Sometimes all's ya can do...is all ya can do!

Sutton Road Course

Yesterday was CORC's XC race at Sutton Road, a course I had previously placed first in Sport B Men late last year when I had some reasonable form.
The day dawned cool and overcast, the outlook was for a chance of showers but nothing arrived during the morning.
All the pre-race activities went smoothly with no dramas, and I got a pre-ride in of the course to ensure that I there were no surprises lurking anywhere. The lap went OK other then getting lost after following a junior off course (yeah I know look at the markings rather than the rider!)

The start was the usual bottom of the fire road deal and off the line I got swamped, falling back as far as 12th before the single track. Having ridden here a couple of times, I knew that it was really easy to go too hard too early so I slowly set about picking riders off one by one.

After about the first 1/2 lap I knew I wasn't on a good day, there felt like not much in the engine and my bike piloting skills had gone out the window.

So I just kept plugging away picking riders off to move up into 6th place with 2 laps gone.

There were a couple of spectacular crashes through the race due to the combination of wet and dry loose conditions. The loose stuff wasn't the normal bull dust more marble sized rocks for a change. My front tire choice (Maxxis Rendez, good for Stromlo, sh!t for here) almost had me on the ground 4-5 times, with one of them having think that a shammy change might be necessary.

So after making 6th spot I could see 5th place just up the trail but wasn't making any in roads. So it was a case of keeping the pressure on and watching the laps count down.

So the overall result was 6th, but this doesn't really tell the true tail of the race.

Analysis
So on the way home I had the normal cyclist things running through my head when you don't get the result you want, "I need to train harder!", "More intervals!", "I need to train longer!", "Loose weight".etc etc

However after calming down and properly reflecting on things, I thought I would wait until I had a proper look at the numbers before passing judgement.


So first up is the raw number from the race, The normalised power is higher than I expected and most of the durations seem to be OK... so the problems not there.


Raw Numbers from WKO

Next up was to perform a MFA on this race and the previous and see where the differences lie.
So as you can see the numbers are almost identical the normalized power is in fact a touch higher this time around but the overall speed for the race is down. So there is nothing conclusive power wise to draw from here. It maybe that I struggled more with the track conditions this time through with the mixture of wet & dry... but I'm not sure.



Multi File Analysis Graph

The final area I had a look at was the quadrant analysis, an it's here that I spotted that there had been a shift in my high end pedalling. The graph showed that there was an ~ 6% shift from quadrant I to quadrant II. So effectively from high force/high cadence to high force/ low cadence. Now whether this can be attributed to the "sluggish" feeling during the race i.e no snap I'm not sure but it is the only measurable difference between the two files.


Quadrant Analysis

So in summary, while I was slower than the previous race on this course my power output was on par with my previous performance. So what does it mean? Well "sometimes all's ya can do...is all ya can do", we as athletes put alot of pressure on ourselves and sometimes forget that there are things outside our control ie other's performances that we have no influence on.
In this instance there were five people who had a better day than me on the day.

Footnote: Looking at the results from the race and the top-3 from Sports B men all out performed the winner of Sports A men and would have placed mid field in the Open Men's category.

CORC XC @Stromlo

Pre-Race
It's always great getting to race close to home, no early starts, no having to sleep in a dodgy motel/ tent/ cardboard box/ underpass. So I got up at the leisurely hour of 6.00am to roll out the door by 7.30. Quick breakfast, make up a hydrapak to ride to the race with, a bottle for during the race, find my license, money and out the door on time.

It was a great morning with a very slight breeze for some cooling and not too warm at that stage. Riding the shared path all the way to Stromlo, dodging walkers who think it's OK to take the whole path 3 abreast with their stupid little dogs....one day I'm not going to move and just ride into someone just to teach them a lesson

70kg rider + 10kg bike @ 35kph vs walker and dog who do you think will win?

Hooking into Stromlo at the Crit track I made my way up and over the top before a bit off fun on Pork Barrel down the other side. By this stage I had a real sweat up, and you could feel the humidity in the air so the sweat wasn't really evaporating.
A run down double dissolution and into the rego area.

I lined up like everyone else for about 10 minutes and drained the rest of the hydrapak while waiting in line (1.5l). So feeling well hydrated I set off on a lap to scope the course to see what wrinkles Paul had thrown in to catch people off guard. There was only one on the climb back up to the top of double dissolution where instead of taking the single track we short cut up a rough trail before hooking back in.

Given that I had ridden pretty much these trails all week in practice leading up to the race I was confident knowing the conditions but it always helps to get a lap in so as not to get caught out. Also riding against guys who probably have 100’s of laps around Stromlo in training and 24hr racing it helps to try to get a bit more on a level footing.


