The race was held at the newly sanctioned course at Bonville just south of Coffs. The 25km course uses a bypassed section of the Pacific Highway, so the road surface is mostly good, is wide, has slow lanes on some of the hills and has only a small amount of traffic. The course is quite hilly with very few flat sections. Here is the profile, although in reality there are a few more ups and downs than shown...

Today's race was 3 X 25km laps for B, C and D grade with 4 laps for A grade. C and D were to ride first with A and B to start after the C and D grade race was completed.

I was nervous as this was to be the longest race I had encountered in my just over 6 month racing career. I had ridden the same roads a number of times and was particularly fearful of the not very long but painful Perrys Hill. On this day we would be required to climb it on 3 occasions.

I had opted to start in D grade as there was no E or F grades!!! Many of the riders who would normally ride in C grade had dropped back to D grade, and with many visiting riders from Grafton, Armidale, Port Macquarie, Macksville and other areas, the pace was going to be much faster than I am used to.

After a week of warm sunny weather, Sunday morning arrived cloudy but dry, and not cold or windy…(that’s Coffs great weather). Nix and a short jersey without base layer would be all that was required to be comfortable. An early awakening to be sure I was prepared, saw me arrive at the marshalling area at 7:30am. A quick warm up and some pre race chit chat with a few of the other hopefuls filled in the minutes until the 8:00am start.

A few days previously I had purchased some very cool and hot at the same time, Zipp 58mm carbon fibre wheels and tubular tyres. I was hopeful that just the sight of the new wheels would psychologically shatter my competitors. After all, anything’s fair in love and cycling, and I would need all the assistance I could get. There, is that hot or what…ok, maybe I am just a tiny little bit biased… 

The starter gives his speech about the rules and regulations before C grade head off, and a few minutes later our grade is clicking and clacking pedals into cleats too. There are about 20 or so in our bunch as we head off on a slight downhill at a reasonable pace. We roll along with riders only taking a short turn at the front and then rolling off. This continues for about 15 kilometres until we arrive at the nastiest hill on the course. Now, I thought to myself, this will sort out the bunch. On the occasions I have climbed this hill previously, I have learnt that I cannot let others dictate how fast I will go. I know I just need to pace myself and keep below my blow up point, else I will pay the price up the road, with interest.

 As we reach the lower parts of the hill I am leading, and I pull to the right to settle into my own rhythm allowing the faster riders to pass. Quickly many of the riders slip ahead as they are keen to get the points for the KOM category available on the first two laps. After a good effort I arrive at the summit without losing any more positions. A short distance behind is a woman from Port Macquarie, and further behind are a few more women and a guy or two. The Port Macquarie woman and I make an effort to catch the riders ahead, but after 5 kilometres or so we realise that it isn’t going to happen. Two riders just can’t match the pace of 14 working together. So an unspoken alliance is established and we work together for the next 50kms. She is a little faster up some but not all of the hills, and I am much faster down the hills. I reach 67kph on a hill I would normally reach 63kph. I put this down to my new wheels and tubular tyres. What a bargain, that’s less than $1000 for each kilometre an hour improvement!!!

In the remainder of the race we don’t catch any other riders and none catch us, so I am already working out my strategy for the finish. It might seem silly considering we are so far out of the money, but that’s competition isn’t it? About 1.5km from the finish line I slow slightly up a rise and let my associate pass. Once again in the slip stream, I take a breather as we head downhill towards another rise I have used previously to make a break. Local knowledge has its advantages. I know how hard I can take this rise and still have enough energy left to make it to the line.

As we start the rise, I jump out of the saddle and hit the power button and am quickly 50 metres in front. I keep the pace up and am nearly at the top with legs starting to complain loudly. I have a good lead but now my legs have ceased to listen to the commands from my brain. Baaad legs, do as you are told. I insist, and manage to persuade the legs to keep spinning, albeit with not much enthusiasm or conviction. But now I am over the top and using my downhill speed advantage. My lead remains until we reach the bottom and hit a short flat before the finish line. I take a quick glance under my arm and the chaser is gaining, but I am too close to the line for her to catch me, and I cross it with about 25 metres to spare.

