The main aim of this weekend was to not get dropped and to not finish last.  Thanks to a wet criterium I DNFed.  This combined with timing issues and a presentation dinner/talk that never eventuated made for a disappointing weekend.  The official results have me finishing in 8th on the GC 0:05:47 off the pace.    Here they be: Final GC for Tour of the South West.

Overall Thoughts

Cycling Victoria graded me as Masters B grade at the start of the year.  My ability is more within the Masters C grade area so that is what I entered.  Surprisingly, that is where I stayed.

Given I came close to last in this year’s Baw Baw Classic, I was worried I would be dropped on stage 1 and my podium hopes would be over.  My main goal was to beat 19min in the ITT as that was a good time for riders who participated in the 2012 edition of the race.

The race distance offered for this tour is not really worth my while so I will be unlikely to return.  Update (2018).  Funny, this is now one of my go to races, distance and crit aside. Ideally, stage 1 would be about 100km, stage 2, 30km and stage 3 would be a crit without a stupid hill that causes over half the entrants to record a DNF.

Stage 1 – Road Race 69.31kms / 35.0kph

First off, the winner practically rode solo the entire race and his average was 36.3kph.   Compare that to the 35.1kph ridden by B grade Masters. Even factoring in the extra lap B grade Masters did, I think there is a problem with the handicapping, either that or collusion (as explained below).  While on the topic of handicapping, not splitting the women in to A, B, C and Masters A, B and C is really hard on the masters women.  With the large number of women this year, it would have been feasible to hold at the very least, an A and B female masters race.

For some reason I thought I was riding 5 laps, not the actual 4.

For lap 1, I sat on the back as I had no idea as to where we were going.  I rode strongly up the hills and was never in danger of being dropped.  I think a rider was allowed to ride off the front on lap 1, but am unsure, as they may have done this after the KOM on lap 2.  The most dangerous part of the course would have to be the turn from Hopkins Falls Road into Sullivans Road – here the road went from a double lane to a really skinning turning lane.  A sign or two saying the road narrows would be very helpful given the approach is a fast downhill.

After the sprint at the end of lap 1, a rider was off the front along the main straight.  I gave chase and was joined by another Ridley owner a few kms after the turn into St Marys Road.  We had a decent buffer and were gaining on the lead rider, but after turning into the wind about a kilometer before the KOM, it was hard going and with about 100m before the banner, I was swamped, so my break lasted 5km.  As was the case on lap 1 (and every other lap), a group of riders on the front of the bunch appeared to be blocking as they were on their brakes going down the hill.  WTF?  Besides being dangerous to be rolling down a 7% hill at 25kph with a pack of around 70, the established protocol is to soft pedal.  It is here my suspicions of collusion were generated.  Why block the bunch and brake down hill when a rider is away unless you want them to keep getting away?  For a club level C grade race, riders will generally ride sedately along the flats, attack the hills, then sit up after the apex (but not ram the anchors on), but this  was a state level race, not a club ride.

On laps 1-3 after turning off Sullivans Road into Warrumyea – Wangoom Road, the pace appeared to slow (again riders on brakes) and I was able to move up on the non wind protected side to get towards the front.  This made for a much happier ride as I got to set the pace (which was not dawdling along) and on lap 3 with 3 kms before the sprint, I was in a perfect position – on the centre line, 4 or 5 riders ahead of me on the left, no one coming around me.  Here I came across 3rd (so got 1 point for coming 4th with the now far far away solo break away).  The bell was being rung as I passed.  This was confusing as I thought we were riding 5 laps, not 4.  Illogically, I put the ringing down to the sprint taking place.

Lap 4 saw my legs a little tired, but I still stayed with the bunch.  With 2km to go, 3 or 4 riders had created a gap and the pace was on.  Here just in case it 4 laps was out distance, I tried to minimize any gaps between me and the riders ahead of me.  In the end I came across the line in 32nd position, 0:03:33 off first place.  There were 67 starters.  Thanks to my 4th in sprint 3, I was 8th in the sprint championships.

I’ve never seen so many riders ride off the edge of the road in a race due to the riders on the front putting their brake on.   From St, Marys Road to Warrumyea – Wangoom Road, with the exception of a hill or two, the bunch tended to be spread across the road so it was nigh on impossible to move up from the back.  The pace only picked up within the last 3km of each lap or in the 200m before the KOM.  I’d never make a pro rider as I like to push the pace all the time, non of this go slow crap.

2013 TOSW Stage1 “Full” Results

Stage 2 – Individual Time Trial 12.58kms / 39.3kph

After a test ride along the course I had little confidence of a good ride.  The wind had picked up and was blowing a gale.  I felt really unsafe in the aero position and was picturing myself riding on the bull horns for the entire race, stuck in the one gear as I would be too scared to move my hands to the gear levers.

For reasons known only to Cycling Victoria, despite race results being available for Stage 1, riders would start the ITT in reverse number order, 20 seconds apart, with a 2 minute gap between the grades.  As I was number 105, I would be starting C grade Masters first.  This meant all I could do was ride as fast as I could and hope it was good enough (yeah, yeah, how an ITT is normally raced, but chasing the slower riders spurs you on and being passed by those faster than you helps with gauging how well your race was).  Apparently, with the A graders, this lead to teams doing a dodgy and pacing their lead riders.

