We are a spoilt Bunch

Transcription

1 We are a spoilt Bunch One thing is for sure this last month we have all been very spoilt. The amount of rides and race going on lately it has been hard to keep up with it all. The international season kicked off last month with the Tour Down Under and our first chance to see the pros and new teams. Next up we had the New Zealand Cycle Classic race around the roads of the Manawatu featuring our own Jack Sowry with his new team Mike Greer Homes. Stage two was rough for Jack as he was crook during the race but still finished. The results didn t reflect he had a great ride and we had the opportunity to watch the event on TV. This month we ve had the Huri Huri Bike Festival run in conjunction with the TrustHouse Woman s Tour of New Zealand. Many took the opportunity to be part of this event and celebrate everything biking. Some took to their mountain bikes, others took the opportunity to listen to former tour winner Evelyn Stevens talk. Ben Knight and Kevin Laskey spent the week behind the scenes working with two of the teams as their mechanics. Mark Langlands was a team Manager and a few of us helped out at the feed stations. The day that capped it off was Day 4 of the Tour, the Queen Stage, with the race finish at the summit of Admiral Hill. The Ride for Parkinson s was the warm up race and it was great to see so many take up the challenge including Brian Lambert. You could see everyone enjoyed the relaxed and fun day with a race/ride that tested them all. The finale was at the Pelé ton Picnic where the spot prizes were handed out and Chris Smith joined Brian in a helicopter ride. One lucky person received a new bike thanks to Brent at Happy Valley Cycles. Last but not least we watched the women s race power up The Wall and could relate to what they were going through having just been up it ourselves. It was a great day that capped off a great month for cycling here in the Wairarapa. Here are a couple pictures that capture some of these moments.

2 Interclub Series This series started on 25 January and there s one round left to race. It s a four round series that is aimed at riders of all abilities. Being a handicap race all grades have an equal chance of taking a victory with some of our limit riders winning in previous years. It seems the group that has the strongest numbers and works together gets the best results and it would be great to see as many members as possible giving it a go. Just $10 per round with $5 of that going to the end of series prize pool and the other half going towards post race refreshments. Sign in from 8.30am with racing commencing at 10.00am One round left to race; 1 March Race 4 - PNP Club. Starts Blue Mountain Progressive Association Hall, Upper Hutt Forthcoming Events Clark Cup Get your entries in for the Clark Cup, HRR on Saturday 7 March. Enter online at david@computerpartners.co.nz. Entry Fee: $20.00 Registration: 8.30am 9.00am Athletics Masterton Clubrooms Sports Bowl, Blair St 24 Feb Club race 55km HRR Kourarau loop 28 Feb Rev Cycle Festival, Cambridge 28 Feb Club Criterium Champs 1 Mar Final Interclub Race hosted by PNP 3 Mar Club Race Wainuioru loop HRR 7 Mar Clark Cup HRR 7 Mar Karapoti Mountainbike Race (even roadies can enter ) 8 Mar Bush cycle tour, Pahiatua 10 Mar Club Race Upper Plain/ Skeets Rd. GRR 14 Mar Club ITT Champs 15 Mar Hawks Bay champs 17 Mar Club Race Francis line HRR 21 Mar Le Race Christchurch 21 Mar Club Road Race Champs 24 Mar Club Race 1 lap of Pakarakas/Masterton Mar Wellington Region Centre champs 28 Mar Gentle Annie, Taihape to Napier ride 28 Mar Grape Ride, Blenheim 4-5-6th Apr PNP Easter tour Apr Club Nationals Hawks Bay

3 Time Trial Rules & Tips Time Trial Rules and Tips Time trials are test of a rider or riders in a team against other riders to set the fastest time over a set distance. They are a test of each individual or team against the circuit and conditions on the day so - no drafting is allowed. There are precise rules for time trials to ensure that riders do not gain an unfair advantage. If these rules are breached the rider/s concerned will likely receive a time penalty or be disqualified. These rules are essentially those of the world governing body for time trials. When a rider catches another, the rider caught may not lead the rider behind, and the rider behind must not follow directly behind in the slipstream of the rider ahead. The UCI rules say a 2m sideways gap is required but as our roads are open and can be narrow; this Is not always practical and/or safe. When the rider behind passes, the rider who has been caught must not follow behind in their slipstream. Within a kilometre the rider who has been caught must drop back to at least 25m behind the rider now in front. Riders may not help one another. In practical terms the rules mean that if a rider is caught, as the rider behind approaches within 25m they need to ensure they are to the side and not ride directly behind. They have shown superior speed to catch the rider ahead but they now need to be sure they have the power to pass and preferably pull away from that rider before they approach any closer than 25m. Ideally they should overtake then move away. The rider behind must now fall back so that within a kilometre they ride 25m behind the rider now in front. Even if the passing rider passes but then only travels at the same speed as the rider who has been caught, that rider must drop back and hold a position 25m behind. Note: At 30km/hr, 25m = 3 sec; at 38kmkm/hr, 25m = 2.5 sec; at 45km/hr, 25m = 2 sec. If the rider ahead fades and the rider behind feels they can overtake they must follow the same rules. (There is a belief that there is a rule that a passed rider may only re-pass once but the writer has not been able to substantiate this). There have been several instances noted where these rules have not been followed and riders have ended up looking like they are rotating or drafting in a road race. This is cheating!! Some tips for riding time trials: Time trials are known as the "race of truth". There is just you, your bike, the road and the conditions there is truly nowhere to hide. Some people find this appealing but others find it daunting. If possible ride the course before your event. You may find factors such as false flats, rough seal, or trees and dips in the road affecting wind strength and direction - things you may not have noticed in your car or even in a road race.

