Brad Wills, a first year U23 rider, competed in his first National Championship last weekend, the National U23 Criterium Championships.  After recently completing Year 12 and having only had 5 weeks of training in his legs, here is his race report on what happened in his race.

On the 5^th of January the national criterium race for U23 men, elite women and elite men was held in Ballarat.  I raced in the U23 men’s race which was a 30 lap hotdog loop with each lap being 1.1 km’s and due to the course being placed on the main street of Ballarat there was an uphill side therefore adding an extra element of difficulty.

After racing 4 consecutive days at the Jayco Bay Criterium series in the men’s team support race (1^st of January to the 4^th) I was feeling fatigued but also found it was a great way to find leg speed again after only 5 weeks of solid training after my completion of VCE.  On the 5^th I drove up to Ballarat with Michael who volunteered to be my support for the day along with Bob and Helen.  Michael’s job consisted of purchasing water, pumping tyres up and swapping wheels for me.

During the warm up I rode around the course to get a feel for the track and the speed in which I had to kick up the hill.  At the start line there was much tension in the bunch among the 71 starters but as the gun sounded that was all released and we took off, immediately the pace was on as riders were keen to get off the front as to secure the intermediate sprint points.  Due to the nature of the course there was no time to rest, from the first corner I found myself out of the saddle sprinting to keep up with those already on the descent and again sprinting up the hill then holding a consistent pace back to the first corner which saw fatigue set in and hit many riders early on.  At the half way point I found that I was starting to struggle to hold the wheel and with only 12 laps to go I was off the back of the bunch and pulled off the track.  Looking at the results of the race on the CA website 22 starters did not finish and the pace averaged 43.12 km/h.

All in all I was really happy with my race, especially as a first year U23 rider let alone other factors mentioned earlier and so too was Bob.

I’d like to say thanks to Bob and Helen for making the early trip up to Ballarat to support me as well as Michael for helping out on the day.

Cheers

Brad