Rev 120 & Benchmark - Round 2

Benchmark coverage courtesy of CTV

With two big races on over the weekend, it was going to be an interesting test of backing up one race with another the following day. First was the Rev 120 in Hamilton on Saturday and then the Parry Field Lawyers Open Benchmark race (round two) on Sunday.

The trip started with a flight up to Auckland on the Thursday night, followed by a day sitting around the local Avanti Plus store in Mt Eden, where my Subway team mate Louis Crosbe worked. We headed down to Hamilton after he finished work on Friday night.

Morning of the Rev 120, big sleep in, as the start time was 11am, unheard of for most races in New Zealand. Nice and sunny outside while eating breakfast, conditions were looking ideal for racing. Ten minutes before the race started the heavens opened up and it pissed down. Bugger.

20km into the race I got into a small break, Gordy was in a chase group of four behind which meant I had the luxury of being able to sit in. At the 40km mark the break was caught and that's where my race ended, crashing out on a tight left hand bend, sliding along the road. A few riders who were riding my line crashed and slid into me, so after getting up and checking the body and bike I didn't have much of chance of chasing and catching the bunch. Rode back to the start a bit stiff and and sore, leaving Gordy to work his magic, which he did, riding away for a solo win. Nice.

12 hours later and I was kitting back up again down in Christchurch for the second Benchmark Homes race round. After having a bad race the day before I really wanted to come out swinging. So with nothing to lose I went about covering the early moves. 

First major break to stick was around the 30km mark, myself and team mate Hayden were away with a Benchmark rider. We held our gap of about 15 seconds for a good 10-15kms of racing with the speed constantly over 48km/h and some burners at 60km/h when the wind was at our backs. This had the bunch in panic mode with a lot of teams trying to get something organised to chase us down. A few riders were spat out the back of the bunch from the effort.

We got brought back into the fold, so I slotted back into the bunch about half-way down the peloton and had a bit of a rest to recover from the hard effort. Through the feeding zone (50km mark) the bunch was starting to get strung out with people taking flyers all over the place. I started to move back up to the front to make sure I didn't miss anything. Latched onto Hayden's wheel and like a motorbike we were away, riding off the front at 60km/h - Hayden held this for about 500 meters and sent me on my way for another long solo of 10km or so. A group came up, which was good as I got to sit on and not share the work (protecting Gordy). Meanwhile Gordy was leading the charge with another group and he got up to us in no time at all.

With about 50km to go, the break had grown to about 18 riders with only me and Gordy representing Subway Avanti. We had to work overtime for a wee while, making sure no moves skipped off the front. After about 5km of attacking a solo Benchmark rider hit out - I waited for a few seconds and realised that no was going to join him, so hit out across the gap and joined the Benchmark rider. Sat on him for about 8km, while he was pushing into a block head wind.

I had heard through my earpiece that Gordy had split the rest of the bunch and was bridging across with 4 riders. Once they joined up we put the hammer down for another 10km, just to make sure no one else would be joining the front bunch again. I was feeling pretty good at this stage and thought that I could pull something special out of the bag. With 30kms to go Gordy put in a tester attack up a slight rise. Once he was caught I immediately counter attacted over the top and got a gap. Opened it up to approximately 25 seconds and kept the gap going for about 10 kilometers, hurting like hell. 

Back in the chase group, Gordy could tell they were starting to weaken and hit them up a slight rise. Heard that he was coming across over the radio, so eased up and waited. Once he made the junction, the gap was only at 11 seconds, so we put on the after burners, increasing the gap to the chasers over the final 14km. I'm really happy to report that I took my first ever Benchmark race win!!!

Mid week TT #2

The mid-week TT rolled around again with near perfect conditions - a light southerly fading away to a near still evening. Was this the night that I could crack the magic 30 minute mark?

The course headed straight up the Hutt motorway (SH2) and turned in just before Haywards. On the approach back to the start/finish there is a bumpy off-camber corner that's tricky if you get your line wrong. And that's exactly what I did - turned in with the wrong line and had to jam on the brakes to avoid hitting the cones marking off the edge of the highway. Doh!

Pulled out a 7:20 first lap so thought that if I could keep the rhythm going over the 3 remaining laps, I'd still be on for a good time. Each lap was consistently around the 7:30 mark, but frustratingly I was still losing precious seconds at the bottom turn. Looking down at my speedo on the upward and downward legs of the course I was hovering around the 50km/h mark, tapped out. 

Improved on my time from two weeks ago by 3 seconds, finishing in 30:32. To get under 30 minutes I will have to practice riding the bottom turn and hope for similar conditions over the next couple of weeks.

Full results are here.

Ruapehu Cycle Classic

After hearing some of the Meo GP boys were heading up to the 160km Ruapehu Cycle Classic, I decided a few days out to enter. The idea of riding on the Desert Road was too hard to turn down as it seemed like a once in a life time opportunity to race through the area. The Meo GP was represented by David Meo (Davis), Brent Backhouse (Backy), Jonathan Hales (Jono), Craig Loveridge (Lovers) and me, racing in my Subway Avanti team kit.

 

All the guys arrived at my place on Friday after lunch to re-pack into two cars for the drive up, hoping to leave the wild winds of Wellington behind for a few days. In the car, everyone was talking up their big race plans, putting on their game faces and firing up for the next day. 

We stopped a few times to empty the tanks out and had a coffee stop in Taihape, before reaching our accommodation in Ohakune.

Our resident master chef, Jono, cooked up a pasta feast that you would expect to be served at the best restaurant in town, it was a mix of zesty lemon, ham, bacon, mmm... what a mix of flavors! 

