Orwell League R3

seamus

First proper race for me (TTs don't count), very interesting! Hammering wind and then hailstones as I was going around the track warming up, nice way to start.

Cornering on sharp turns has never been a strong point. On public roads my driving self-preservation instinct kicks in and I can never take them hard or fast. Wet even worse. So warming up I was taking the wet corners at 35km/h+ (the ones with the tailwind anyway) and pretty delighted with myself. Maybe I actually can corner after all.

The semi-limit guys head off, half a lap ahead. Then we head off, and I stumble at the first hurdle - clipping in. Rookie. 20m gone and I'm already chasing from the back. I claw my way back past three people. There's a more experienced guy setting the pace for the first lap, I think he's scratch or semi-scratch. We hit the first corner at 42km/h. It turns out that no, I can't corner. I get spit out the back again as I'm passed on both sides. And I'm at the back, chasing. Again.

The pacer drops off after the first lap and the pace eases up, but it's still pretty high. I'm losing ground on the corners, but picking it up again on the straight. The slight uphill drag at the end of each lap in particular, everyone seems to ease off, I use it to claw back ground. After 3 laps, the field starts breaking up. The pace is easing further, but the guys in front of me just don't have the stamina and I breeze past them, 4 of them over the course of the next lap. At least I'm not at the back any more.

But now I've got a problem. There's a 20m gap between me and the main limit bunch and a bitch of headwind. Screw it; there's no point in only putting in half an effort. I fire all the cylinders and put the head down. I'm pedalling through the corners now, no holding back, and loving it. Two laps later I'm back on the bunch and everyone seems a bit screwed as we pass the halfway point, taking it easy down the main straight even with the tailwind. The semi-limit bunch are about a quarter of a lap ahead. I take a lap at the back to get my HR down and energy back.

We hit the straight again, people are holding back again, I'm feeling energetic, so I take the shot, I jump up the group and overtake about 12 riders to slip into fourth place. It doesn't last long, I get chased down and overtaken on both sides through the corners. I just don't have the aggressiveness to hold my place through the corners, I keep yielding in case I hit someone. But it's OK. There's been more fragmenting. I'm at the back, but at the back of the lead group of 8/10 riders. And the SL group are no more than 100m ahead.

We catch them at the end of the next lap, and it's a bit chaotic for half a lap with bikes everywhere. But we emerge eventually out the front, mostly the same group of riders I've been with for the last couple of laps, but with one or two SL guys who've latched on. I count ten of us. I'm at the back, of course, and we're quite stretched out. But there's no-one close behind me and I'm not in fear of losing the group. Not too shabby.

The signal for the last lap goes and the hammer goes down, much stronger than I expected. I'm holding on, but I can't make up any ground at all. We make the last turn, uphill and the pace drops... Really?! I give it everything and jump into ninth, then take a photo finish joint eighth (or maybe ninth), no more than 3 seconds behind the winner.

But hey, no points for eighth, so who's counting?
Still, I'll take that for my first race. I need a lot more work on holding my line through corners and not yielding it to the guy pushing past on my inside line. Let him worry about himself. I think I gained more confidence cornering in 20 minutes of racing than I have in the last 20 months of riding.

Briando

Pace was quiet slow, i think about 34km/h on average. Was hoping somebody would attack so I could join them.

Well written by the way Seamus.

buffalo

Good account Seamus, ninth is a happy result for a debut! Potential for things to be different next week with the upgrades made.

Beasty

buffalo wrote: »

Good account Seamus, ninth is a happy result for a debut! Potential for things to be different next week with the upgrades made.

You're going to upgrade him for getting 9th in his first race :eek:

You're not messing about in that new league of yours buffalo:D

buffalo

Beasty wrote: »

You're going to upgrade him for getting 9th in his first race :eek:

You're not messing about in that new league of yours buffalo:D

I reckon he's one of those former superstars sandbagging.

seamus

The plan now is to retire for the next ten races till everyone else gets an upgrade, then do some sandbagging...

To be fair, the Limit group is/was very strong, probably the amount of new people joining the league because it's smaller or they're new to the club, or whatever, not necessarily because they're new to racing. The upgrades should definitely see more of a rebalancing of the SL/L groups and more crucially opens up more points for me for the few races I'll make it to

Chips Lovell

I thought you did pretty well Seamus for your first outing. I was keeping an eye on you and saw you dangling off the back a bit, but you got yourself back into the group and looked like you'd settled quite well into it by the latter half the race.

EDIT: Oh and at one point I was just about to shout "G'wan Seamus" before I remembered it wasn't your real name. I keep doing that.

Dowee

The SL / L race was a farce last night. SL pace was pedestrian from the start. 3 lads went off the front immediately and i naively assumed the group pace would pick up. After a lap it was clear that wasn't going to happen so i left the group to chase them. Ended up way ahead of pack but couldn't catch the 3 ahead (the wind didn't help) so spent the race in no mans land. Lapped a few riders and just tried to enjoy the session.

SL being caught by L quite early in the race is a bit ridiculous. Heard afterwards the SL riders who were with the front of the L group caused a fair bit of congestion which affected the L riders going for places. They should really have dropped out on the last lap as their race is over at that point.