Stromlo Loop

Race Start
After we had the pre-race briefing and were pointed in the general direction of where we were starting, it all came to a screaming halt as 200+ riders tried to scramble over a gate and fence. The smart ones took the inside line and skirted the fence/ gate…everyone else stood around like sheep.

Everyone slowly made their way through the throng of riders to where they thought they were starting with Elite Men at the front. I pushed my way through and stood about 4 rows back and off to the side to allow people through. Elite Men, Sport A, Vets, and finally Sport B got our call up.

We got the 20 second call then all hell broke loose on go. I got a pretty average start and entered the single track in about 6 wheel. Past timing and into the first part of the course proper, things were stringing out a bit but the elastic was still holding. We all emerged onto the first long fire trail section and everyone eases up, not me I keep on the gas passing the riders in front and put the hurt on up the climb.

Just before the next single track section a rider jumps me to enter first, but I’m not too concerned about this, as it’s the next section that’s key to get a smooth run through due to the technical nature.

Out onto the fire trail and punch past the other rider to enter first and pick my lines.

About half way through this section there is a piece of trail that crosses a small dry creek, I that the long way across the wooden bridge not spotting the short cut about 5m back. At this point two rider cut through and charge up the hill, I’m thinking to myself “How’d they do that there must be a short cut back there, have a look next lap!”.

One of the riders that charge past is Rob Cooper, not that I know it at that point and also not knowing that, that is the last I will see of him all race as he steadily put 30second a lap into me.

So back to my own little battle, there is a group of about 5 riders spread across 10 metres of the track, and it remains like this till we hit the next climbing section of single track where 3 of us pull away.

Down double dissolution and through timing the three of us are still together with me in second wheel. Through the first section of single track and rider in third wheel gets impatient and touches my rear wheel going down in a heap.
Out onto the fire road and pass and pull away from the rider in front and begin trying to open up a bit more of a gap on the others.

It’s on this lap that we start striking traffic, so things start getting held up letting riders catch back and others slip past. This where things got a bit fussy trying to keep track of everything remembering that I still had no idea Rob was somewhere up the road. Coming down double dissolution for the second lap there was about 4 slow riders ahead with a rider who had pasted me earlier entering first (turned out to be a vet). He managed to slip past a couple of the riders while I was caught up behind.

Two down- Half way

Coming through timing my heads spinning trying to work out exactly where I am in the race, I figure top 3 so just keep plugging at it, I catch back up to the Vet rider and start trading off turns. On the fire road on this lap I drink half of my 500ml bottle and throw down a couple of Clif Blocs.

The lap passes pretty uneventfully till the last climb back up to the top before the descent to the finish where I get passed by “a midget on a 29er” Now I have nothing against midgets or 29er’s but when you put the two together it really is comical. I have seen this guy at a couple of races before and it just always looks like he’s riding his older brother’s bike….

Down to the final lap and time to empty the tank, I’m still swapping off with the Vet rider, through the first single track section again and a bit of a break up the fire road to empty the rest of my drink bottle before the middle technical section. I’m still really conscious of only having a slender leader back to the chasers.
Long climb up to Double Dissolution before the final run down to cross the finish.
After crossing the line I didn’t really have any idea where I had gotten, I knew it was going to be good enough for a top three but because it’s just so hard sometimes to keep track I wasn’t sure.
I watched the elite finish about 5 minutes back with some pretty small gaps for the first four places.

The Numbers



I can say that I really didn’t have a flash day, feeling flat for the majority of the race.
The average power for the race was down a bit with only 258w normalized.

Avg Power 214w
Normalised Power 258w
VI 1.2
Dist 24km (Total 73.6km)
Time 1.13hr (Total 3.23hrs)
Speed 19.4kph
Avg Hr: 166bpm
Avg Cad: 101rpm
Cals: 942cals (total 2100cals)
Metres climbed: 735m (Total 1735m)

Fluids: 2ltrs of Clif Electrolyte

Food: 1 bags of Clif Blocs

So as you can see the powermeter doesn't lie I was feeling sh!tty because the power was down. I ended up with 2nd place, but I think that was only because I kept it together for the four laps and blocked out the more "rational part of my brain" that was screaming "Ease up, you're riding like a sack of a$$ and going to get caught soon!"

