Road: May RecTTT report

May 23 2010

Ray Issac, the Booker Prize winner of BSCC roving reporters, writes:

Two new teams were present at the RecTTT ride held in beautiful conditions on Sunday 15 May at Snake Valley: the Myer group and the Lake Health group.

The Myer group was represented by Tony Quinney, Ian Wallis, Graeme Pyers and Mike Bigarelli. Mike had the plane that was to take him to this year’s Giro on standby while he joined in the serious fun at his first RecTTT ride.

Michael Pierce, Simon Ellis and Josh needed the assistance of some stand-ins to make the minimum number of riders for Lake Health. Greg Dow and Peter Canny were co-opted from the Turret Café team for the job.

Course maps were made available at the start which should have eliminated any possibility of yet another Scottish-inspired detour off the ride’s course. The route covered some very pretty country and some challenging terrain.

Even with the maps, Fiona Isaac did her darndest to take the Goddesses in the reverse direction by swinging left at the corner next to the hall where we started. With a number of their stronger riders away, this minor diversion was the last thing they required. (One of those absent riders was Cath McLennan who was in hospital with a fractured pelvis. She was unfortunately knocked off her bike on her way to the final team training ride on Saturday morning. Heal quickly Cath. Everyone is looking forward to welcoming you back!)  Ruth was there on her new bike to embrace the RecTTT experience for the first time.

Fiona distinguished herself by becoming the first RecTTT rider to stop their team to attend to a call of nature during the ride. With a small team, a challenging course and the natural break, the Goddesses acquitted themselves in fine style with an increased average speed.

Scheduled to go next was the strengthened Saxon House team. They welcomed Steve Carey and Brian Sala for their first RecTTT ride. Former CSC winner Colin Fraser added some grunt to the team they had assembled at Kingston. Steve boldly announced his presence by failing to clip in and falling off seconds after Tim O’Doherty had started them on their way. This not only triggered some good-humoured laughter, but earned the team the right to start again at the end of the field.

Dennis Family Homes were next to go, and their numbers were down from last start. Although their strategic thinking has been questioned by yours truly in the past, they pulled off a master stroke by relegating Peter Martin to the sidelines. Without that dead weight you would expect they must improve their speed, and they did!  Alas the high speed in the first lap proved too much for Fergie and Dave Peters and they had to pull out. The remaining three riders, Mark, Scott and Peter put up a sterling performance to register a very creditable average. By the way, extra kudos must go to Peter. He has recently relocated to Bendigo to live, and travelled down that morning just for the RecTTT ride. Huzzah Pete!

After much public soul-searching following their naïve entry into RecTTT riding, the Yabby Divers sent along four riders. Their team had been hard hit by overseas sabbaticals to Italy for the Giro and to New Zealand for rest and recuperation, but Floyd, Lever (Jim Crumper), Simon from Retail and Steve stood up and were counted. Their team was supplemented by two new RecTTT riders, Matt Smith and Simon Wilkinson. Most readers will know that Matt is a strong rider. He is resuming after a short break. Simon is another Turret man who has just arrived in town to study at U.B.

As a team they worked well together and posted a significantly higher velocity than the Kingston Yabbies had done. Their improvement in speed was the greatest of all the teams. They certainly earned some bragging rights with their team-mates who missed the ride with flimsy excuses like being in Italy.

The Turret team was sent on their way two minutes after the Yabbies. Alan Cureton made a very welcome return. On the downside, hard man Stu Brien had to drop out at the last moment with a terrible case of the sniffles. We hope you’re better soon Stu. Nonetheless, with Volker showing the benefits of some consistent training the prospects for the Turret looked good.

Someone has to be the weakest rider in every RecTTT team and your humble scribe played that role to perfection on Sunday. The final hill before Snake Valley - which had felt like a category 1 climb on the first lap - had been magically converted into an Hors Categorie mountain on the second lap. Thank heavens for team mates at such times. Dean Wells came within an ace of collecting the CSC award for pushing me over the summit.

This embarrassing display was witnessed by the Yabbies as the Turret team managed to catch them at that point.

The Myer team followed the Turret in the starting order. With only four riders they faced a challenging ride. However wise heads apparently exist in this team. They played their cards close to their chest and revealed little of their strategies. After two laps their wholly respectable average allows them room for improvement which is, after all, the main aim of RecTTT riding.

Very few details were known about the Lake Health team, but their performance on the day left no one in doubt about their riding ability. Whether they can improve on a stellar performance at their first outing will be of interest to all teams.

