More Bike Racing in Tassie

First, a follow up on the mountain bike race from Wednesday: Michael had a Copperhead snake jump out of the bushes at bite him on the leg during his race! Drew blood, but didn't envenomate him, so he didn't get sick (though he spent a few hours at the ER under observation). I only heard about this later, since I left after my race but before his race.

Today, I rode a 50 km race with the NVCC (Northern Tasmania Veterans Cycling Club). They typically get 50 - 70 people out for a race - 35 years and up. Rather than strict age groups, they categorize to try to get relatively comparable abilities, so fast 60 year old and a slower 45 and a few women may comprise a group. So, a newcomer like me may be hard to figure out where to fit in the handicap scheme.

The race was rather flatish with just a few short, and not very steep climbs (the whole race was on the plateau above and southwest from Lonnie. The first half the local procedure was a fairly strictly regimented double pace line, so a reasonable pace (well below my usual race pace) with a group of about 10 - one newcomer younger guy, 3 hammerhead younger women, and the rest 60 something guys. Once we turned around (an out and back course), it heated up and after the last hill ended up me and the two young women (would've been great if it hadn't been a bike race), and one other guy a little behind, who eventually bridged back up to us, so for the finale, it was a 4 up sprint. I got a calf cramp about 75 or a 100 meters from the finish and couldn't push very hard but took the sprint from the front with a peak power output of only 780 watts.

This was on my cyclocross bike with road tires. I'm sure that those round forks, and the auxiliary brake levers cut into my power output by 2 or 3 watts. Or something.

So, if I get to do some more races, it will clearly be from the next group up the scale.

They do an interesting variation: handicap races where they start the groups in reverse order and the faster groups try to catch and pass the slower groups. That could be sketchy if the catch is close enough to the finish!

Local boy makes good: Matt Goss, Launceston native and local bike hero, and leadout man on HTC/Columbia for Mark Cavendish won Milano-San Remo this morning! The other local, seemingly even more popular, is Richie Porte riding for Saxo Bank - a GC guy for them.

Sorry, no pictures from the race.