Race Report from Tim
http://www.bikesmoveus.com.au/showthread.php?s=018f904849f5a78786d6eaa34f1a5cdc&t=4624&page=35Week 14 - Last week of RAW report.
Warm Up Scratch - Div 4.
Still suffering from drinking too much beer and eating too many curries in the UK, I've not had the best of fitness going into any of these races. The scratch showed this again as I followed the wrong peoples wheels, got boxed in, missed a break, counted the wrong number of laps and got confused as to why we'd finished a lap earlier that I expected. All in all, I seemed to have no top end pace and when I did try to spike it I was red zoning far too quickly and didn't have the stamina to finish any attack. Still being on the track is better than getting fat watching TV. I finished a confused 6th.
Race 2- Win’N’Out - Due to the way we lined up, I ended up in first wheel leading off, so I decided I'd go hard for a lap and half, then roll up and get another wheel around 3rd maybe and then hit the sprint and win. Yeah, no that didn't happen. I rolled up after 1 half laps and the mass of Green jerseys of Bike minded from all appeared underneath me. These guys worked as a team all night and were really hard to break into. I stayed in this position for another lap and half only not able to get a wheel. Then the kick for the sprint happened, and I was no where for it. The following laps where never going to happen, so I rolled out of the race with before the 3rd and 4th sprint places where taken.
Point a Lap - Here, the plan was to let the other riders go for the early points, then bridge the gap to whoever was out front and get a few points. The went to plan and the first 5 laps I was in a good position. The division overall winner went off the front early and got a few points. We seemed to get bogged down with a rider that just would not roll up and the Bike Minded guy in second wheel would just not go around him. I was slowing us all down and in the end I was just frustrated and I went to chase the break the leader down. I shouted to the Bike minded guy in Second wheel, "come-on lets go, enough of this". I went off at a pace. This was slightly quicker than I wanted to do at this time and brought far too many riders with me when I did. I caught the leader but was not going to get the point for the lap, so I slowed behind him. Bike mistake as suddenly all the riders I'd dragged over went over the top of me. I was suddenly boxed in with no where to go. From Second wheel with a good placing to 12th in an instant. By the time I'd unboxed myself I was no where near catching the front and it wasn't going to happen. I rolled out of this race with 2 laps to go.
Combined - Before we started Drastic shouted to me, go win this. I've normally done well in the combine, so winning was the objective. Got a bad start near the back, and with all combines the splits began to happen. I slowly moved up and got behind Alex's wheel for a while before pushing into a main line. THe Green jerseys of Bike Minded started a kick off the front which started to split the group with about 8 laps to go. Here, all kinda strange things happened. Riders started slowing and moving erratically and pulled out in odd places. I decided that I'd have to go now to do anything in this race. So I kicked and on the bank a rider just rolled out without looking then another I went way high. Speaking to Alex afterwards, there must have been five or six of us on that bank. Coming off the top of the bank allowed me to catch the front riders. Again most being Bike Minded green ones. Again no love from these riders and it wasn't until James got his wheel in that he let me in. Lot of time in the wind here and 4 laps to go. The front riders rolled off quickly and with 3 1/2 laps to go I didn't really have a long attack in me. I knew I had James behind, so I though if I can push it I can lead him out for a win. I gave it everything I could until 1 1/2 to go, checked james was still behind me, caught a glimpse of the Garmin saying 198bpm and 54kph, started a slow roll up to prevent anyone attacking him in the corner and shouted "Now go WIN this race!" to him. The rest, is well history! James's win really made my night given my poor racing.
And Final shout out needs to go to Drastic who had a cracking win in the Faster combined. Bloody good race for him and an excellent win!
Thanks also to chamois whose fault it is that I'm now hooked on this. Summer racing at lidcome track is a must for sure. I'll post details when I have them.
So sad RAW is over.
