ANZAC Day race report - Angus Sutherland
Brett asked for a ANZAC Day race report but here is my life story instead.
So I have been hoping CCCC would bump me to A for a little while and thanks to an epic breakaway with David Sandberg a few weeks ago at Glenvale, they finally relented. To my surprise my debut A grade race with CCCC was to be ANZAC day. Last year I raced this in C grade, so coming in for A I was slightly terrified. The field was mostly unknown to me, apart from a few friendly THB faces, my mate Andy (think Wout Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel level rivalry except we like each other) and his coach Brenton Jones.
Lining up at the start, Brett rolls up and the first thing I say is that that I have no idea how I should play this, the start list said 71 people were in the grade and I'm now a small fish in a big pond. A few reassuring words later and we are off. I know I don’t have the sustained power to be in a break from the start, The plan was to sit in and see how it plays out, maybe I could latch onto a sneaky breakaway after an hour or so.
When an hour had passed and the average speed was 46.7kmph I realized that trying to get in a break would probably lead to an implosion on my part, so I developed a fatal allergy to the wind and was doing everything I could do hide. Which was going very well, for such an insane average speed the amount of work I was doing compared to the guys up the front could only be referred to as 'noodling around'. Even so I was definitely feeling every ascent of the mighty col de Sandown…so I necked another caffeine gel and all was well. Until.
With about 25km to go a few big names who were sitting around me suddenly disappeared, I look up the road and the peloton has split going down the back hill. I was caught napping. Frantically looking around I see there are no NRS team kits or big names around me. Do I try and snap close it going down the hill?! Look down, we are going 60, maybe not. Panic stations! Everyone nearby gets the memo and we start rolling to bring it back. The usual, are we rolling through or pulling turns confusion ensues, and the odd person letting a wheel go makes things hard. At one point I find myself solo, dangling between the front group and chase group thinking what on earth am I doing!?! It finally comes back together and as I sit up and regain the mental faculties to look at line marshals I realize there are only 3 laps to go.
My thought now is, where is Brenton? That’s the wheel I need to be on, he's the best sprinter in this race. Thankfully his bike is as obnoxiously easy to spot as mine is, and with 2 to go I was in business, ish. Someone else had the same idea and was willing to fight to the death and take us both down for Brentons wheel, so 3rd wheel it was.
We gradually moved up from the back of the bunch on the last lap, another split goes up the hill, no problem, Brenton closed it down the hill (thanks!). One corner to go, the front of the race is strung out, we are 100m from the front rider and closing. Final straight, Brenton and his tail pull left into a gap and I can't get in! I'm stuck in the wind on the right hand side, but it's okay, he has to come back out to get around...right? Just a few seconds of wind and I'm thinking my allergies are playing up, ive gotta find another wheel to get onto, but no, he popped out again and I'm back on. There are maybe 7 riders left in front of us, we cut from the right side to the sheltered left side of the track, through a gap which I sewar did not exist. I'm now 5th. 200m to the line Brenton opens up, steamrolls past the front, we follow, Andy pulls out to try and follow them but we are going too fast. As I'm passing we accidentally celebrate the position we find ourselves in and low five in the drops and I think 'that’s it, we are both going down'. Nope, somehow I'm past him, upright. Just 2 riders left between me and the very front of the race , a gap slowly opens up behind Brenton, I cant wait I need to get around the rider in front and into his wheel, I pass, 100m to go and I'm in Brenton's draft…could I even dare to think I could get around?! No chance, he has a bike length on me and the line is barrelling towards us! I'm now thinking 'have I seriously got second though?!' Look around, clear air, THE AERO SOCKS DID THE BUSINESS!
By far the most insane few minutes on the bike I have ever had. My biggest take away is that you don’t have to be the strongest to do well. On paper I get smashed by at least half the field, but it only takes 1 well placed match to burn up the paper (most of it at least).
Massive thanks to Steggles and Brett for all the advice, to those guys in the race with me (even though in the spirit of the ANZAC day classic we are racing against each other, it's still great to have a safe wheel to sit on even just for a bit), and to everyone in THB for all the support.