Masters Nationals 🥇

It was a mass start with every category wearing different jerseys. I had 2 slightly conflicting goals out there. 1) win 35-39 and 2) Keep Gatesy in mind (30-34). This wasn't simple though, because I didn't want to take it to a sprint, but he wanted it to go to a sprint.

First lap was straightforward. 80+ riders in the bunch, so just sit in the draft as it sorted itself out. There was a ~2 min climb at 4-5% on both laps, and I noticed my main competition in my age group on the front during lap 1, with us sitting in the wheels saving a lot of energy. I figured this would be a good time to hurt him a bit, so I did a short, strong attack.

Probably the wrong move in hindsight. Mitch and Peter (diff age groups) came across to me, and Gatesy wasn't there. I sat back and Gatesy and I got across to them. I was happy with this. 4 guys, even if it meant I had to do most of the work, I was fine with that. But a couple of guys pushed really hard and then it eventually came back together with about 10 guys (1 other from my cat)..

Then a few attacks from Mitch. I immediately followed and sat on him. But then there was a move where Gatesy also followed me across and we became a 3. This was perfect imo, so I immediately went to the front, happy to do 100% of the work if necessary. But then my competition (Dion) started coming hard across the gap, so I kicked to beat his speed so he didn't get there. In doing so, only Mitch was able to follow me. I didn't quite realised how taxing this section had been on the other guys.

I immediately sat off the pace when I realised and sat on Mitch as he got into his work. He knew what I was doing, and didn't ask me for a turn. Big respect, he is really strong right now. After a while Tim Brook (another cat from Mitch and I) sprinted across the gap and we became three. Mitch did 80% of the work, and Tim did a couple of mini pulls to help him. The gap to the group of ~8 riders was at about 8sec. I feel like if they worked together they could've definitely shut this down on this downhill and flat section.

I was cruising along, also feeling bad sitting in doing nothing. I knew Mitch would be focused on emptying the tank on the hill, so that we didn't see Gatesy again. I just sat on his wheel until near the top and the gap was at about 15sec, and it seemed like Gatesy had lost a few sec to the front of the group. This is where I decided Mitch had that battle won and attacked. I definitely felt bad attacking a guy that i'd sat on for 10-15 mins, and considered just rolling in behind him.

I pushed hard the final 5 mins and rode away strongly to the 35-39 and overall line honours. Afterwards I felt quite bad, because Gatesy seemed annoyed. He thinks (and probably rightly so) that I should've backed myself in a sprint against Dion, and that if Dion wasn't in the race it could've been very different. But I didn't really want to risk it on Whoosh, especially with recent demons still present from MWC.

The conflicting priorities sometimes isn't the best!

Arne1 day ago

0likes

You have a separate event for masters? Is it not combined with the 'normal' nationals day?

Josh Harris1 day ago

0likes

Yeah, I think it's too hard to coordinate with the live event goals of the nationals, when mass participation, less verification is the goal?

Last year they had it 24 hrs beforehand. But they linked it in with the annual winter club series to try and drive participation this yr, so I thought I may as well get around it!

Sign in to comment.

2 comments