So no prize money, but all the satisfaction of competing and giving all you have to give. My longest event yet and I performed better than I had expected. My computer showed a distance of 71.5km, 31.1kph average and max of 67.3kph. I was pleased with that result considering we only had a bunch of two for 55km, and the hilly nature of the course. Not too bad for an old girl.

But no time to rest and bask in the warm glow of achievement, as I had to immediately put the flashing light on the car and do lead car duties for B grade.

I wonder what my next challenge will be…

Emma

Three riders represented Coffs for the weekend with Sean Golding, Aaron O'Grady and Dan Alcock making the journey to the centre of northern NSW cycling. Many thanks to Azza's mate Dan for the accommodation, finding us a room at the Gunnedah Hilton. Got a park right out the front, too. Click here to see the pics. I thought it was alright, reminded me of being at uni. Sean just laughed as he had booked a motel room in town. The Boss toughed it out for one night then retreated to Sean's hotel room floor. He might have come from Bello, but the Boss is getting soft. I bet he is feeling the creeping sensation of bugs in his hair as he reads this! ahhhhh.

Racing on Saturday was a handicap with Boss Dan off in Chopping Block, Aaron one group (3 minutes) further up the road and Sean's group off 20 minutes ahead of Scratch. The race is 111ks with rolling hills for the first hour and then flat, open roads for the remainder. The history of this race is that its one for the front markers, but it looked like that might change after about 50 minutes when the scratchies met up with Don's chopping block group and then swept up Legs O'Grady's bunch after another 20 minutes. I passed the group not long after in the Team Tarago. Although I was keeping an eye on the road I did note that the speedo was touching 70kpm, so I thought that they would have little trouble getting the front markers, especially as all groups were now out of the hills and onto the flat stages. 

Sean's group managed to swallow the group in front of them but with Sean found himself at the front without allies and they made little headway for the rest of the race. The Front markers got a sniff of the finish line and held out by a couple of minutes to Sean's group and Dan and Aaron's group a further 3 or 4 minutes back.

Sunday was a scratch race from outside the Hilton to Tamworth, with Aaron promoting himself to A grade to get the legs a decent look in and Sean dropping himself to Masters 8 for the same reason. A grade was off first and it didn't take long for the action to start. Several splits along the way had the Boss pushing to get on the bunch and Aaron looking back for B grade assistance. The couple of times that I saw Aaron on the road he was doing it tough but should improve with more racing. Dan showed his class by managing to stay with the bunch only losing touch with the top three in the last 5 ks. Dan put in a noble sprint for 6th for absolutely no reason what so ever, nice work Boss.

Sean's Masters 8 group stayed together all day, and Sean was looking good for the sprint but ran out of tickets in the last 50 meters and should also improve with more hard racing leading up to the Grafton.

Kudos to all three riders who rode hard in cool tough conditions.

Cheers
Matt Vagg

This is the terrible two who made the trip over to Inverell yesterday (Saturday) for a 70 km handicap, fine and sunny but very windy, cross wind out and back, Zino finished 23 and yours truly finished, (enough said) rain and very foggy over the range both going over and coming home.
Broke the exhaust on the Toyota going over but thanks to great country people had it repaired after the race, Robyn was driving so I blamed her for it braking.

Regards
Alan Miller

Riders: Nathan, Troy, Liam, Numa

Troy rode with the lead pack for most of the race but the weather conditions of continuous rain saw the track conditions hard going.
Nathan finished 8th in the sprint finish. There race conditions were only a wet wet track no rain to speak of.

Weather was wet, rain, rain and more rain and racing still went ahead.

Sunday’s weather was much better for the Southern Cross Open.

Road Race

• 13B - Troy 2nd
  
• 15B - Nathan 1st
  
• Liam punctured in the first lap and rolled out with 15A. He kept with the pack for the race and finished with the middle pack.
  
