The " rabbit on about non-cycling stuff kind of related to Fri night track

[dr_rob]

2ndwheel - the difference is that I need that Mavic/SRM equipped Look bike - the alloy dropouts on my Felt are just not up to scratch. It's an essential upgrade.

I have looked out the garage door this afternoon with a mix of denial, anger, fear, bargaining and now, sadly, acceptance that the weather has foiled any riding plans.

I won't be there next week either thanks to a run of afternoon shifts.

[Robbo]

Yep, unfortunately the velo is extremely wet and as a result now extremely CLOSED for the night.

Hopefully next week will be dry and we can get it back on track so to speak.

[Gai M]

Now that I have packed the car, driven to Neath, unpacked the car and before I mount the ergo, I will take a few minutes to reply to some comments.


dr-rob:

I always look forward to competing against my age group, but there are few women of my vintage.  How do you think I scored a rainbow shirt?  Few older women road race, even fewer do track and even less dare to sprint.  I am not quite the oldest woman trackie in NSW but am probably the slowest- despite my efforts, not just in races but training too. 
It was a great experience at DISC in Melbourne in the recent Aust Masters Track Champs, to see the efforts made to ensure my participation was appreciated.  The officials were willing to "bend the rules" and not pull me out if I got lapped in the scratch race.  Fortunately, I was only 50 metres behind the others at the finish.  Being lapped competing against W50+ or W45+ occurs too frequently for my liking.  Being lapped isn't the real problem, it is the fact that you have to pull out of the race completely.  This national scratch race comprised only one W65+, one W60+ and two of us W55+.  Only two of us contested the sprint the following day, against W50, W45 and W40.  Needless to say, we didn't get past the Flying 200,s

As for your struggling at training.  If I am not mistaken, were you seen recently  riding round the velodrome with a disc wheel?  And who was it who kept accelerating in the warm-up every time he was on the front last Tuesday.

Equipment:  When I picked Brian Radcliffe's track bike last year, I could not believe how much lighter it was than mine.  He is in the same age category as I am.

 And as far as I understand, the most important thing to invest in is rotating mass if one has any spare spending money.

Unfortunately, I generally have to compete in inappropriate age-groups because of the lack of women who will compete.  So last year I was outclassed on Wednesday nights, the Christmas carnival in Sydney, The CD champs- had to attempt to race two scratch races against elite men- and the NSW Masters champs where there are some world class W50 and W45.

And of course, I am not getting any younger at Broadmeadow.



Robbo:

I was quite satisfied with the last few training sessions in that  I was not pitched against riders well beyond my abilities. 

As for DB's training comments.  I clearly remember the quotes you cited.  Jack, of course, had it coming to him because he persisted in doing his own thing.  But DB actually liked him.  You probably didn't hear DB give me a lot of encouragement.  But he knew more than anyone else how much effort I put into training/racing.  He would from time to time quietly let me know that I had done well that night.  And when championships were looming , he would be quite enthusiastic getting me to do  numerous standing starts etc. 

As for financial contributions, I don't think anyone comes to training more frequently than I do, unless they have private sessions.  Of course those with multiple participants per family  will have paid more.  Or anyone wealthy enough to make donations.   

The comment about money was just an afterthought.  No big deal as long as I am not overlooked at training.

[hilljockey]

Now that I have packed the car, driven to Neath, unpacked the car

So there's a bunch of stuff on the roadside at Neath?

[Robbo]

Gai,

re read my post, it said 'just jokes'. We all know Dennis gave you encouragement, he did the same for all his people.

With regard to the CD track championships, there were no Elite men in your category - they were all masters. If we didnt arrange the races like that, you would not have got to race. We are not like the World masters at CD as you point out. One of our differences is that we have a minimum number of riders required before we will give out medals. At our last CD track championships we made the decision to award some medals for masters in general as opposed to each category. If we didnt take this option there would have been nothing given out.

Rest assured, there are many reasons I will not put you up against Elite men in any race that I organise.

I would have stopped at the Neath pub for a beer, stuff 'mounting' the ergo.

[Gai M]

Now that I have packed the car, driven to Neath, unpacked the car

So there's a bunch of stuff on the roadside at Neath?

hilljockey,

Don't bother coming out to Neath to retrieve any bike bling

(if you call entry level equipment "bling")

On receiving a phone call from a trusty informant, I executed a U -turn and travelled westwards.
I didn't bother to open any windows or doors.