This topped off a good first day, as on arrival we managed to head out for a 45 minute spin to loosen up the legs, so dinner was the icing on the cake. A big thanks to Jonathan for the top notch pre-race dinner.

 

5.30am, race day. Staggering down into the kitchen, still pitch black outside, thinking I must have got the alarm time wrong. Next minute the kitchen is alive with action, coffee being made a range of ways, plunger, stove top. Toast, bananas, yogurt, muesli, secret smoothies, all being munched down in the speed breakfast, with Hell on Wheels playing on the tv in the lounge for last minute motivation.

 

30 minutes later and we were all kitted up and ready to roll down to the start. At this stage the sun was slowly coming up from behind the mountain, what a great view, a nice crisp start to the morning and not a breath of wind about this sleepy town.

 

On the start line I pointed out to the guys a few riders to watch and stay close to during the race, so as to stay out of trouble and be handy in the bunch if the hammer went down. Bang from the gun three slightly crazy riders attack and take to the 160km head on. We had Backy up there, which was good as we didn't have to go to the front and help with the chase. They managed to get a massive lead in just a few kilometers, with the gap at 2 or 3 minutes.

 

After approximately 20km the bunch was not showing any interest in putting up a chase. I wanted to see what would happen if I rolled off the front... so I rolled off. Joined shortly after by Davis and never to be seen again by the bunch. By the time we had reached Waiouru, 5km later we had at least a minute gap back, so we put our heads down and went for it.

On the Desert Road we had a nice tail wind to help ramp up the speed... closing the gap to the break with every pedal stroke. The lead break had dropped a rider and we soon picked up and dropped him on our quest of joining the front 2 riders, Backy and Tom Findlay.

 

On the second main climb of the Desert Road, Davis was slowly realising he would much rather be on a motor bike than a push bike, and started to drop off my wheel. I eased off at the top and Davis came back, then I picked it up and started driving it again, getting the call that I was crazy and to go off alone to reach the front!

After a hard effort and roughly 5km passed, I joined the break, making it Backy, Tom Findlay and myself out front. Backy and I lapped it out for about 10km, with Tom as a passenger. On a rise I put in an attack and instantly got a gap. 

Now I had to back the attack up by riding solo to the finish, only another 100 kilometers! Knocking back gel after gel to keep the energy up, taking in all the great views of the mountain, counting down k after k, minute after minute. I even managed to hold on to a piss the whole trip, thinking this is the craziest solo ride I've ever done. 

After turning off the Desert Road, heading towards National Park, it was an uphill, headwind, dead road most of the way. At times I was going as slow as 15km/h - somehow each time this happened I picked myself back up with some strong words of encouragement. After hearing my first time check with 20km to go (5 minutes back to next group of 3 riders) I was was pretty happy and confident that I would be able to hold on to the finish. Thankfully the last last 10km were fast roads and I came roaring into the finish, arms raised and a yell of relief. What a great feeling to win my fist race of the '09 season.

Post race, we headed back to the pad, to relax, eat and take a quick nap before heading down to the prize giving and a few celebratory drinks. Top weekend.

Joe.

Benchmark - Round 1

Sign-on for the race was held out in Sefton, where the Teams Time Trial was held yesterday. After signing in we went for an easy 10km warm up ride down to the start, just outside of another country town, Rangiora. Once the race started some interesting facts crackled over the team radio, like how it was 33 degrees already (at 10am in the morning); when and where we would make a turn on the road and one of the most important things - knowing, who and how many riders are up the road. Based on this we can then make a call as a team, whether to chase the break down or just sit in the bunch and let the other teams bring it back. Once a break is caught someone will usually counter attack (hopefully with one of us in it!) and start the fireworks all over again, trying to establish the winning break. 

 

The first 40km was full on attacking, but the breaks were not sticking. Went with a few, but the wrong combination of riders meant they were doomed to failure. Guys wanting to sit on and not help (hey, do you think I'm going to tow you around, no way!), but killing themselves to make the break. 

I went back to team car to get some bottles (had drunk 2 in the first hour), and then caught sight of the the main break rolling off the front of the race...  

 

From that point on my job was to cover anyone jumping up the road and across to the break (that and stay away from crashes) as we had Gordy, Jason, Sam, Patrick and Hayden up there. After about 80km's of playing policeman in the bunch a few riders from the original 12 man break started to feel the heat and slowly came back into the bunch. This gave a few teams in the main peloton an incentive to chase as they thought the break might come back into the fold.

 

With 10km to go 3 riders (Gordy, Jason and Ryan Wills) attacked the remnants of the leading break and pulled out a slim lead of 30 seconds over Daniel Barry and Leon Hextall. Then approximately 3 minutes back were the other 3 riders from the break, including team mate Patrick Williamson. 

Back in the main peloton I knew there was a slight uphill with 5km to go, so i decided to have a crack there. Attacked and got a bit of a gap over the top - 2 riders managed to bridge up, including Joe Chapman. We held off the bunch, and I finished 10th.

 

Great day (and weekend) for the Subway Avanti boys:

1st - Gordon

2nd - Jason

8th - Patrick

10th - Me

and we took out the team prize.

Hayden Godfrey won the North Shore City Grand Prix on the Friday evening too, so it was 3 wins from 3 starts.

 

Next up is a fun ride (Ruapehu Cycle Classic), with the Meo GP boys which should be a nice little outing for the long weekend.

Until then, Joe.

PS. No photos from Benchmark race (yet), but here's one from the Tour of Wellington that I thought was kinda cool, almost a 3D warp effect...