• Don’t know Numa’s results.
  

Crit Race

• 13B - Troy 2nd
  
• 15B - Nathan 1st
  

Don’t know Liam and Numa’s results – we headed for home before they rode.

Thanks
Tracee

Stage 1 - Terrible Time Trial

It also gives riders the chance to ride for their club rather than themselves, which tends to lift rider's intensity, and provides wins for the club rather than just the individual. Last weekends 'Battle of the Border' held over three days was no exception with stand out performances from Glenn O'Grady, Sean Golding and the Jahnz Horse. Kudos to tour virgin Reece Edwards for some solid novice riding against strong opposition.

Elite C and Masters B combined with U17 riders for the weekend, and these races had the strongest Coffs representation with Sean, Reece and myself.

The first stage was a rough 8km time trial that placed us all middle of the table. The second stage was a very hilly 76k's and we all held it together with the bunch. Unfortunately, the race winner was 4 minutes up the road with a couple of super fit U17's, so as we sat in the bunch, our grade was being decided. Sean lagged behind on the final climb, but worked back on just in time to move through a big bunch to place in the sprint. Reece was in the mix, but not that keen to squeeze though the gaps.

Stage three was made for the sprinters with 70K's completed at a average of 40kph. Sean showed class to take third in the sprint, with about 20 riders on the same time as the winner.

The last stage was a crit held around a tight 800m residential estate. the pace was electric from the start. A big field was strung out immediately and the Commissaries started pulling out the laggards almost immediately, Reece being on the wrong side of the officials whistle. Sean managed to stay with the leading bunch, whilst I held up the chasing group from about 4th wheel.

And then my weekend turned to sh%t - some Hamilton Pine Rivers @#$head on a two week y.o. Trek and Zipps failed to take a tight right turn, came down right in front of me. I can remember everything from the incident, and I just had no time or space to move. I went over the top of the Trek dude, tucked my head under and slammed my left shoulder and helmet into the bitumen. I slid for a meter or so, and the waited for the following riders to add to my woes, thankfully none did.

My next thought was to get off the road, and when I got up I knew I had issues with my shoulder, a quick finger check revealing a too sudden end to my clavicle. So I went and laid down by the road and watched as chaos rained down around us. The first Aid guy called an Ambulance and set to work on the guy I rode over who was a bit of a whinger, though he was passing in and out of consciousness, and had skin off every panel. Then Sean won our race, well done. Then Race organisers started the Elite BE race, and wouldn't let the Ambulance on the course when it arrived, then another Hamilton Pine Rivers rider on a new Trek;

1. slammed into a protruding gutter on the same tight right hand corner about a meter from where I was lying and
2. had his fall broken by the back of the first aid guys' stationwagon, then,
3. slid down the back of the stationwagon onto the towbar with ball! Bedlam.

The ambo's eventually just drove past race officials onto the course, and the race continued around them and us. Insane.

Didn't get to see the Horse or Chizz in their crits, but apparently the pace was hot for them too.

Thanks to team members esp. gog for his help and perspective. Massive thanks to Gretel & Sue who cooked and cleaned, and to Dave the team mechanic who was never far from the fridge and racked up some impressive sleep hours.

Matt Vagg

A warm, sunny day greeted us to start the weekend.  Saturday comprised of two road races, while Sunday started with a wet and cold 4.6km time trial.  The weather cleared to allow a dry but cool road race.

Coffs Harbour was represented by U13 Troy Hardaker U15 Nathan Hardaker, Carla Westwood  and Alex Beedie U17 Liam and Numa Warburton.

Nathan finished 6th in the first race followed by some strong racing to finish 1st in the next three events.  This gave him an overall 2nd place finish for the tour.  Missing out on the yellow jersey by around 30 seconds.

Carla crashed in the gravel on the first race but got back on the bike to finish the race and the weekend.  Alex riding an updated Scott bike rode well showing more confidence with the bike and restricted gears as the weekend progressed.