MediaMan

Great write up seamus!

This was my first race also. Managed to stay with the L pack for about 2 laps and then fell behind, with a couple of others. Concentrated on getting around the remaining laps as best possible, and dropped out out at the last lap to get out of the way.

Really enjoyed it and now need to focus on getting fit enough to stay with the group longer!

Chips Lovell

Dowee wrote: »

Heard afterwards the SL riders who were with the front of the L group caused a fair bit of congestion which affected the L riders going for places. They should really have dropped out on the last lap as their race is over at that point.

Yep, this is something we need to stress to people. We were shouting at riders to let the groups lapping them go by without tagging on, but it didn't get through to some. If you're lapped you shouldn't be in with a group, especially not on the last lap as it just interferes with the race.

ROK ON

Nice write up Seamus. It's great fun isn't it.
Also well done to Frank Grimes on upgrade.
Couldn't make it out last night as I was simply shattered and recovering from chest infection (picked up at last weeks crit I think).

I think something needs to be done about people using real names as monikers when their actual names are bare no resemblance to the moniker.

Chips Lovell

There was a chap a while back in After Hours who seemed to think that Vladimir Kurtains was actually my real name. He was trying to make a point along the lines of because I wasn't Irish, my opinion on something didn't count.

Rofo

Rode out to the track last evening and thought I was well warmed up, but when the semi-scratch group went off, I went out the back after one lap. Kept going at threshold but the legs felt hollow. I've had a chest infection for a couple of weeks, so it might be that but I suspect I've just not been training hard enough lately! Need to do more threshold work..

FrankGrimes

Well done Seamus, 8th in your first ever race ain't to be sniffed at, well done, sounds like you're enjoying the racing as much as I am too. Tis great craic. There's some great pics here.

5th for me, which given how wrecked and under-fuelled I was, I'm happy with. Crazy day with visitors for a workshop in work, so much so I didn't even get lunch so I had this feeling of hunger throughout, and the back was stiff from coming down awkwardly from a header in Tuesday's football match for the boards.ie team.

So I thought I was just feeling sluggish and that it was actually much slower race than last week, but it was only 0.5km/h slower, so it was a good pace, though my heart-rate was much higher than last week.

Sat at the back for a while, then used the finishing straight to move up to where I wanted to be every so often. All was going to plan but then we caught the main Semi-Limit group and I think they may not have been aware that they were lapped as instead of letting us go through, they jumped in front of us and started racing us.

The commissairre did all he can do by shouting for lapped riders to pull in and any lone lapped riders did so, but he had no way of knowing who the lapped Semi-Limit riders in the front bunch were. Pity they didn't realise they were wrongly affecting the race. Someone mentioned here last week that different coloured bibs for the different groups would be a good idea, think it might be worth a go.

I thought it was next lap after 20mins would be the final lap, and was at the back of the front group, planning to make a move to the front on the 2nd last lap. But I was wrong and it turned out the final lap sign was shown. I took the outside line on the first corner at the top of the finishing straight, but a guy took a racing driver line from outside, to almost clipping the apex, to almost running off the other side of the track on exit - I was on that wider line and had to jam the brakes to not get side-swiped. That put me 15-20 yards down on the bunch which contained several Semi-Limit riders so it was a helluva job to get through that traffic in one lap so I thought a place was a goner but was well happy to catch 4th and 5th and have a bit of a gallop. Made good initial ground on them but had this sick feeling in the stomach so just couldn't get out of the saddle and my sprint peaked at <70% of my max power so I had a poor sprint again unfortunately.

But it's all in a day's racing and you live and learn from every race and getting in the mix is what it's all about, so mission accomplished on that front. Gotta up the game from the gun next week given the upgrade - we'll need to find another gear in Semi-Limit to have a chance of closing the handicap gap, but sure that's what it's all about!

Briando

FrankGrimes wrote: »

Made good initial ground on them but had this sick feeling in the stomach so just couldn't get out of the saddle and my sprint peaked at <70% of my max power so I had a poor sprint again unfortunately.

I was in 6th spot coming onto the final straight and you went past me like a train. I'd say you are sprinting ok.

luapenak

Briando wrote: »

Pace was quiet slow, i think about 34km/h on average. Was hoping somebody would attack so I could join them.

Were you up asking me if I wanted to go on the attack after a couple of laps?
Decided to aim to catch the semi-limit guys, so focused my efforts on upping the pace from time to time to make sure this happened rather than any big attacks.

Glad to see that going hard through the corners at the start of the race was putting some people under pressure OP, that was definitely the plan.

Briando

luapenak wrote: »

Were you up asking me if I wanted to go on the attack after a couple of laps?
Decided to aim to catch the semi-limit guys, so focused my efforts on upping the pace from time to time to make sure this happened rather than any big attacks.

Glad to see that going hard through the corners at the start of the race was putting some people under pressure OP, that was definitely the plan.

Yeah I was trying to get a few people to attack with me. Next time I guess I'll go it alone. I wont be towing anybody to the final lap again.