Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Track Tuesdays...

Only Duggan racing tonight at DISC as D'alfonso had drawn marshalling duties and spent the night pressing the button on the lap counter.

Still crook but super cooped-up, I had to race last night. About 500g of sugar and about that again in caffeine before the race had me feeling ok.

Managed to win the scratch race after being on the front and involved in attacks which was satisfying. Coughed up my lung mid-sprint during the points race calling out to someone trying to drop back into the sprinters lane from the top of the track and proceeded to ride the next corner one hand, coughing phlegm into my other glove. Needless to say I pulled out of the remaining sprint. Rode motorpace with aspirations of finishing but felt good enough to get fourth.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Tour De Prom

What a glorious weekend for hard person riding. Four members of TDR headed out to Wilsons promontory to do a spot of riding over the weekend (Palfensa, Justin, Matt and Sarah). Kudos to the Luna riders for organising the event and note to all reading this post, generally, when a ride passes a wind farm that is a good indication that you will encounter strong winds.

The day started ominously, heavy rain all night and by 8:00 am there were no signs of it passing, luckily by 9:00 the winds had cleared the clouds away leaving only a wet road, this also left no chance for Palfensa to reveal his true marshmellow nature. We set off and while, apparently 90km wind gusts are too much for the windsurfers, it was not so for TDR and the Luna riders. 110 kms of pure hard person riding!

Highlights of the ride:
1) Riding 75 degrees to the road to keep upright due to the crosswinds and
2) Feeling like your head was about to be cut off by the massive wind turbine blades.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

The forecast...

Not sure I can take any more of this... Need to get out on the weekend!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Track Tuesdays...

Only Duggan down at DISC last night. Banged up after a return to indoor soccer the previous night. Extremely sore hamstrings and multiple blood blisters on the feet. Toxic Avenger.

Big night down at DISC. Big fields in every grade. ~15 in C grade. Pipped for 1st in Scratch by 5 cm after attacking with 3.5 laps to go. 3rd place finished a way back behind 1st and myself. Don't know why I keep attacking like that.

My first 14 lap progressive points race saw me head into it with aspirations to attack on lap 10 to clean up as many as I could from there. Race panned out with me covering mid-race attacks and cherry picking laps by sitting on. Fast guys attacked at lap 10 and I had done too much work to go with them. Still managed to scrape in for 3rd.

Motorpace was long at 35 laps. Lots of tired legs meant an springy line behind the bike. Hard work. Poor choice of wheel too with a slight bloke not giving me much shelter. Felt ok but no top end at the finish. finished 5th or so.

A blast as usual.


  

Monday, February 14, 2011

Nice ride. Pity about the suffering...

TDR weekend training ride. 30 km/h sou-westerly tailwind on the way out. Only to be faced as a headwind through the flats of the badlands along Wildwood Road on the way home after 90km and 1050m of climbing. Good route. Will do it again.



Friday, February 11, 2011

Glory!

D'alfonso getting the win easy at the Tear Drop on Wednesday night. Well done mate. Possibly shouldn't have ridden the last 4 laps on the front as well. Bumped to B-grade.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Track Tuesdays

Scratch/Points/Motorpace

D'alfonso and Duggan in B and C grade respectively. Aggressive riding all night across the grades with lots of attacks. Both TDR riders rode hard and aggressively on numerous solo breakaway attempts to snatch wins from 4/5 laps to go. Only personal glory for compensation. 

Well done to D'alfonso for holding on for a 3rd after attacking with 47 km to go in the Scratch. Similarly, Duggan got rolled by the lead group with 30m to go in the scratch and managed to take 4 points in the Points race and miss out on placing (somehow?).

Looking forward to seeing Andi smashing E grade up soon!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Gravel Grinding

With the weather outlook grim, the TDR crew are looking at getting on board with the inaugural  ride of the Melbourne Gravel Grinders. Time to bust out the daggy gear and the CX bike!

Hurstbridge loop.

For those of you who don't have a 'genuine' gravel grinding bike in the quiver, here's some motivation:

WANT



Thursday, February 3, 2011

TTT


















TDR entering a 4 man team time trial in two weeks. 10 km in under 13 minutes hopefully.
Might have to give ol' mate Fabian a call to see if he's free.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Track Tuesdays

Only half the TDR track complement tonight. Big fields meant D'alfonso once again got shunted to B grade. Will he hold his own again? Lets find out:

"It was really busy so C grade had 12 - 14 riders and there was an E grade with 6 riders! I raced in B, with about 12 riders, and got absolutely smashed in the scratch, managed to hold on to the first bunch of 4 riders, came 5th but I was spinning out. The fastest I have seen it, crazy tactics and the rider skills, riders slam right in on you if you leave half a wheel!

The second race was a progressive points race with one point per lap with the final lap worth 5 points (5-4-3-2-1). Attacks like all hell, I didnt have the gearing so I was stuck up the back for the first half. Just as I managed to get to the 5th wheel, the 2nd rider comes down, and the race is called off. Changed my tactics for the last 24 lap points race.... attack!


Sprints at 16, 8 and 0 with about 20 laps to go, I was 2nd wheel, as I roll off, I hang high on the hip for half a lap until on the next turn, still up high, I slam it down the hill and attack, flew past the bunch to yells of "up up" but I was away, gained a quarter of a lap lead and managed to hold them off taking the first sprint, totally buggered, I then slowed, the leaders flew past me but managed to catch onto a group of 3 that dragged me up to the leaders again. Rested, I attacked again with 10 laps to go, and again, they were caught sleeping, so I got a break and managed to take the next sprint. At this point, im stuffed, my gearing is waaaaaay to low im moving to 90", 86" is just too low. So I spent the next 8 laps riding solo with the bunch is half a lap in front trying not to get lapped by the remaining 6 riders.
Awesome though. Won the points race with a score of 10 second was 7 and third was 6."

Well done Palfensa. Well done.

Quick snap of Palfensa trying to intimidate B grade last night pre-race.