was left was a short steep climb about 5km from the finish!

When we hit the climb we pushed it really hard.  Fortunately my legs came to the party and I was able to push the pace with the front guys.  Unfortunately for TCS, their efforts in the break made them pay a heavy price and they got dropped on this climb, along with some of the other GC candidates - David and Johan lost out here as well.

With 5km to go, the hammer went down and Andrew drove the pace to the finish.  The group finished together with Daiken Gu, TCS (Jaco), Mecer NMMU, and ourselves all within 40sec of each other on GC - setting up the final stage TT very nicely.

Overall a very good day for us, with Andrew riding amazingly well!

Power stats for the stage can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/ogkab7

Stage 4 - White River TimeTrial

The first thing Andrew said to me when we crossed the line at the end of Stage 3 was "We can win this race!".  I think he felt that all along, but didn't want to put too much pressure on me.  The day Andrew stops being competitive, is the day they put him in a box!

So, on the afternoon of Stage 3, we took a drive on the TT route, and started planning our strategy.  The course was by no means flat, with some very fast sections, then it returned along the Stage 2 route.

The plan was to let Andrew pace on the uphill sections and the drags, and I would work on the flats and descents.  This would give Andrew the chance to recover, whilst keeping the speed at a max.

First thing in the morning, we rode the route to check it out properly and were feeling confident when we got to the start.  We were lying in 3rd place, and had 27sec to make up on the leaders.  Our main threat looked like it would be Dave Garrett and Moolman Welgemoed (Daiken Gu), with Jaco Ferreira feeling the effects of his crash.  The NMMU Mecer guys were a bit of an unknown as well.

Andrew has plenty experience in the TT department, so he set a solid constant tempo right from the start.  I felt comfortable, but needed to keep a lid on the enthusiasm so that I could go flat out in the uphill sections of the last 5km.  I paced the flat and the long descent, and we caught our minute men (Mecer NMMU) with abour 5km to go.  The last 5km had the potential to cost a lot of time, and I was glad I had kept something in reserve for this section.  We went as hard as we could go, and crossed the finish line in the fastest time of the day, 38:15.  We took the stage, and the overall tour win!

Power stats can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/pslg6o