Drilling it

Sunday was the XC race at Sutton Road, with a chilly wake up to -5 degrees. Packing of an extra large bag of kit, thick Assos thermal jacket, 3/4 bibs, thermal undervest, light short sleeve and arm warmers, and my virgin long finger assos gloves. I made the decision on the previous Friday to race christen the Ventana, it's now set up with alonger set of legs (120mm Fox RLC forks) rather then the hardtail. The pre-ride of the course confirmed my choice with El Salt eating up all the bumps and not feeling slow up the long drag to the finish. The Suunto said that there was approximately 95m of climbing per lap, not epic but I knew it would snap the legs of all but the top 3 in Sports B over 4 laps. The gears weren't shifting right so a last minute tweak before the call up to the line.
While waiting for Paul to start his normal spiel about playing nice with the other children, I notice a dad and his two kids struggling trying to do some last minute wrench work on the kid's bike. So I rolled over and offered to help, seems the boy had been out and tweaked his rear derailleur dropping the spring. Dad had attempted to fix it but attached the spring incorrectly. It took me about a minute to realise what Dad had done, so there I am half listening to Paul drone on and for once hoping that he keeps going so I have a couple more minutes to get this spring reattached wrestling with the spring and a leatherman tool. After about 4 attempts I get the spring hooked on the correct post and then start tuning the gears....30 seconds later and we're done! Just as Paul is finishing and it's time to roll to the bottom of the hill for the start.
The proceeding grades are let off, my nemisis Luke Chapman has promoted himself up to Sport A so that's one less person to worry about. We get the call up, and I set myself up on the left hand side for a clear run up the hill. Announcer calls "Go" and we are off. The first 10 pedals strokes and no one has gassed it up the hill, so I hit the jets! Knowing that it's crucial to get a good position into the first single track section for the proceeding fire road grind. Leading around the corner and into the single track, I ease slightly to recover as I know someone is going to gas it up the next fire road climb. Now I can say from being here previously this is a huge mistake and if punch it this early you probably won't recover. Sure enough Tim Lawley jumps me, giving it death to create a gap into the next section. Riding like it's the last lap and not the first he soon disappears into the tree's of the next section. At this stage I'm just keeping it steady not panicking, I know this course has a nasty sting in it's tail if you gas it too early. 1/4 of the way through the lap Sean Martin kicks past on a fire road section so I have someone to follow through to the bottom of the loop.
I sit behind Sean as the course turns from rolling/ downhill to uphill climb/ grind. I can see that he is having trouble the leg's aren't spinning but grinding but I am determined to use him for all he's worth. At the top of the climb, I jump Sean and skip across to Tim who we have managed to peg back, he's now well and truly paying for his first laps burst. I get across the gap and recover as we cross the finish line for the first time. I come around Tim to lead through the first section and onto the fireroad...and that's the last time I see anyone. Slowly opening the taps up fire road and I'm gone, applying pressure on the up-hills and relaxing on the flat, the strategy works no ones coming back. Crossing the line at the finish the gap is out to 50 seconds and I have myself my first MTB win in about 14 years.

Post Race Analysis
Looking at the output file from the race powers up by 10w for the same heart rate. Comparing this race to the previous the PE was only about a 7.5 where as the Sparrow race was about a 9.

CORC Sparrow Hill

Almost there!
Today turned out to be a good result despite a somewhat ordinary start. The family came out to the race today turning it into a bit of an outing. After getting everyone organised we only left 10 mintes behind schedule. As we we were leaving I chucked the keys to the wife and asked her to drive...no idea why, but I did. Halfway out the race, we we're pulled over for an RBT (Random Breath Test). Now I knew if I was driving I shouldn't have blown positive, I had 1/2 a bottle of white with dinner the night before and had eaten breakfast...but these things always make me nervous. But today my luck was in, I wasn't driving!
Out at the course I threw in a quick blat round the loop to make sure there were no surprises lurking anywhere. The weather was a bit average with a very cool wind blowing before the start so I kept rolling aorund till we got the call up.
When the go went I positioned myself so that I ended up about 5th into the single track without having to be too explosive off the line. Through the first section and I jumped Rob Cooper to move into 4th on the fire trail. Next couple of sections and I worked my way up into second place without having to hit the wind too much... I need to be very explosive to get around people and close a couple of gaps but I still wasn't red lining like the last race. And this was the way it stayed for the next 3 laps I would trade places between 2nd-3rd place but never drift off the lead by much but also never having to expend too mch energy. On the last lap I opened the taps to gap one of the Vet riders who had gotten mixed up in our "race train" and get back onto the wheel of first place. The look on his face when I closed the 100m gap up the fire road climb was priceless! I don't think he thought he could be caught again and not in the space of 300m.
Unfortunately my biggest problem for the day was my descending, I was riding even more like a girl than normal. I'm putting this down to the forks I threw onto the bike, they had way too much rebound and I got bounced in a number of corners I and it just shook my confidence a bit.
I ended up holding on for second place by about 20 seconds, my best result for a XC race this season. I put the result down to better tactics, because it sure wasn't better form. I felt very ordinary before the race, and never really lifted during it. I think the course at Sparrow with more climbing suits my skills alot better. In fact I could have gone for another couple of laps as I wasn't feeling that taxed at the end.



The normalised power is the same as the previous XC race at 278w, but the lack of alot of surges mean't I felt alot better. Just need to build a bit more base now for the Angry Doctor and the Fling.