Hog Hill Winter series #7 : 24/01/09

[Scott Bentley]

Today has been rushed and hassled, traffic seemed to heavier and all the lights seemed to be against me and I had Rach and Fred with me, so the car was full to bursting. On the way I got a call from Mark telling me that only the top circuit was open, but I has half way there by then so I continued to the circuit. It turned out that the bottom section had ice and mud all over it and it wasn't safe to race on. I got there late to be met by Mark running up the hill with a puncture, I leant him my spare front wheel and he was off again.
The race was raced clockwise this week and without the zig zags, what this meant was straight down the hill from the start finish, at the bottom of the hill we took a hard right and then straight back up the hill, down a small section then back up towards the start finish.

The state of the circuit was terrible, there was water streaming across the track in 2 places, this was bringing stones and mud onto the circuit which was causing punctures in all the races. The worst point was the bottom corner, which had cones on the apex which pushed all the riders out to the edge, standing water in the tightest part of the corner, it was just a complete mess.

Race report
I have to say this was one of the most unrelenting races I've ever been in, It was just a series of hill reps. I managed to stick with the pack for the first half dozen laps but it soon started to splinter, there was nowhere to hide, you couldn't ride get any relief from sitting on other riders wheels as it was either fast down hill or straight up hill, there wasn't a single bit of flat track. After 10 minutes or so I was dropping of the back and then as I decended down the big hill I got a feeling things weren't right, I could hardly turn into the bottom corner and the climb up again was done on a complete flat tyre. Luckily I managed to get to my spare wheel and I was allowed a lap out.
I re-joined the race at the back of the main pack but it wasn't long before I was struggling to keep up again and the pack gently eased away from me. I certainly wasn't the only one and at this point I thought I counted 13 or 14 riders ahead of me. I managed to find a group of 3 or 4 riders that had also been dropped and we worked together to peg the advance of the lead group. We worked well for a few laps and dropped one of the guys then while I was hanging off the back and losing concentration the other two took off up the hill and before I knew it they had opened up a good 30 metres on me. It was at this point I just wanted to throw in the towel, but as I've learned from Palace and from the early part of this race, anything could happen.
As the 5 lap to go board was raised I could see the 2 in front of me flagging and I knew I could catch them, as I came up to them though they both pulled out. This gave me renewed vigour and I was now determined to finish this race and not get lapped. With one lap to go I could see the leaders gaining on me, but with a final dig up the hill and round and up I managed to finish the race unlapped.

I didn't mange to get a place confirmed as I left but they only had places 1-9 so I'm hoping there is still a chance I managed to tough out a 10th. I'll let you know.

Race time 50:42mins
Max HR 172 (93%)
Ave 161 (87%)
Max Speed 54.5kph
Ave Speed 31.2kph

Update
Well after what I thought was a crappy race and a total waste of time, I've just seen the results and it seems I managed a 9th, so the whole day wasn't in vein after all! Maybe only 1 point but one hard fought point.

[Scott Bentley]

I'm not entirely sure, maybe my max heart rate has lowered and really I'm working harder but it's not showing it? Or maybe I'm just super cool ;)

[Guy Phillips]

Cheers for the report and well done for the 9th and a fighters' point!
The bit I'm finding hard to understand is that on a 1km circuit of hill reps that your max HR is only 93%. I'm sure mine would be thru the roof! I'm wondering why that is - was the descent enough to bring the HR down or are you just super-cool on the climbs (unlike my 95k self)...?