Day 1 Bay Crits – by Aaron Eynaud

We all arrived at our accommodation in Geelong at 12:00pm that day ready to rock n roll for the first stage of the Bay Crits. One glance at the accommodation though and we knew what we were in for. Let’s just say it brought a whole new meaning to the word “budget” for us.

Once we had settled in, we all geared up and proceeded to ride down to the race site. After taking a few wrong turns we eventually made it. Everyone was greeted with a 600m ‘Hot dog’ shaped circuit that had been surrounded with metal barriers. We knew we were in for a tough day. Whilst the circuit was flat it did not mean it was easy. Every time you went around the U-turn corners at each end of the course you would have to do a standing start which during a 45min criterium would amass to roughly 70-80 standing starts.

After arriving at the tent we all sat around and listened to what Bob wanted us to do. He spoke to us about the importance of staying near the front on a circuit like this because the ‘elastic band’ effect is magnified. He also mentioned that you shouldn’t stop pedalling into the corners but rather keep pedalling and gain valuable positions over your opponents. After the discussion we rode over the course a bit and got a feel for the corners. Sean came down during this practice but fortunately he only came away with a few grazes.

We rode a few more laps and then returned to the tent where we had our last minute feeds and sit downs before jumping on the wind trainer to warm up for the race.I knew that on a circuit like this a solid warm up was imperative as the first 15-20 mins was always flat out. I was also continually making sure that I had drunk enough water seeing as it was roughly 30 degrees at the time of our race. With 10 mins to go to my race I took my bike off the wind trainer, got all geared up and waited to get on the course. At this stage I was really feeling the nerves particular because this was the first stage and you had to do well here to go well in the rest of the series.

I was lucky enough to start at the front of the race and got my foot in my pedal smoothly. From then on I just tried to stay in around the top 15 guys, never slipping too far back. The first 20mins was definitely the hardest by far and I didn’t think I could maintain the pace but it slowed slightly and I was able to hang in there. On the last lap coming into the first corner I was sitting around 8^th position when two other riders fell in front of me. I had nowhere to go and was forced to take a wide birth around them. By that stage the rest of the race was gone and I was left thinking ‘what if’. I still managed to finish a respectable 16^th and knew I had 3 more days of racing to change my bad luck.

We had 3 teams in the Teams support race, the CharterMason Team, Kelly Cycle Coaching Team and the Degani Team.  The riders in these teams included Sean Finning, Peter Homan, Brad Wills, Scott Walkerden, Mark Kelly, Sean McIver, Michael Hale, James Cummings, Bryce Morey, Nick Bien, Liam White, Hayden (my brother), Will Allen, Camden Bush and myself.

Liam, Hayden, Michael and Nick all managed to get up the front in various stages of the race. Nick even made an attack with 5 laps to go but unluckily fell cracking yet another frame. I’m sure his luck with crashing will turn around soon! All of the other riders in the team also rode well and got a feel for the competition that we would face in the races to come.