Race Report – Fast One VA (Vets 30-34) 24 January 2010

By Mark Davel

The batches for the Fast One race were based on 5-year age groups, and thus in order to be able to ride together as a team (riders are allowed to ride “down” in a “younger” age group) we were entered in the VA batch. As it turned out on the day, all the other major Vets teams had the same idea and as a result the VA group was much stronger than the VB group and the winning time was almost 10 minutes faster.....

As the race name suggests, the route is flat and fast, and in our planning for the race we fully expected the finish to be a bunch sprint. As our first Jhb race of the season and also riding in the VA category we were a little unsure about who the real threats might be on the day. The full Mr Price Vets team consisting of Werner, Norvyn, Emile, Iven, Gwyn and Mark was entered
Weather prediction for the day were unfortunately spot-on and we were greeted by very wet roads and continuous rain on Sunday morning. Despite the weather, all the main Jhb Vets teams were on the start line, with Cyclelab, Club 100/MTN, Bulk Pack Meats and TCS as well as the Fego team from Durban all present.

From the start the pace was fast and furious, but for the first 15km no serious breaks developed. At about 15km, a small attack went off the front and Werner, seeing that no Mr Price riders were in the move, rode across the gap to cover the move. Within the next few km a couple of additional riders also rode across and suddenly the move contained just the right group of riders for it to succeed as all the main teams were represented and as a result there was no concerted chase from the peleton.

With no race radios and no following team vehicles it took a while to gather information from other riders about who exactly was in the break, but once we found out that there were no serious sprinters among the break-away group we made the call not to try to chase at all as we were confident that Werner was probably the strongest rider in the break. The slight risk was the fact that TCS had 2 riders in the break but the odds of Werner getting a podium position from this break seemed better than relying on the lottery of a bunch sprint finish in the rain.

The rest of the ride in the peleton was thus a bit “uneventful”, and the chase only really got organised to a certain extent once the MTN riders in the break were dropped and their team suddenly decided to try to close the gap which had grown to well over 2 minutes. In the closing stages, Cyclelab also began to chase once their rider dropped from the break.
By the finish there were only 4 riders left in the leading part of the break, and with an all-out effort up the long and slightly uphill finish Werner managed to get a small gap and hold on to take the win and ensure a fantastic start to the season for the team.