The Inaugural CBCC HITT.

The very first Culburra Beach Cycling Club Handicapped Individual Time Trial (Also known as the Race of Shoalhavens Hard Men) was held this morning under cloud free skies and barely a puff of wind. Perfect conditions to go out and try and blitz the course. here is a look at the course. 15kms, mostly as flat as a crap carters hat.

CBCC ITT Course

And introducing the five hard men that took it on this morning, in starting order.

Sam aka Bling Bling

Greg aka Lewy

Russ aka Fat Bar

Me aka norbs

Dave aka Drops

Now, as the self appointed CBCC handicapper, I had the job of trying to get it so we all finished close together. All I had to work on was my best time around the Strava segment which was 30:45 for the 15kms, a shade under 30kph for the average speed. So, using some pretty sophisticated computer modeling, I came up with the following start times, based on predicted average speeds.

Ave Speed (kph) Time (minutes)

25 36.00 Sam
28 32.00 Lewy
29 31.00 Russ
31 29.00 norbs
33 27.00 Dave

Sam set off after spending most of the time pre ride making excuses about his handicap, age, shoe size, wind direction, cleats (that would come back to haunt him later) and anything else he could grasp. He disappeared around the corner, and 4 minutes later Lewy set off. A quick chat with Russ and then he set of on a 29er with the widest handle bars I have seen, thus the nick name Fat Bar. I had 2 minutes to wait before I headed off. Dave was supposed to wait 2 more minutes, but felt charitable and gave me 2:30. There isn’t a lot to report when you have got a challenge like that in front of you. I was hoping to see one of the 3 in front by the half way mark at least. Nothing. When I turned onto Greenwell Point Road, roughly half way, I stole a glance behind me. Can’t see Dave. Good. Head down, bum up, a bit of a down hill. Onto the drops. I am like a snorkeler when I get down onto the drops. Every few minutes I have to sit up to get some air in. Damn this gut of mine. Swinging North on Greenwellpoint Road, I finally see a rider in the distance. About 500m away. I had about 4kms to catch him. Things weren’t looking good. Another over the shoulder peek and still no Dave. I turn left again onto Jindy Andy lane for the final 3.5kms. I can now tell that it is Russ in front of me, and he has his head down. Try as I might, I just can’t haul him in. I finished about 1 minute behind him. My heart is racing as I roll to where Sam, Lewy and Russ are waiting. Big news, Sam beat Lewy to the finish, so no one actually overtook anyone else on the road. Sam had won the CBCC Handicapped Individual Time Trial. Well done Bling Bling, great effort. Dave rolls in about 2:20 behind me, so he has beaten my time to get KOM for the Strava segment. Well done Dave, great riding.

The final times for the segment. Note, everyone bar Dave beat there estimated average speeds. Dave’s was pretty steep.

Segment times, click for Strava view.

We catch our breath and I take the photos above. Sort of Kristof Ramon or Veeral Patel style.

We then head towards Nowra and Bomaderry before heading back to town for a coffee. On the lovely smooth tarmac that is Terarra Road, Dave had a moment with his video camera.

The Contour camera survived with hardly a scratch and kept recoding the rest of the day. We rode out to the back of Bomaderry before we came across a body of water, that was were a road normally is. The Kid with a beard had to have a look. Apologies for the fruity language.

Just before that video was taken. Sam pulled up to watch Lewy, and had a moment where his foot refused to come away from the cleat. Dave, Russ and I were like proud parents. His first clip stack. I should say that he had lost a bolt out of the bottom of the cleat so it wasn’t releasing properly, but we all clip stack at least once. We decided to give the lake a miss and headed back into town for coffee, a bacon and egg roll for me, and lots of freckles being consumed.

Fueled on coffee, it was a lazy pedal back to Lewy’s place for a chat and some bike part trading with Sam and Lewy.

So it ended up being a shorter ride than first talked about, but enjoyable none the less. Thanks to the 4 other members of the CBCC for having a crack at an idea born out of a late night watching the pro cycling on Cycling Central. I look forward to doing it again some time soon.