Clinton Avery Cyclist

given second but…………

Win number 1

Win Number 2
What a great weekend.

Hey everyone, just another update on how the racing is going as I have raced another two times since the last update. All I can say is… I cant have picked a better time to be coming into form.

Anyway so the read isn’t too long I’ll get on with the races. BTW both race were back to back (Saturday and Sunday) Race 1 was a 120km kermise but being an U23 one everyone thinks not many people will turn up. They were wrong as we still had a field of 120 riders. The weather was bad all day but cleared just for the race. It made me a happy chappy as with the amount of turns in the course it would have made it very interesting. It was almost a weird race though as it seemed like a criterium but the lap was to long. The reason I say it seemed like a crit was it never left town. Hence the million turns.

With the turns and the wind combined it was going to make it a tough race for those at the back of the bunch so I wasted no time moving to the front. When I realised how hard it was at the front, I thought about rubber band effect in the peleton. It is where the riders at the back have to slow down more for the corner and accelerate more out of the corner therefore making the bunch opporate like a rubber band. Same as a rubber band… the more you stretch and relax it the closer it is to breaking, and the weaker it is the sooner it will break. Same effect with the peleton.

After that long thought I tried to make it as hard as I could by driving the front. One rider was up the road after half a lap so I soloed across and started working with him. Looking back I saw 2 more riders coming one being a team mate of mine so I waited for him to make 4 riders in the break away. We got out to 46 seconds but that was as far as we got. What was left of the peleton was chasing hard. We didn’t let up though and kept working.

One of the riders stopped working so it was time to get rid of him. When he was on my wheel I dropped the wheel in front and let my team mate and the other ride away. The gap began getting to big so the rider behind me began working to chase. We turned into the cross wind and I hit it down the gutter. To my expectations he missed my wheel and I rode back up to the leaders. He never made it back! With 3 riders and 10 laps to go the work was getting harder and harder but we were still hovering around the 40second mark. The fortunate thing for us was we were out of the chaos back with the chasers as their group got smaller and smaller every lap. With 6 laps left one of the guys stopped working but with some discussion he just wanted to get to the finish. With 5 laps to go my team mate was hurting and began pulling soft laps.

I figured we weren’t going to stay away unless someone rode hard so I took on that role. I pretty much rode the last 4 laps by myself with a couple of hangers on. On the last lap my team mate Laurant ask me if I could let him win as he hasn’t won a race in 4 years. I thought about the games like that in the team last year so I was apprehensive. I told him no I wont let him win BUT……. I will lead him out for the sprint and if he can come around me I will let him have it, if not do he has to do some more training. However I had seen him sprint before so I wasn’t too concerned.

I took Victory by 2 bike lengths for the first time for the season with a 117km breakaway and Iwas still feeling good afterwards.

Sunday Race 2 was 115km and again U23. A lot nicer race too as there were less turns and back roads. The finish was in town but the rest was in the country. There was a strong wind so I knew the race would be over quickly. The first cross wind section would sort things out for sure. Sure enough, after the first lap there were 15 riders left of the 80 that started. Amongst being myself and fellow kiwi Ryan Wills.

This was a bonus, because there was a whole team from Latvia (Lithuainia if thats how you spell it) there and they are strong. With Ryan there at least we had some form a defense. A few laps later there were 7 left, still Ryan and myself and 3 from the Latvian team. I knew we would need a plan for final few laps to have any chance but I had no idea what to do so didn’t say anything. Just go with the flow and see what happens.

On the second to last lap I let Ryan slip up the road with one latvian and another rider as splitting them up would make things easier to take control of. When they had about 20second I hit it and went alone to bridge to the leaders. Ryan saw me coming and stop working to make it easier  for me to get across but with the wind it was anything but easy. I got there with 2km to go and said to Ryan, “you try attack and I’ll take care of these 2″, I wasn’t sure of the latvian but I knew Ryan wouldn’t win a sprint against the other rider. The plan became… he attacks and I’ll wait for the sprint. He tried but unfortunately was shut down soon after.

