Well, well well. Are we poised to have another cliff hanger where that cunning old bastard, Commuter, tries to outfox Mr Steven (Sorry of you are a "ph" and not a "v", but if you are a “ph” your parents got it wrong :-)) Brown and The Tolf in the quest for the C grade championship. Next event, from memory, is the ITT.
Is Commuter perhaps worried that others might best him in the ITT? I know have in previous years in the KOCC B grade championship (hasn't the standard of local cycling improved in recent years!!!), although to be fair to “me old mate Commuter” he was very ill and unfit, and at that time I was neither (well, I did have a stuffed back).
I wondered whether the quote from Brad Wiggins (who might well cringe when the Newcastle Herald claims as "our Brad" due to his now deceased father having lived in the Hunter) extracted in the Giro Topic might be adapted for Commuter:
“The Wallsend born and bred local elected to throw caution to the wind in a bid to secure his first C grade Championship of the new millennium. He described his 16th placed time in C grade as follows:
"It was frustrating during the day because it [the well known Kooragang wind] was on, off, on, off. Since I have been in C grade I have, like all C graders, lost the ability to know where the wind might be coming from. But to be honest it looked like everyone in C grade had a similar run - slow" he said.
"I couldn't control the bike in the corners – especially the corner named after me - so I just put my fears to one side and said 'It is what it is,' and I'd just get on with it. If I crashed, I crashed. Metro Commuter and Sneddon seem to crash, so why do I get bagged when I have one of my infrequent crashes??
I never touched the brakes. I said “bollocks to it”. This is my opportunity to get the coveted Rees Pritchard Champions jersey, and I'm going to go for it and if I have to, die trying. Yes, I was prepared to die to get a championship jersey, because Gai M and Darren Smith each have one, Metro Commuter and I do not, and let’s face it, who would not want to be a winner rather than a Loser Metro Commuter, to quote Ferret’s mate Erik.
"I went for it. I've been preparing pretty well for this, so I knew what I could do. Speed in the corners is one of the biggest thing with ITT like this. You have to commit. You can't mess about. You've got to give 100 percent in the corners, and 55% on the straights, especially on a technical course like Paradise Hills. If you want to win it, you've got to commit 100 percent, like a sprinter when they go for a sprint, so I am told”.
"It was frustrating during the day because it [the powerrain] was on, off, on, off. But to be honest it looked like everyone had a similar run," he said. "I couldn't control that so I just put it to one side and said 'It is what it is,' and I'd just get on with it. If I crashed, I crashed. I never touched the brakes. I said bollocks to it. This is my opportunity to get the pink jersey and I'm going to go for it and die trying.
"I went for it. I've been preparing pretty well for this, so I knew what I could do. Speed in the corners is one of the biggest thing with prologues like this. You have to commit. You can't mess about. You've got to give 100 percent in the corners. If you want to win it, you've got to commit 100 percent, like a sprinter when they go for a sprint.