"Coota Recovery" 69km at 45km/h!!

Sundays race was called the "Coota Recovery" however in the race program it was described as a 69km Handicap, 3 laps of "Suicide".  I was not sure what to think after reading that.  With my 10th place the day before the handicappers obviously thought it was time to get serious with me and put me into 2nd scratch together with the likes of Ben Kersten (World Track Champion).  We were off 5 mins, with the limit bunch containing Brooke off 30 min.  It was another great day with practically no wind, and an expected top temp of about 23.  Again this was set up for another fast race.  The course was a 23km loop with only the first few kilometres being flat.  The rest of the loop was either up or down around the hills of Cootamundra.

We set off once again at a furious pace and with 5min on Scratch over only 69km I thought we would have a great chance of holding them off.  The bunch consisted once again of about 15-20 riders and we were sitting on over 50km/h from the beginning.  All I was thinking about was hanging on especially once we hit the climbs as there was hardly any slackening in pace.  With the bunch continuing to roll through hard up the hills I started to struggle a little and decided that I would sit on during the last part of the climb and then start working again with them on the down side and the flats.  Within 10km we had nearly caught the bunch 2 min in front of us and it was not surprising as the first lap was completed in under 30 min at an average of greater than 46 km/h.  Shortly after we caught that bunch and continued to push hard.  The 2nd lap was just as quick and later on we heard that we had actually gained 2 min on scratch in the process after only 46km.  It now looked like we may get fastest time also.

By the middle of the 3rd lap we had caught another couple of bunches which at least meant a few more riders to hide amongst and with only 5km to go we crested the last long climb spotting the remaining groups ahead.  We were now approaching 80km/h on the descent in an attempt to get up for the win.  We reached the last group on the road with only 1km remaining forming one huge bunch.  At this point I decided that this sprint wasn't for me and sat up happy to finish in the bunch leaving Ben Kersten from our bunch to take out the win and as it turned out fastest time.

Brooke's comments: The view from the limit bunch:

The day was not off to a good start when I discovered they had left me off the start list.  After some sweet talking of the organizers, I managed to convince them to place me in the limit bunch.  In retrospect, this was probably not a good idea, as the group was a little slow, and we dropped about half the bunch as soon as we hit the first climb.  For the first lap, only about 5 of us shared the work, with another 10 or so happy to sit on.  About midway through the second lap, a couple of guys in front of me went down, and I had to perform some pretty fancy maneuvers to avoid the carnage.  Not long after, we we caught by a large group behind us and I was happy to just sit on.  End of the second lap, and there was a mad dash for the line.  I later realised that this was a Sprint point - guess I hadn't been listening when the organisers has announced this on the start line (yes, I am blonde).  Anyway, the hills in the third lap were a bit much for me and I was off the back of the now massive bunch, riding home with a small group of riders not long after the main peloton. 

This is the second time I have come up to race at Coota and I would recommend that others get up there as well.  The races are very well organised and the handicapping in general is excellent - hence why you get 100+ riders finishing in a bunch sprint.  All in all, a touch race but a great weekend - except for the drive home which managed to take us 9 hours, after Paul broke Trish's car window and Trish decided she would like to drive to Adelaide (note - no blame attributed to me!).

Results: (69km)

1. Ben Kersten (5 min)         1:32.37
2. Charles Gascoyne            s.t.
3. Joel Stewart                     s.t.
4. Malcolm Haigh                  s.t.