Numa finished 5th overall.

Tracee Hardaker

Canberra Tour riders plus their support crew

Results: 

• Vanessa McDonald - 14th A grade women (dropped chain 1st stage, lost time, had a red hot go otherwise)
• Jim Dolan - 8th D2 men (star is born)
• Adrien Thompson - 13th D2 men (only a few minutes behind the leaders each stage, that last hill)
• Nathan Chiswell -18th B men (finished with bunch each stage)
• Chris Jahnz - 50th C men (got a punchure 1st klm 1st stage lost heaps of time, had a great 2nd stage)
• Matt Vagg - DNF due to asthma & cold air on the Saturday

It was a picture perfect day in Armidale for the criterium event held last Sunday. Troy Hardaker was the first to fly the Coffs Harbour flag, as always he gave his best. It was the fastest novice event I have seen in my life, the juniors only know one speed and that is full gas.

Nathan Hardaker and Alex Beedie raced in the junior event. Nathan picked up fourth overall, he never gives in, closing gaps all day and putting in a massive sprint. Alex is only just getting back into cycling and found the going too tough with five minutes to go. The thought of pulling out never crossed his mind as he kept going until the end.

Jemma Werrell, Alan Miller, Dave Marshall, Vanessa & David McDonald were next up in C grade. The Armidale Club were well represented in this grade, one of their riders got a break within the first few laps. David McDonald worked to close the gap and then ran out of gas. Vanessa mixed it up all race and tried to get away however the bunch were very attentive. Dave Marshall was happy to finish with the bunch. The early pace resulted in Jemma & Alan dropping off however they kept going until the end.

The story of the day belonged to Matt Vagg who finished second in B grade and also picked up a prime. There were numerous attacks at the start of the race, one being from Matt Hoy which resulted in him winning a prime. After the first prime Matt Vagg put a small attack in, he was able to get 200 metres on the field in a very short period of time. A rider bridged up to Matt, the two of them were able to stay away for the whole race and enjoy the moment. Sean Golding, Matt Hoy and Glen O’Grady were working in the bunch to help Matt Vagg stay away and Matt Hoy picked up 3rd place. Well done to Coffs Club great team work.

The A & B plus race was an absolute smash up, Peter McDonald who is the current national road race champion was on the start line. It was full gas from the word go, Dan Alcock, Nathan Chiswell, Chris Jahnz and Aaron O’Grady all tried their best to hang on however with the very high speed of the race the field quickly broke up. Unfortunately for Chris he was caught up in a crash, his bars snapped in two so he had to pull out of the race. Chris walked away however he was very disappointed in not finishing. The race was restarted after the crash, Dan was able to finish fourth overall. The other guys finished, given the mixed grades and the split in the field, the race was difficult to follow. Peter McDonald was very impressive.

It was a great day and it was good to see so many Coffs riders and their families at the event, keep this event in mind for next year as the effort to travel is well worth it.

Cycling - troughs, plateaus and peaks.or maybe cycling is just like life.

There are those weeks when you are going ok, but your average is not as good as your effort the previous week. Those are the troughs.

Then there are those weeks when you have really been pushing hard, but you are not seeing any improvement, and at those times you wonder what is going on. Those are the plateaus.

Then there are those weeks when you really feel you've made upwards progress on your cycling graph of life. You finish riding a regular route and the first thing you do is check your computer for the average speed.a Leyton Hewitt arm pump and "oh yea.another personal best". Those are the peaks. We just love the peaks don't we?

Well here I am at week five of my criterium adventure/career. A lot has been learned over the previous four weeks. A lot of do's to do, and a lot of don'ts to not do too.  Along the way there have been a few troughs, plateaus and minor peaks.