4 If you have a specialised time trial bike you probably won't need to be told to do some pre-race training on it, but if you haven't and only rarely use time trial bars, do some riding with them. You need to get used to the crouched aero position and also be prepared for the different feel and loss of control (estimated at 40%) of time trial bars. Be well warmed up for the start. This is a little difficult with a big field but ideally you should be lightly sweating when you start. It has been said that the five rules of time trialling are: Don't start too hard, Don't start too hard...and so on. So, don't start too hard! The temptation in the excitement of the standing start and the desire to get up to speed as quickly as possible is to crank it up too fast and then find within a kilometre of the start that your lungs are bursting and your legs are burning. Start strong and get settled quickly but fight the temptation to go all out too early. Time trials are all about pacing yourself. Your need to settle into a consistent pace you are confident you can maintain. At the same time it has to be fast or you will not have chance of winning. That's a key part of the challenge of this event. Be prepared to climb into the hurt box and stay there. Some people go a bit far in the macho stakes with statements like "I can't have been going that hard I didn't throw up!" But a good rule of thumb is if you aren't hurting, you're not going hard enough. Some people split the race up into quarters and progressively increase their pace while other split it in half. In most cases most riders would step it up to maximum for the final couple of kilometres. You should have nothing left at the finish and if that's so, then you can do no more. There are few more things to remember for team time trials. You should practice as a team beforehand to assess relative strengths of the riders and work on rotating to ensure it is smooth and safe. The club generally only rides a team event once a year so the format and its particular demands are foreign to a lot of riders. You may rotate to the left or right depending on any wind but you may also decide to just rotate to the right which more riders will be more familiar with. When you have done your turn, pull to the right but not too far and slip back smoothly to the rear. As you near the tail you may need to up your cadence to move smoothly in behind the last rider without leaving a gap you need to make up - using up precious energy. Most teams will rotate regularly though if a team has particularly strong rider they may do a longer pull on the front. Set yourselves a target pace depending on your team's abilities and the conditions and as soon as the rider on the front falls below that, they should pull off. If a rider is struggling to come through for their pull they should drop a bit further back when they rotate back to indicate to the next team member that they should drop in earlier. But not too far or they will slip off the back. This allows the flagging rider a chance to recover. But if the rider still can't come through they should tell their teammates and drop off. It has been proven that all other things being equal five riders will travel faster than four so you should try and keep your team together as long as you can, providing you are moving at the pace you want. Times in team events are taken on the fourth rider which allows a rider who is off the pace to fall away or means a team can lose a rider who has a mechanical issue and remain in the event. If your team is faster than a team in front you must follow the rules about passing. As you get close to them you should tell them "riders passing" stop your rotating while you pass and only resume once well clear. A little bit of preparation for a team time trial and discussion of the special issues involved so everyone on the team is clear about things can help make them a lot of fun

5 From the ACM Randonneur I've started to really get into rando style riding and so when the Kiwi Randonneurs planned to ride from Fielding to Mangaweka and back via the Ruahine foothills I was in. It's a 200km route but since I ve done twice round Taupo how hard could it be? Yeah right! The morning dawned fine so off we went at 7am. The start was rapid and all stayed together till the hills started and what a load of hills there are. Most climbs are about 3 kms long and an average of 6-7% with the odd 12% thrown in for a laugh. This added up to about 3,100metres of climbing and 39 hills- aaarrgghh! The rolling back roads to Mangaweka were beautiful with lots of single lane bridges. We all regrouped at Mangaweka where I helped one of the riders repair a slashed tyre with a Park tools tyre boot, a handy and possibly indispensable item. On the road again and once over half way the heat kicked in. I was overheating so started pouring water over myself to try and cool off. Stopped at a pub en route to top up water bottles. Passing through Cheltenham I picked up my second wind and roared back to Fielding at full speed. I m loving these endure style rides and getting to see so much of NZ that I would never see. I have another long ride, 324km, lined up. Join me sometime. M. Parker Club Road Nationals April The Club Road Nationals in New Zealand is the pinnacle that all road riders from all age groups should aspire to. This is the chance for each age group to compete for the honour, prestige and bragging rights of being a National Champion. But for most of us there's not much chance of that so we go along for a good challenging race on new courses against riders of similar abilities. Both the ITT and road races are spread over four days so there is the opportunity to watch and support fellow club riders. The 2015 event will be held in the picturesque Hawkes Bay region and will be based at the Puketapu School, about 5km from Taradale. Last year Ben, Jack and Lesley achieved great results so let s hope for more of the same this year. With Hawks Bay being only a couple of hours away it would be easy to do a reconnaissance trip or ride the Hawks Bay champs before the Nationals. This is the link for more information -

6 Presidents Blog. As you can see we are heading into the busy part of the season. With our own Club Champs underway (Congratulations to Lesley and Langers for winning the Hill Climb Champs) we have another Interclub, Clark Cup along with the Crit Champs locally plus of course our club races. Hawkes Bay does allow riders from other clubs to attend their Club Champs so that you may get a preview of the Nationals Course. Check it out. We have a good number heading to the Nationals and several offers to Manager and or assist our team. Last week we were privileged to have the UCI women s tour here in the Wairarapa. Congratulations Jorge, I have had nothing but positive feedback not only from cyclists but also other members of our community. So well done to all those that helped out in anyway. Kirsten and I hosted several members of Team Pepper Palace and what a delight they were. Being involved with them added something special when watching the races. They along with Team DNA joined us on our Sunday ride which gave others the opportunity to meet and greet them. Although a little rough in places the girls loved our roads, the company of our members and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. We are cant wait for next year. Klingon And a few snaps to finish on