Race Reports by Chris Anstey

Hi All

I have just arrived in Hon and it is 10:30p on Tuesday 9 Oct. The weather is some muggy as always in the tropic. Wish we could race in this weather sometimes. This being my first day on the race trip to Sydney Australia (Oz). Sue, Trevor and I left for the Victoria Airport at 3:30 this afternoon our travel time now is about 9h and our first family fight is yet to come. OK that is below the belt and such a thing is not likely to happen. We have another 10 hours in the airplane a Boeing 767 and are scheduled to arrive at 7a. after that I will be busy shuttling all our kit to hotel and track and building the bike before my 1p practice time.

The Bike. Another saga of unbelievable proportion. This started back 4 weeks when I realized that the seat post was being squashed by the clamp. So to deal with its the Canadian rep was contacted. He got back with me fairly quickly and we spent about 10’ on the phone before he realized that I was talking of a track bike. He then wanted me to provide him pictures and measurements. Well I did that and then he indicated the frame would be exchanged. So I would have shipped it to him right away but he thought it would be better to wait a week as with interbike on there would be no won to receive in Kitchener. He also wanted to see my bike so that he could be sure to send me the right frame. I had given him the Top Tube and Head Tube lengths. This he accepted however it seemed that some how the Top Tube length was thought to be seat tube. OK then enough of this. Last Saturday morning the Express Company phoned me with my parcel from Kitchener. I hustled to pick it up and then spent several hours building it up. This frame came with several defects plus the usual need to cut and  fit steer tube and head set. As I went to fit the wheels into the frame the rear would not enter the dropout and required a significant amount of filing to make room for the axel enter. I also needed to countersink the dropout cheeks so that the mounting screws were flush and would not cause a wheel pull when on the track.

All the modifications were made and I was fitting the speedo when the steer tube looked shorter than it should be. I measured . It was and so was the Top Tube. This bike was too small. Now only 4 days before departure and NO BIKE. Matt Barlee came to my rescue having just decided he was not going to work for a no longer likely team sprint position at the 2008 Olympics and lent his bike.

I’ll go over my recent prep since racing Bastion Sq. I went to Burnaby for a little track time two weeks back and must have been dosing on the lead in to an effort as I fell in the middle of a corner, the back wheel jest stopped holding the track and zoom to the infield. I am carrying a Raspberry and some swelling on that hip. Then Wednesday last, doing high cadence work, I pulled my groin. This is a misery to my as to why just one of those tings I guess any way that seems to be easing quite a bit now.

October 18th  12PM
Today we will race scratch in the evening and with no heats for my class I am in. The Morning session saw Don Gilmore and Bob Veroba come through to the final.

OK going back to arrival in Sydney. After what seemed like an endless flight we made our way out to the Dunc Grey Velodrome in Bankstown and got lost many times for not following the road singes carefully enough. We arrived in time for my 1 pm ride thanks to a gentleman we accosted in a parking lot about 6 k away at the Bankstown Centro. This track is nice but temperature varies with the outside and there fore the  speed it can be ridden at changes quite significantly from session to session.

Racing Day one the 16th
TT 500m I managed a 15th with a soft peddle start protecting my groin which was pulled Wednesday two weeks back. My time was 38.5 and placed me 15th  Norman Kalmanovitch of Calgary rode a 38.1 and was several places better. This was a good day as I did ride my second best TT ever. Don Gilmore had a good ride capturing the Silver.

Racing Day 2, the 17th
Pursuit qualification ride. OK in obnoxious detail.
The Plan from Sunday was to ride in a 47 – 13 and look for a time of 2’ 28”. This required a 22.5” opener  then maintaining a 51k pace. I did manage the opener and was within 0.1” of plan and had the bike up to pace quite nicely after which I failed to keep my head screwed on right as I let speed drop as low as 48k three times. Though I recovered the speed and finished hard at 51+k the damage was done I lost 4” by not keeping the pace. Result my time 2’ 32.6” and 7th.  The gold silver and bronze going to the riders that executed there plan much better than I. Comment? Next year that ride will put my in with a shot at Gold as the best ride from the 60 – 64 group was 2’ 31.5” and the closest rider behind me in my group rode a 2’
 

Scratch race This was an all Australian affair. With six competitive racers they covered and counterattacked every attempt by the rest of the world. In the end I made two good attacks with a trailer who would not work (Aus). Well that is how a wheel race goes.

Sprints; I managed a 7th and worked hard however was pushed into the rep. A little flick as we entered turn 3 kept me from riding over my competition. The side bar reads that the announcers claimed no fowl 4 times before the officials had made there decision. Not quite an even ground for a world event. There were two Yanks, one Brit and one French riders came too me and made reference to the no fouled in corner 3. I believe this makes my position at least with some outside support. I advanced too the round of eight but went no further as Kip from T Town hardly beet me two for two. He was the second qualifier and come out with the silver.

Points; This I sat out my back was tweaked a little and risking lying in with 4 weeks to holiday was not a good trade. Canadian racers were led by Stefan who sat in most of the ride until a serious break of 3 went off he quickly bridged and worked hard to make the lap and take 3 points in doing it then scraped another second and third to end with 28 points. Quite against the repeated clames of the announcer that the local boy had won to earn the Gold. Well done. Don Gilmore and Bob Veroba of Calgary were in together but were unable to help each other beyond pulling the pack together. Don made several hard attempts to earn points that come up in 5th He did earn points on at least two other occasions. Well done Don.

The bottom line What a great event I hope all that enjoy racing and making new friends around the world will come and enjoy this or another World Masters Cycling event.