So, armed with 5 months and 3000km of building strength, 4 weeks of racing knowledge, the invaluable advice of those more experienced and the supercharging gel and electrolytic juice, I confront my limitations once again. This week I am more prepared than in any week previous. As usual I am psyched to do my best, but without any unrealistic dreams or hopes of success, lest they become shattered by a poor result. A little emotional bubble wrap can't be a bad thing.

Once more I find myself queued on the now familiar white line across the track. I am aware of how much more relaxed I am this week, excited, but relaxed, as we all casually get under way. We jostle into a line, and this week I am using the brakes to keep behind the rider in front, and not lose my place in the line by drifting past. I am holding my line well and being more assertive in demanding my position. The new attitude is working because the other riders don't attempt to push me out, or if they do, I am not submitting, and I refuse to relinquish my ground.

The laps roll on with me always in the first handful of positions, my front wheel within a few centimetres of the rear wheel of the bike in front. I am feeling ok, and on each lap I am able to maintain my position up the rise. The strongest rider is doing a lot of work on the front and as he moves aside, I find myself with the wind in my face. Still feeling good, I put in a reasonably hard lap and stretch the field a little. I know, I know, don't lead unless you can get away or hurt the others, but I feel ok so what the hell. I am puffing by the end of that lap, but am pleased at how quickly I recover when I get in the draft, and soon I am feeling comfortable once again.

We are only five minutes from the bell and I am still with the leaders, still sucking wheel as they say, and still feeling good.

Once again the leading rider moves aside and I am in the lead. This is a bad time to lead but I do it anyway, and burn quite a bit of energy in the process. At the end of my lap, one rider does a solo breakaway and no-one has enough left to chase him down. The rest of the lead bunch also pass me and I struggle to latch on, but with head down and a hard push I find a rear wheel and like a leech, I suck it. I get only a few minutes to recover as we cruise around on the last lap before the bell. As predicted, the bell sounds and the bunch start playing cat and mouse, as each rider positions themselves to be in the ideal place for the inevitable final sprint.

The bunch trundles along to the last corner before the uphill finishing straight, with me at the back. At this point the bunch think I am all used up, but a rush of blood to the head (pity it wasn't to the legs) makes me sprint past them all as we round the corner.

The numerous exclamations of surprise, along the lines of "what the..!!!", from the bunch gives me a smile and extra impetus, as my bike rocks madly from side to side with me pounding on the pedals for all I am worth. I see the shadows of my competitors slip behind me.

As we approach the finish line I am still a bike length or more in front and can sense the others pushing as hard as they are able.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a shadow appear on the track beside me as I start to fade with the effort of the climb up the rise. I keep pushing with what little strength I have left, as three riders close on me and then pass me, just before the finish line. I am feeling absolutely wasted, but also elated by the unexpected sprint for second place.

I coast around the track on the cool down lap barely able to stay upright. Just enough energy left to check the average.34.5kph. At this point I want to do the Leyton arm pump but there's no arm pumps left in me, just an attempt at a smile.. I feel a little nauseous as I suck in as much air as I can, but it isn't really enough. I hope I don't collapse. Gradually I recover and slowly make my way back to the marshalling area in granny gear. I can't get off the bike and just stand with my head on the handlebars and pant.

One of my co competitors says "She's not going to be sick is she?" At that, I start to chuckle between pants and puffs, causing my body to shake and shudder in a no doubt amusing way. I feel a pat on the back and receive a "well done" from someone. Eventually I am able to be upright and can manage a big smile of satisfaction. I receive positive comments on my performance such as "you were strong today" and "you gave us a surprise". 

I was very pleased with the result of the race and the 34.5kph new pb, and even though it wasn't a win, it was a competitive ride. I feel I have now reached one of those peaks I mentioned. It hopefully won't be the last or the highest peak I will have the opportunity to test myself against.

This is the final report in the 'Emma goes critting' series. This won't be the end of my criterium racing however, and you are bound to hear news of any major successes if, or I should say when, they occur. Of course the road season isn't too far off either. Hmmmm, 'Emma on the road' has a ring to it doesn't it.

Emma Richardson