HAHA, must be a turbo 2J.
C-grade down here is currently a field of 20B’s with one Hemi thrown in. his skillset has held him down, but shouldn’t be long now til he’s bumped.
Is that the Robert Forrsterman imposter? Legs like tree trunks?
ya. runs 94 for scratch and points, then 100 for motorpace.
Lol, I think Generic Hipster is talking about another guy. There are two brutes in C grade. One looks like Forstermann and strangely enough, the other guy is actually a dead ringer for Shane Perkins!
sounds like i need to get down more then, ay…
I guess gear choices are like baked beans and spaghetti - mankind will forever be divided over which is the best choice.
When I first started riding track I was late 20s and nature had long ago decided which path I would take if I were to ever become a competitive cyclist. Somebody built like me is never going to climb a mountain in the company of the bunch or spin an 88gi bike to victory.
Maybe two years ago I used my speed/cadence sensor to do some analysis (!), and I discovered that using a 47, 48, 49, and 50t front with a 14t on the rear I maxed out at 145rpm. With every gear in my bag I maxed out at 150rpm. It makes no sense for me to max out at 150rpm on a 47-14 when I can max out at 145rpm on a 50-14. That is 4km/h top end speed difference and good for almost .5 over a flying 200m.
I guess part of the fun (for me) of racing is figuring out who is what kind of rider and the gearing they’re using and adjusting accordingly depending on the goal.
48x14 works a treat for me in B, last night was a good tester for it as mist races were pretty fast.
My cadence is around 139rpm at 60km/hr, strava suggests most races are mid 40’s with sprints coming up into the 60km range (Based on 5 riders data and I’ve ignored the 65-70+ peaks as gps errors).
This thread got very interesting.
I ran 49/51-15 on the Canyon, partly because the lockring on the back was rooted and I couldn’t get it off before the season finished. I never needed to go bigger than that down here in Canberra to win, so I never bothered.
Interesting to hear what all the BNE guys are running though as you’re the only people I’ve ever ridden hard with on the road outside of a race so that’s my easiest comparison. Pretty easy to tell where most of us sit though in the spectrum of mountain goat as opposed to sprint types.
I won all the A grade races down here, which were basically just scratch, points, elimination and a few match sprints. I won them all the same way though, which was just to burn everyone off by riding a tempo I knew they couldn’t hang on to.
I think if I had to race someone like Rhys in a sprint I would get humbled pretty quickly but that’s the beauty of track in my opinion…there’s something for everyone to be competitive in providing they’re graded correctly.
But yeah, once I build my new bike and fix my lockring I’d say I’ll still run the same GI.
All food for thought though, and would be fun to experiment in a controlled environment indoors.
Yeah it’s a lot to do with where and who you are racing to,
A grade melbourne is going to be a lot faster than A grade Bridbane and Brisbane will be faster than Canberra so choosing based on your competitors is a big thing too I guess.
Why’s that? Just a better standard in Melbourne? Bigger pool of competitors maybe?
Several indoor tracks and the associated proactive track-focused clubs that come with them, I’d wager.
Yeah even crits down here are mental,
Lots of pro and semi pro guys living here too.
Crits are much harder down here too it’s not uncommon to avg 43-44+ kmhr for an hour in c grade and the last laps over 55
Not to say Brisbane or Canberra does not have strong riders it’s just Brisbane might have 2-4 string guys down here might have 8 and that just keeps the pace up
Yeah I’m definitely not A grade material in Brisbane, and I won about 85% of the races here in Canberra. The be fair a lot of the riders here are sprinters who I reckon could knock over a flying 200 3 seconds quicker than me. I just have a really good aerobic base from about 3 years of running 50+ k’s a week.
I’ve found similar in Brisbane vs Sydney Dayne. Brisbane has less quantity of strong riders but the top ones are very strong. Whereas Sydney everybody is quite strong with only a few standouts.
I put it down to the terrain. I look forward to returning to Sydney one day and doing one Brisbane ride’s worth of elevation in a month.
Inspector Chimp and KitCourier, are you guys reading this? We should stay in a Brisbane caravan park for a fortnight and dominate A grade. The glory will be everlasting.
Edit- Kit aren’t you from Brisbane? Surely your parents would be up for hosting a few elite athletes?
Kits a wholesome man. I think he’s content dominating the kids racing on thursday nights.
Tuesday night is #foamafia #chandlerchewsdays track night, you guys should rock some FIFO style and track on Tuesday and fixed friendly river loop on Wednesday morning, ride back to the airport and BAM #vivabrisvegas
Don’t think A grade is that weak in Brisbane that Kit can win haha there is still Aussie jnr champs and ex pro’s just not 10 of them.