Action - pictures !

[JamieL]

Starting a 3-day stage race today but persuaded to do a 10-mile TT last night. Felt good so pushed on a bit in the second half to get 19'53. First time under so pretty happy.





Photos from Mark Newnham

[motormouth]

#pro

[JamieL]

5-day Ras Cymru

First stage TTT, lost a rider when a narrow bridge combined with a child on a horse meant he left a gap. Otherwise we worked reasonably well.


Cruised the second stage, except for a couple of sprints for the KOM points. #79 and no points for style but i got there by the line


Sitting on in the third stage - think i'm asking the photographer if i have any team mates left in the race...


Won an interesting stage 4 TT - road bikes only, flat for 5.5km then 1.5km at 8%. Just tucked up on the flat and gunned the hill. Arrived super late to the start so the commissar didn't have time to complain about me not doing it in the polka-dot jersey.


Missed an 8-man break on stage 5. Realised with 25km to go that no-one was going to chase - both me and the yellow jersey had no teammates left in our group. Gunned it on the front and reduced the gap by 90s


Paid for it on stage 6 with a 6km @ 7% climb after 120km of hills. Went pop but kept the jersey. Felt like i deserved my beer - managed to recruit some helpers too with the offer of warm Carlsberg at the end

[nathanong87]

cliffs notes race report:

hilly (rolling) terrain course, 50 miles 5000ft elevation gain. 4x15mile laps
course shown here


start of the 3rd of 4th lap , me and a few others bridge up to a group of 3 who had been out , nearly from the beginning. We swell to about 12 people, from 12 different teams. As we approached the last lap, we had dislodged about 5 of the breakaway members, 2 of whom were from big(ger) teams represented, so that gave us a good one lap 'blocking' cushion. Start of the last lap which is ~30minutes each, we had roughly a 1 minute gap to the main pack. At the point of looking back....we had just crested the finishing hill...and the pack was just entering the bottom. Scary stuff.

the loook..... (or we saw a pretty girl. i dunno)


tried to keep everyone motivated to work. Some were cooked, i was getting cooked, 1 dude was sandbagging like crazy .... he was out in the break all day, but he eventually tried to lead out the sprint. (guy eventually got 3rd behind me)

about 5km to go, i was pretty screwed. My quads, hamstrings, and calves were about to freeze at any moment. I missed a few turns trying to drink water and grab a magical gel, but it was probably too late. Upon the last kick up with about 1km to go, legs were burning, and my mind was just betting on what would give out first.... lungs or legs. My sprint up hill felt so slow, like an eternity, and i passed the guy who had led out the sprint to make it 2nd on the day. The guy who is shown winning was very strong (one of the original break members) and i was about that distance behind him from 300m to the finish. It was radical to bridge up to the break , i had been 0-2 in bridging this season, and then having the break stick to the end. I pretended like i was in a real deal bike race with tactics hah =). Stoked for the podium because of the suffering that occurred to get there. Immediately after crossing the line, my legs locked up and it was the most painful cool down



jelly and nutella sandwhich with ice cold coke was SO CLUTCH post race doe.

[worstshotever]

Congrats, Nate -- you're en fuego this season!

[plpete]

Nice job Nate! I think I saw your pack going by at the race. Not an easy course, especially when the temperatures are up. My first year racing and it was hard to believe that about 60% of my noob5 (cat5) field was pulled out of the race because they were so far behind. I finished a lowly 17th but glad to have stayed in the race.

[nathanong87]

Congrats, Nate -- you're en fuego this season!

haha thanks. Trying* to mix it up when i can!

Nice job Nate! I think I saw your pack going by at the race. Not an easy course, especially when the temperatures are up. My first year racing and it was hard to believe that about 60% of my noob5 (cat5) field was pulled out of the race because they were so far behind. I finished a lowly 17th but glad to have stayed in the race.

cheers man, keep it up! GDC is one of my favorite courses in our area. TOUGH for sure. I think it's my nutrition.... and my legs.... but i haven't figured out how not-to-cramp in 3 iterations of this race. There is always next year!

[KWalker]

Nathan also isn't telling everyone that that race is typically on the hottest day of the summer no matter what. The first year I did it around 30 people cramped out of the cat 3 field. I pedaled with 1 leg for almost 3 miles back to the car after my hamstring locked up. Plus the course is about 400 hill repeats per lap, it wears on yah. Definitely miss that race.

[plpete]

Not that it's a big difference but the time of the race is one reason why I look forward to cat-ing up. I raced at 1:30pm in the middle of that heat. Ouch! The humid did not help either. I've had some experience in riding in very hot weather and at least for me, being properly hydrated before the race (make sure your pee is clear) and making sure your drink bidons have loads of potassium/salts always does the trick. Rode the race in the red for majority of the time and luckily no cramps. And as Karsten pointed out, it's a hill repeat galore

[CulBaire]

Picture from the latest Vic Enduro Series 6hr at Blores Hill.




I didn't finish as well as I had hoped coming in 17th of 40odd in Solo Open, but given the limited time I've had on the bike since the birth of my son in March it's probably not too bad an effort. The time gap between 12th and 17th (me) was all of 12 minutes, should have pedalled harder

[Stoo]

Couple from the local club 10.
21:48. Quite windy.

Happy with that.

[nathanong87]

finished my cat3 season with a road racing championship win! 75 mile race was the longest of the year for me!




now time for vacation and cyclocross lols

[Dalai]

Great results everyone. Awesome win nathanong87!

[jsprbcn]

[cmdr199212]

Nathan, I did that race as a junior a few years back, it was awesome! Fantastic course, and great win btw!