Kelly Cycle Coaching cyclist, Nick Bien (Essendon SKODA cycling team) finished a close 4th in the Shipwreck Coast NRS event held in Warranmbool.  This was a great effort in Nick’s first season of NRS racing.  Fellow team mate, Gus Lyons (guest riding for the team) got into a chasing group and finished 13th.  Great work guys.  Here is what they had to say:

Nick Bien’s Report

How you felt about the race that morning?  Did the weather conditions put you off?

The morning started very still, there was very little cloud coverage and the sun looked to be drying out the roads. The race even started in quite reasonable conditions and it was only after 30kms or so that the rain started to fall. The legs didn’t feel amazing in the warm up but after the first 10km of hard racing the system was all fired up.
To be honest, I was a little bit excited to have some strong crosswinds on the narrow roads to really sort out the field, it favours my strengths to have a selection of riders rather than a bunch sprint.

How did the first 15-20km unfold?

After the first 2km of neutral racing we were confronted straight away with a short hill where a few attacks were launched and the bunch thinned out significantly. All the Skoda boys were well positioned for the first few km’s of fast tailwind and it was unlikely any moves would stay away at this point. It was only after a left hand turn into the cross wind that some more significant gaps were forming as riders with tired legs after the previous days 260km fell back through the pack. At roughly the 11km mark a group of just over 10 riders jumped away and I followed the wheels to make sure I was in it, knowing that even if it didn’t establish a gap the intermediate sprint wasn’t too far away. After claiming second in the intermediate sprint and the small group I was in still having over 100m on the main bunch, I committed to rolling turns to establish a larger gap.

What was the group like that you were in?  Was everyone working and contributing?

Most of the riders were riding really well together. Having 3 riders from Drapac, 2 from Euride and a Budget rider meant that the chase would only be coming from one other major team. Because of this we knew we could have a strong advantage with the numbers in the break. A few riders possibly with tired legs did sit on for certain sections in the headwind and crosswinds but overall it was a cohesive bunch to work with.

From 25kms to go the attacks came thick and fast and the winning move came around 10kms to go. The strong head/cross winds meant riders were trying to hide as much as possible but still minimise the gap to the two leaders. A group of 6-8 formed behind the 2 leaders after the final decent and it looked as though we might catch the lead 2 playing cat and mouse coming into the finishing straight. As it panned out, the two that had been away claimed the top 2 spots on the podium by 4 seconds over a group of four others including myself. I was holding 3rd in the sprint until around 50 metres to go where I eventually finished 4th.

During the first 40km I was able to get in plenty of fluid and sports drink while establishing a gap to the bunch. Ultimately I only ended up having two pieces of muesli slice as it became too cold to grab food/open it in the latter stages. I focused on drinking every 5-10kms, with the majority of it being sports drink due to the lack of food.

SKODA in the convoy	The break with the clouds looming behind
Listening to the debrief	DS gives the riders feedback 'post race'

Angus Lyon’s Race Report

The first 15 km to the start of the first intermediate sprint was just about holding position and not letting a split in the field drop you whenever the race turned south into the crosswinds. I actually didn’t notice the first group go and by the time I did it was a little late to cross the gap. I was just hoping that as Team’s Genesis, African wildlife and most of Drapac had missed the break that they would bring it back so when a group of about 15 went up the road including members of these teams I knew it was the last shot at getting across.

After that I sat on and conserved most of the way across to Port Campbell. Around the 45km mark the weather decided to turn nasty with some rain, hail and some thunder and lightning but the group was working fairly well  and pulled the gap back to 30s on the climb coming out of Port Campbell. Going over the top of the “major” climb I got a front flat but Bobs change worked like clockwork and a quick motorpace later I was back onto my bunch.

African Wildlife put in a massive turn on the way home doing most of the pacemaking to 30km out when bad weather and some gutter action made the rest of the bunch to come up and pull some turns to get a sit. 10 km out the bunch was looking at each other so I drove it into a corner, looked back and I had about a 50m gap so took the opportunity and pushed on. The last 5 to 4 km to go was the longest km I have ever done but I stayed off the front to the finish and pulled 13^th.

This was actually the best I have ever felt in a 100+km race, I ate well and looked after myself, didn’t have to bridge big gaps and managed to stay in the front for the crosswinds so had enough in the tank for the last 10km push.