Chris Winn: Ramblings From The Road

pedal.write.pedal.write.pedal.



07 January 2008

Bay Crits.

Pretty schweet way to ring in the new year with 5 days of crit racing in the legs. The Bay Series are a funny one, always big numbers in the support races (102 starters this year) meaning the risk of losing some skin is ever present, but hey, at the end of the day crit racing is always fast, furious and pretty darn fun. For the first time I locked in the full week of events and went in with the very simple goal of finishing each day, especially being the first real racing hit out for a good 3 months or so. Oh yeah, keeping my skin was pretty high up on the list too.


Williamstown was first up and I'd already gotten the heartrate up to threshold before pulling on any tight stuff. Clutch hopping through a road work induced traffic jam over the West Gate fwy was not part of the plan, but I made it a solid 40mins before start time...nice. The racing was chaos straight off the gun with a coupla crashes in the newly dubbed "SRAM corner" which is damn good marketing from Eva with it getting a mention on the loud speaker everytime someone kissed the tarmac. Luckily I kept it upright and alright with a bunch finish.

Port Arlington is one of those courses where you now shite is going to hit the fan in one way or another on such a tricky and tough course. Getting stuck behind two crashes and chasing like a mad man to get back on I eventually popped with no sustainable threshold at this time of the year...go figure. Next..


Friday night was the Ritchie Blvd hotdog circuit and one of my favourites being right on the beach and attracting plenty of spectators and a good general ruckus. Man what an odd race, with a pretty high attrition rate early on there was a nasty crash which caused an attempted restart. But with plenty of eager lads in lycra the task of actually getting us to stop behind the commisare and cool our heels proved a little unrealistic...something about a mob mentality...Needless to say it was game on again fairly quickly and I managed another bunch finishing and felt better than yesterday.


Pete Braunsteins takes a slide.


Round four was held at Eastern Park on a long windy open circuit with was an odd change after the tight, short laps raced previously. Somehow I thought it would be a good idea to have a dig with three laps to go and get off the front. I lasted a lap before waving the white flag and sulking back in the bunch for the rest of the race. Ah well, nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.

The final stage was back at Eastern Park but was held on in my opinion one of the diciest circuits around. With some strong coastal winds about the lap took through a car park that was rough as guts, but I didn't want to complain too loudly seeing as those some guy who won Roubaix was racing the in the pros. The start was pretty hectic as always and guys were dropping off like flies. I somehow managed to find my way near the pointy end and by mid race only about 30 odd were still hanging about. With a break of 5 up the road and the series leader just chillin' and practicing his podium speech I thought it might be time to try again and at least crack a top ten finish. With 3 to go I found I was away with two others and we looked the goods to stay away with the bell to go till eventually I rolled in 7th. Sweet.


Apparently some famous bloke lives around where we were staying...

So that was the week that was...thanks to Shelley for being the official Bay Crits blog photographer..hmm try saying that one ten times fast...lator people..cw.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hay Stein, I haven't hit this for a while but thought it was time for a random comment...........
What the hell you never told me that Muzza was your cuzzin........
"NOW OFFICALLY YOUR MATE."

Chris Winn said...

Perren Dealcour serial blogger pest! Been wondering what you've been up to.. Not sure what the hell you mean there shags tho..!