Swords League - 04/08/10 - Corduff Circuit

Boardsies 1st and 2nd:D

Not me I might add - I certainly did the boards jersey a major disservice tonight

Winner was, I believe, Dave11 (again - that appendix operation seems to have done you a world of good Dave) with RobFowl second. Well done guys - the 5th Group 1 victory this season:rolleyes:

Nice to meet Mr Skeffington before the race - he wasn't taking part, just out for a spin, and spotted my jersey:)

This week overall numbers seemed down a bit, probably as a result of holidays. Group 1 was still relatively large, and were given a 7 minute start this week:eek:. We had only 3 minutes over Group 3, and I suspected it was going to be hard for us.

We got off to a brisk start. I knew there was a large pothole after around 5km, but by the time we got to it I was right at the back, and didn't have much warning, and ended up going straight through the middle of it. How I avoided puncturing or buckling the front wheel I have no idea. I suspect going through the middle was the better option, as hitting it at the edge may have thrown me sideways. This shook me up a bit and I became detached from the group, and it took me a minute or so to get back on.

We got to main road, and started suffering a from the wind. I was completely lacking in motivation, and after a while eased off the back. I guess the weekend and yesterday's efforts were taking their toll. I kept going and was nearly blown over when going over the M1 flyover. Group 3 caught me on the hill. Further up I caught abc_xyz who was also suffering, and we rode together back to our cars.

I then went to the finish and took some photos of the finish - I'll post a couple of them later, and put the stats in the training log. The one thing that did surprise me was that my power output over 34 minutes or so was 267w, which is only a couple of watts off my best.

Our winner about to cross the line:



RobFowl holding off a late challenge to take 2nd:

chakattack wrote: »

Please correct me if I'm speaking out of turn or just showing my inexperience but with a 7 min lead I knew from the start that we wouldn't catch group 1.

First time we did that course this season Group 1 had about 6 minutes start and we caught them before the end of the first lap. Tonight they were, according to Joe, lapping 4 minutes slower than last time on this course (which I didn't take part in). First time we averaged 39kph for the first 5km, tonight it was 44kph - the wind made that much difference.

The major difference now is Group 1 is clearly much stronger - they were still a minute or so ahead at the end - I guess if they had stuck with 6 minutes all the groups may have come together. As it was, only a couple of minutes covered the five groups - you do have to hand it to Group 1 - they have really got their act together and appear to be working remarkably well.

One day we'll get our chance ....

sy wrote: »

I thought it was an uphill finish . Impressive if so

Yep - it's about a 1% incline for 50m or so!

They used the finish over the M1 flyover, which is pretty flat until you get to the the start of the flyover itself, then the incline is quite modest.

Sunday's Swords Grand Prix will finish on the big hill though:D

chakattack wrote: »

I'm still new to racing but I found it frustrating in group 2, apart from on the hill I think everyone was able to push a bit harder and was willing to work but we kept easing back. I know it's best to not to overshoot the mark when it's your turn to come up and over to keep the group turning over efficiently but if someone does, can't the person behind just accelerate a little to get on their wheel and keep the pace up?

Especially when we had a tailwind I felt like the group could have gone faster and if people can't keep up so be it? It is a race after all?

I'm a racing novice also, but my understanding is that in the CP format it's better to keep the group as big as possible so long as everyone is contributing to the work. If they still have the power and speed (even if a bit slower than others) they should help keep the overall pace up, and on a course like that one we used last night ideally you need to keep it together until the second time up the Nags Head, and certainly until the slower group(s) are caught (unless you can get across and then work with them)

If someone is just hanging off the back, and not contributing, it's fair game to try and drop them in my view.

I suspect this is why Group 1 is doing so well - most of them were still there or thereabouts at the finish, and as one or two posters have already stated, they seem to be working very well together - benefiting from the "sum of the parts".

I actually think Group 2 are also working very well together at present - everyone took their turns while I was with them last night, and again they still seemed to be reasonably well joined up at the end - the handicap was just too much for them (as it was for the other Groups also)

I would add that in my own case last night, there would have been little point in trying to keep me with the Group - I may have been able to do another couple of turns, but would then have been hanging off the back, and completely dropped on the hill.

I think anything I had left mentally was shaken out of me by that pothole (although the power stats do indicate I still had something left physically when I did drop off the back).

Tactics in a DMS or open race would, of course, be completely different - that would more likely be "cat and mouse" rather than the pure speed of a CP.