Even with the burden of Peter Canny they cruised around the course and registered the highest average speed for the day. They had departed 4 minutes after the Turret. As the Turreteers approached the finish line, Peter decided to put his nose into the wind for the first time all day and speared down the outside past his usual teammates.

The Turret responded in a most un-RecTTT like fashion to this impertinence and at the finish line Tim could not separate the teams.

The Saxons had apparently used the time to their delayed start fruitfully. Director Sportif, Neal Goad, had abandoned the easy and comfortable approach that served them so well at Kingston. Very little of what transpired within the team became public, but there was apparently a bit of tough love going on. Terms such as “useful as a boat anchor” were bandied about.

The unhappy target of these harsh words, Trevor Smith (I feel your pain Trev), is a professional engineer and therefore a man of action. Recognising that the problem lay with a Power/Weight ratio that was down on the day he did the only logical thing. He tried to improve the ratio by reducing the denominator. The method he employed to do this was to toss off the tiny light on his helmet.

It may have been possible that the 11 grams lost with the light could have improved the team’s speed by an infinitesimal margin. However it is certain that the time the team lost when Steve Carey stopped to retrieve the light did a whole lot more to reduce the average. I wonder how well Steve’s Good Samaritan act was appreciated by his team-mates.

All this straight talking must have been too much for Wendy Ross. She sought solace with the Goddesses as the Saxons passed them and rode with the ladies to the finish. Greg Nunn also joined the Goddesses and the Saxons at different times to give them pointers on improving their time-trialing techniques.

A highlight of the day was the rowdy performance put on by Scott Denno’s family in the back of the ute on the Carngham Road hill. Devil’s costumes and plenty of noisy encouragement added colour and movement to the day. Thanks a lot for a great effort Denno family!

Thanks also go to all the people who supported the day, including marshalls and timekeepers. Special mention must go again to Kathy Young who, at different times, took registrations and membership applications, heated soup and party pies, and staffed the servery. For someone whose only connection with cycling is to be Peter Canny’s sister, Kathy does a tremendous job and her work is appreciated by all.

The main candidates for the CSC Award have all been featured here. Eventually the judges settled on Trevor Smith as this week’s winner of the coveted bottle of plonk. For a smart fellow, his actions somehow satisfied both the Cunning and Stupid criteria in one fell swoop.

The results of all this hard work are summarised in the now-correct average velocities below, together with the change from the respective velocity at the Kingston ride.

Goddesses 24.70 km/h (up 1.35 km/h)
Dennis Family Homes 34.99 km/h (up 1.14 km/h)
Yabby Divers 35.32 km/h (up 3.12 km/h)
Turret Café 36.04 km/h (up 0.79 km/h)
Myer Group 32.03 km/h
Lake Health 37.44 km/h
Saxon House 29.06 km/h (up 2.32 km/h)

********

Peter Canny, RecTTT ruler, writes:

This Sunday, May 16,  is our next Recreational Team Time Trial.  We hope to have a few new teams.  If you're not in a team, please come along and allocate yourself into a team that best suits your abilities. 

The Yabbies, we hope, will bring out their A team after their disgraceful effort at Kingston.  Talking of disgraceful, no doubt that shabby motley lot called Dennis Family Homes, under the guidance of Peter "Cramps" Martin, will try and make it over the full distance.  It has been noted how well the Dennis Family Homes men have been going lately in the absence of their fearless leader.

The tried and tested Saxon House Team will be a starter, and the Myer group are rumoured to be making their long-awaited debut.  The Goddesses will also be there, with a map and compass.  As usual, the strong men of the Turret will be there in all their glory, under the tutelage and leadership of their quietly confident Ray.  We are also hopeful of our local Iron Men having a dash.  So if you are not racing on Sunday, please come along and have some SERIOUS FUN. Remember, it is not a race, but a recreational time trial against yourself.

Details of this week's event:

Sunday 16 May

Registration 8:15 to 8:30 AM, Snake Valley Hall.  Allow 20 minutes to get there. (If you ride there in 20 minutes, please phone Team BMC - Cadel needs you! - ed.)

 

Cost: $5 for non-BSCC members. Become a recreational member of BSCC for $66 for 12 calender months.  This includes some insurance.  Membership details are HERE.  Please consider joining the club!  More members = stronger club = more clout to represent cyclists' interests. 

The first team starts at 9:15 AM.  There are 5-minute intervals between teams. 

The event distance is 60 km. To see the course map, please go to the calendar, and click on May 16. 

Post-event: see you at Snake Valley Hall.  Coffee machine, soup, hot snacks. Beer. Soft Drink. Sledging.

---

Corrections? Questions? Comments? Contact the web lackey

back

show all articles