Coming into the sprint I was on the front which was not the place to be, so I sat in the gutter, not driving but that way the sprint could only come up one side. It was all on with 200m to go when I though its now or never. Ryan settled for 4th and the latvian realised he wasn’t getting anywhere either so settled for 3rd. The other continued to contest but as soon as he stopped gaining on me and I started to pull away again, he let out a big F***! as I took my second victory with a solid bike length. It was a good weekend with 2 victories and I know now my form has come at the right time. Especially with Paris Roubaix in 2 weeks time.

Thats all from me
 Clinton

Im back again….. This time i have to write about two races so in some parts of the story i will spare some detail so you aren’t reading all day. Also i never raced these two races back to back, i just haven’t had time to write about the first one which was on Friday.
 
Race 1 was in a small town not far from where i am living. 112km around an 8km circuit. The race was all go from the moment the gun went and it didn’t take long for it to be all over rover for  of riders. The start was tail wind, but after 150m we turned left into a strong cross wind. I had already taken on the roll of getting things started by putting it in the gutter and winding up to max effort. 100m later there were 8 guys off the front but in the strong wind it didn’t take long for that 8 to become 6. There were a couple of big hitters in the break with me but not all the hitters made it. I knew with a few hitters missing the break it wouldn’t be long till a small group containing them would come across.

Sure thing with 7 laps to go they joined us making a lead group of 16. A few not so strong riders were in the right place at the right time when things were happening and managed to tag along, but another effort in the gutter soon got rid of them. With 3 laps to go 9 riders and no peleton even close to bringing us back things started to get a bit edgey. The front group including myself was all the big names of kermise racing and no one knew who was willing to do what in the conditions, therefore making everyone nervous. On the last lap a few attacks were laid down but none succeeded.

With 1km to go a couple of guys attacked, and normally i would be the one who gives in first to chase it. Not today though, i waited and waited. I knew Jorei (my team mate from last year who i always had to lead out for the sprint) wanted to win. Hes one of the best sprinters in Belgium so i left it up to him. 400m to go i had Jorei’s wheel and this was going to be a true test of the sprint training i have been doing. Things got started with 150m to go when Mario Willems hit it starting the sprint. Jorei was second wheel and i was third. Jorei was waiting so i waited. 75m to go I knew i was coming up past Jorei who was going over top of Willems. A big lunge for the line saw both Jorei and I salute the victory as neither of us actually knew who got it. I had a feeling I got it and the way jorei was acting said he thought he didn’t.

Shortly after, while we were waiting for the photo finish result i saw Mario (Jorei’s director) talking to the comassaires. I couldn’t help but wander what he said to them when they announced Jorei as the winner. Then when collecting the prize money, because a few people had told me i won and i had seriously thought i had, i asked to see the photo finish. They told me they didn’t have it, when the camera was sitting right next to them. Then they told me the battery was flat, but they continued to reinforce the fact that it was so close. I cant help but wander what dodgey action went on but the official result was i was second. One thing i learnt was next time i have to beat him undoubtedly!
 
Race 2 was today, again windy but this time rain was added to it. It was again 112km this time 16 laps. To be honest there was nothing exciting happen in this race. The gutter sections were too short to do any real damage to the peleton so it took a while to eliminate riders. As a matter of fact i think crashes on corners eliminated more. At the moment farmers are planting their crops so from the tractors there is a lot of mud on the road making it ever so slippery. I mean i nearly decked it 3 times. I think it was only the mtb skill and knowing what a sliding bike feels like that kept me up right. Anyway over the coarse of the race the peleton got smaller and smaller. 2 guys got up the road but no one wanted to chase. They stayed away to the finish. For me, i got away with 4 guys with 3 laps to go, unfortunately 2 were from the same team. That made the finish just a bit harder as on the last lap they just took turns at attacking. One slipped away with 2km to go and i wasn’t able to bring him back. So i contested a sprint for 4th place. I finished 5th. Not because i wasn’t fast enough in the sprint, just because the podium was full and 4th or 5th to me didn’t really matter.
 
Anyway that’s how my last too races have panned out, ill be back with more stories after the races this weekend.
Clinton