My perfect race here would to brake the 40kph barrier.  After my warmup, I was thinking I’d be lucky to ride 21 minutes and I was seeing myself being passed by riders on standard road bikes.

I test rode my T100 front wheel but that was way too wind catchy, so I used my older Zipp 404 front wheel my girl friend was using on her road bike.  Still catchy, but much less so.

Starting the race, I began in an aero position as possible on the bull horns.   After 500m, I had my right hand on the extensions, upping my gear, while my left hand was stabilising the bike by staying on the bull horn.  After I crested the hill just past Hughs Road, I got into the aero position and felt pretty comfortable.  My confidence levels shot up and I began to increase my power output.  Four kms into the race, I passed two of the women and then after nearly (but not quite) riding off the road through the turn into Sullivans Road, I powered along with wind assistance and passed another 10 or so of them.

Cresting the climb, I was happy to stay aero (during the warmup, I was very unhappy to be aero) and only moved to the bull horns after the S bend, about 10.5kms into it.  Once I was back into Wangoom Road, I went as hard as possible and by the time I stopped my computer, sometime after the finish line, my time read 0:19:06. Not too shabby, but I was really keen for the official time as the 19 mins was comparable to the fastest open C graders last year.

I’d paid my $26 for a buffer style dinner, stage 2 presentations and talks from riders so was excited.  The buffet turned out to be a couple of shitty salads, some bread and pasta, pasta and more pasta.  At least the gnocchi was cooked to perfection.  I would have liked more variety and some dessert.  The dinner began at 18:30.  At 20:00 a Cycling Victoria representative said the results were in and they were being printed as he spoke.  At 20:45 I left as results were still not announced.  The statement about them being printed was clearly a lie – it would be 1am before the results were posted online and there would be no official presentations for the stage 2 podium getters (at all, not even on Sunday)  – disappointing as my traveling companion came in 3rd fastest in C grade Women.  Bad for sponsored riders and bad for promotional purposes as there would be no photos of the podium.

I came in 5th in the ITT which catapulted me into 8th on GC, 0:03:47 off the pace.  My time was 57 seconds slower than first place and 15 seconds slower than the GC leader.  Reading the ITT results at 2am in the morning meant I would not get to sleep for another 90 minutes as I was looking forward to a decent overall GC place after the criterium.

2013 Tour of South West ITT Times – everyone – fastest to slowest

Official 2013 Tour of South West Stage 2 Results “version 10”

Some ITT Stats

52 Giants, 42 Specialized or S-Works, 19 Cervelos out of 269 counted bikes.  109 TT rigs, 30 bikes with clip ons and 31 rear discs.  Bikes quite obviously lacking the required race number attached to the frame – 26 (appeared most rampant in A grade). Five Ridley bicycles, my brand of choice.

Stage 3 – Criterium 7.04kms / 30.3kph

It had rained overnight and the criterium course was wet.  There were three corners that were dangerous (6 of them in total). The first one after the climb was a downhill corner with the inside line consisting of a rough surface with sharp metal arrow signs on the outside bend.  The next corner was a tight one with a power pole on the corner.  The final nasty corner was at the bottom of the main descent.  Here there was a metal barrier at shin height with bushes behind it and some hay bales had been tied to some posts exiting the corner.  All corners “featured” while lines which in the wet tend to be like ice.

The race began and people attacked from the start and cornered way faster than I felt was safe in the wet.  By the time I had crested the climb, the leaders were already through the  forth corner – 400m ahead of me.  Fark!  I kept chasing,  riding strongly up the climb, like a woos bag around the corners, and like a champion along the home straight.  With 10 minutes of racing, the lead car had passed me and I was pulled out.  Extremely disappointing as I would record a big fat DNF. Either the handicapping leaves a lot to be desired, or 82kg is way to heavy to be competitive on a hill based criterium. Out of the 67 tour starters, 15 of them actually finished – over 30 of us did not, though the final results all wound up giving us times, so I maintained my 8th GC placing even though I was pulled out.

Sunday night we were informed that the results for the tour would be available in a day or two. Given the pricey cost of this tour, perhaps the electronic timing could be ditched so we can have cheaper entry, which leads me to…the cost analysis below.

Results will be available by Wednesday we are told.

Thanks to my sponsor – my company, Yeatman.

Cost Analysis

It cost $125 to enter, about $350 for accommodation  $150 for food, $150 for petrol – $775 all up.  The race was 88.3km long for me.  That’s about $9 race km for the weekend.  Baw Baw cost me around $100 all up, so that’s about $0.90 per race km.  I finished Baw Baw so much better value is provided by Warragul’s race.

If I come back next year, riding the next grade up, finish and get first place in everything, my winnings (based on this year) would give me $725.

Stats for the Tour

More detailed stats

Stage 1

Stage 2

Four Part Break Down

My power meter calibration must have been on the fritz as the reading are waaaaay down on what they would have been actually.

Time from fastest overall rider: 0:2:55.0 (45.5kph vs 38.4kph).

Place out of everyone on the day: 103 of 368

Place out of all Masters riders:  32 of  120

Stage 3

I have a gallery of some photos from the weekend on Flickr.  Check them out here.  and here.