Gold! Gold! Gold!

With apologies to Norman May.

State Masters Team Pursuit Championships

He he - we had a win today, taking out the NSW 3,000 metre MMAS 1-4 Team Pursuit Championships. Event was held at Sydney's Dunc Gray Velodrome.

Photos not available just yet but I'll post some as soon as they become available.

Our time in the final was a 3:30.46, just 1.8 seconds over the State record set last year by the same team we beat in the final today. We qualified with a 3:36 (about 2 seconds slower than I'd have liked but it was enough to make the gold medal ride).

In the final we were down on every lap (including #11), Andrew had picked it up on lap 11 and I hit the front with 1.25 laps to go. After being certain my 3rd rider was back on I just gave it my all and we over powered the other team to take it out by 0.4 seconds (approx 5-6 metres). Being ahead on lap 12 is what counts!

The boys were fantastic. Phil, Alan & Andrew all did great rides. My form was good, I was especially pleased to finish so strongly and it was great to be team captain as well.

A huge thanks to both Dave (for being our reserve rider, supplier of spares, general gopher and all round good guy!) and Pete (for the gee up, sideline calling and general technical assistance).

Now how many teams get to have two world track champions:
(a) not selected in the starting line up and
(b) have them attend to our every need?!!
What a way to go. Thanks boys, really appreciated. ;-)

Great team work = great results.
That was the first Championship win for each of us in the riding squad. I've been trying for seven years and I think Phil has been trying for a decade to crack this nut. We both have a series of bronze and silvers but hadn't quite got to #1. The event is not contested at National level so State championships is as far as we can go.

The stats for the final were:

Time: 3:30.46 (1.8 seconds outside the State record set last year)
Speed final avg 51.31 kph (by the clock)

Power Avg: 397 Watts
Power Max: 844 Watts (nice starting Phil)

We rode the last 2 laps at 54.6kph (with Andrew & Alex powering home)
FYI my max speed was 59.0kph (yikes!)

Gear: 50 x 14 (nominal 96.4", actual 93.5")
Cadence at average cruise speed: 118 rpm
Cadence at maximum speed: 132 rpm
CTL: 94
TSB: -6.3

Here's the wko screen shot of the final showing the power and speed every second (well every 1.26 seconds). Click/right click to view larger image:

I set the smoothing at three seconds to reduce the noise of the yellow power line. The horizontal lines mark average power (yellow) and speed (blue). You can clearly see the power spike at the start and then the period where I was either in the paceline or on the front (where the power is much higher).

Just for comparison, apart from the first few laps where the acceleration happens and you settle in, when in the paceline I was averaging around 300-320 Watts and when on the front I was averaging 480-490 Watts.

As you can see we started pretty fast but we had to, the other team were going hard. I had faith that as long as we rode close enough, they would crack eventually. But it didn't happen until the last lap. That sure was close!

I couldn't believe it when I came round for my first turn on the front, saw 58kph on the screen and Pete was calling me to lift it!! No way I thought, they will crack. From there we kept powering on but remained behind every lap.

Note the final surge for the line and the win. Woohoo!

And just as a sideline, apart from myself, Phil rides an SRM, Alan uses a Powertap track wheel (but rode a disk today) and Andrew is waiting for his Powertap wheel to arrive. That only leaves Dave without a power meter (but wanting one) as Pete has a Powertap as well.