If you find anything on the side of the road there, it would probably be some tosser's KFC or Macca's leftovers.

[Gai M]

Robbo,

I didn't say that I was in the same category as the elite men, but that we had TWO scratch races against/with them.
On examining the results page in the CD website, there is only one master with any points for the scratch race. (Michael)
I clearly remember that ALL the older riders - older than Michael P, were out of the two races before the halfway mark as we were about to be lapped by Ryan Paul, Jai Waldron, Rob Bishop and Peter Murray.

To have happened the first time was disappointing but understandable from a logistics point of view, but to have to do another scratch race later against the same riders of course led to a similar result and was very demoralising.

 I could may be understand the medals' allocation, but I didn't even score a verbal acknowledgement.  If I had been a female in the rent-a -crowd, this would not have encouraged me to consider trying track.


I don't want to be continually argumentative, but I couldn't let the comment about the elites go unanswered.


I do appreciate the work you do keeping the velodrome operating despite the loss of some significant helpers.

[Boostland]

Gai in regards to those scratch races, I kept the pace at a reasonable level for as long as I could so that most of the riders could stay in for more of the race, once riders started swinging up from 2nd wheel and other shenanigans I decided the safest place to be was off the front, when mixing riders of different abilities things can get rather dangerous and the last thing I wanted to see or be involved in was a crash.

Also with me not being a fast sprinter my tactic is to go fast and make the sprint be one of endurance rather than explosive speed, also I was under the impression that first scratch race was the one for the points, if I had of known it was just a fill in race I might have rode it a bit differently.

[Gai M]

Bootsie,

I have no problem how you raced the scratch race in the CD Champs. 

Also, I didn't know until now that the first race was not for points.


What I didn't like was being pitched against elite men especially the second time when it was obvious that all the masters competitors apart from you were just about guaranteed to have to drop out before halfway, just like what happened in the first race.

How many minutes would it have taken to run a 15 lap masters only race?  You would have still won it, you would have raced it at a pace that suited the rest of us and the rest of us could have fougnt it out for the minor points.

A five kilometre senior womens race on a 250m track takes about 7-8 minutes.  A 15 lap race on a 200m track is only 3km so this should have added less than 5 minutes to the program.

[Daddy Walrus]

Gai,
Now you know how Dr Who feels. Only one of your kind left.
But I don't hear him going on about it. You need to find yourself a young good looking companion of the opposite sex and get into some exciting adventures saving the world.

[Robbo]

Gai,

you are going pretty well for someone who doesnt want to complain. Talk to me next time you see me the velodrome, you really dont want to read on a public forum what I have to say to you right now.

[Metro Commuter]

I quickly read the last two posts together, and wondered, but then thought Robbo ain't all that young or good lookin'

[Robbo]

I quickly read the last two posts together, and wondered, but then thought Robbo ain't all that young or good lookin'

Bugger! so have I been misreading those funny glances you have been sending my way at the races Metro?

[Metro Commuter]

I was looking sideways because I had never seen you last that long in any race - I had to keep pinching myself to be sure that it was all real.  A surreal weekend - you finishing, Chai Lord winning after having been in at least one serious attack, A grade clapping each other after the Vets race saying what a nice race it was, and Milf finishing somewhere other than 3rd.  A strange strange day.

What was not strange was the number of people "sitting on" in C grade, again.  I was told B grade was the same.  I reckon we need more aggressive attacks in C grade - people prepared to take a chance and let it all hang on a serious attack.  Paul Hines always has a go, as did that guy who had Omega gear on riding the Jamis.  Lee K also tried to shake it up a little, which was good.   

[2ndwheel]

Metro

Sitting on is such an unfortunate turn of phrase. a few alternatives.

- I was riding to my strengths
- I was riding to my weaknesses
- I tried to do a turn but couldn't get to front before the 40Km mark
- I don’t want to ruin my sprint finish
- I feel intimidated by those who attack all the time
- I was taking a long time to read the race ( you can only do that when you can see everyone in front of you)
- I wasn't invited to do a turn
- I am a follower not a leader

On another note, i didn't see anyone not putting in on Sunday, but then again i was home before you would have done 3 Laps. i am avoiding getting bored by the number of laps at the Gang, or another DNF ( "c" grade is looking inviting.)

Disclaimer

Please note that the views expressed are not necessarily those of 2ndwheel.