PG - Central Coast Tour

[dan the bike man]

Good on ya Dan.

Dates will be the following by the looks of it. (that means the order will be Crit, ITT, RR) ?

Crit - 2 April
ITT - 4 April
RR - 17 April

or if you want the ITT last it would be:

Crit - 2 April
RR - 17 April
ITT - 2 May

the suspense would be killing me if we waited until may. i think the finale 17 april
plus i could put on a few kgs by may

maybe we need to play rock paper scissors

[Chicken]

Getting decent numbers on Easter Sunday will be difficult.  I think 2/5 would be the better of two very evil evils.  The ITT should be last anyway because it is definitely what is going to sort you boys out from the girls!

Hmphhh .

Coming from the current Australian Masters ITT Champion, World masters games ITT Gold medallist, current ATTA ITT ladies record holder, current ATTA pairs record holder ....... etc it will be you sorting us out  :'(

   

[csfive]

She is still only a B grader 

[Bex37]

Thanks Yoni.

[Chicken]

Good on ya Dan.

Dates will be the following by the looks of it. (that means the order will be Crit, ITT, RR) ?

Crit - 2 April
ITT - 4 April
RR - 17 April

or if you want the ITT last it would be:

Crit - 2 April
RR - 17 April
ITT - 2 May

the suspense would be killing me if we waited until may. i think the finale 17 april
plus i could put on a few kgs by may

maybe we need to play rock paper scissors

I dunno I reckon its fairer to give new and old riders a chance at an ITT before the club tour.

Plus, I think Yoni's right in regards to Easter Sunday, its egg hunting day   .

Plus Beauies is on Easter monday.

Finally the suspense will allow time for riders to work on psyching each other out for a few weeks  

She is still only a B grader 

Lucky for you , eh mick 

[Yoni C]

Getting decent numbers on Easter Sunday will be difficult.  I think 2/5 would be the better of two very evil evils.  The ITT should be last anyway because it is definitely what is going to sort you boys out from the girls!

Coming from the current Australian Masters ITT Champion, World masters games ITT Gold medallist, current ATTA ITT ladies record holder, current ATTA pairs record holder ....... etc it will be you sorting us out  :'(

Chicken that didnt impress Cadel and I doubt it will work here.   But you did miss the most important medal.    Current NSW Endurance Event Masters Team Bronze Medal.... most valued due to being won with White, Hodge and some other old dude I know.

[Chicken]

True , true 

Easy on the 'old' just 'a dude' looks better 

[csfive]

Just had an idea, dont get too many of these so enjoy.

We have booked out Lucca rd every Sunday this year (will not be using it every Sunday but the option is there)

If we use Lucca on a Sunday we could have a tour that looks like this:

RR - Sat 24 April
Crit - Sun 25 April
ITT - Following Sun 2 May  (date clash with Canberra Tour and Tour de Tweed  )

All three races in 8 days!

Sounds too good to be true!

[Matt]

While this event might be great for committed A/B/C Graders and regular "multi-taskers" (ie those who ride all three disciplines) it would need some thought as to how it would attract the burgeoning ranks of beginners, D/E graders and Time Crunched Cyclists (to quote my new guru Chris Carmichael).

Or maybe this event isn't for us. But I still think the club has to put more thought into how it engages this group and I repeat my earlier idea for a "T" or "Training" bunch during the earlier road races - non-competetive but with a couple of senior riders to take us through the mechanics or road racing at Calga.  Harder to do at crits because of high speed and stricter discipline but throwing us in at the deep end and relying on a crash or crash through approach, literally, could be disasterous. I don't think the weekend training rides fill the bill as my experience is that they are more social outings with less coaching than I had hoped.  And a lot of us with kids simply cant get away at those times.  Saturday afternoons at Calga is a big time commitment for many of us.

And for sponsors this seems to me to make commercial sense too.  The commited A/B competitors and life-time cyclists are a mature market and will always be investing in new bikes and bits.  Sure sponsors need to stay engaged with these guys but the new market will be those of us who have dipped our toe in the water and are tossing up whether or not to upgrade to that carbon bike or give track a go.

New, staisfied and inspired faces will flow through to the committe and ensure the health of the club too.

Sorry about the thought bubble but I'm laid up post-op and , despite the best efforts of Eurosport have too much time on my hands!  Regrettably I can't be there tonight beacuse of my immobility.

 

[Nath]

the second lot of dates, the time trial is on the same
day as the dirt work MTB event which i beleive a few
CCCC members are attending.

[Murphs]

While this event might be great for committed A/B/C Graders and regular "multi-taskers" (ie those who ride all three disciplines) it would need some thought as to how it would attract the burgeoning ranks of beginners, D/E graders and Time Crunched Cyclists (to quote my new guru Chris Carmichael).

Or maybe this event isn't for us. But I still think the club has to put more thought into how it engages this group and I repeat my earlier idea for a "T" or "Training" bunch during the earlier road races - non-competetive but with a couple of senior riders to take us through the mechanics or road racing at Calga.  Harder to do at crits because of high speed and stricter discipline but throwing us in at the deep end and relying on a crash or crash through approach, literally, could be disasterous. I don't think the weekend training rides fill the bill as my experience is that they are more social outings with less coaching than I had hoped.  And a lot of us with kids simply cant get away at those times.  Saturday afternoons at Calga is a big time commitment for many of us.

And for sponsors this seems to me to make commercial sense too.  The commited A/B competitors and life-time cyclists are a mature market and will always be investing in new bikes and bits.  Sure sponsors need to stay engaged with these guys but the new market will be those of us who have dipped our toe in the water and are tossing up whether or not to upgrade to that carbon bike or give track a go.

I'm not sure why it would have any more or less appeal for a D grade rider, than an A grade rider?

[Ciaran]

This idea sounds great!  I'd love to have a punt at time trialling, so this could well be the event where I turn thoughts into action.

A one-of-a-kind tour winner's maillot/maglia/jersey would be cool too, the rainbow stripes for the CCCC.

[Pete Smits]

I think we may be better spreading the events out over the season,

Crit - 2nd April
RR- Sat 5th June
TT - 5th September
having the TT later gives everyone a chance to practice their TT ( especially the poor B graders who have to contend with Yoni !)
anyway, no doubt we can discuss it at the meeting tonight

[Hodgee]

Working out the winner.  I think you should just do it based on points.  Keeping times for all the riders could be an administrative nightmare.

In each event award;
1st 10 pts
2nd 7 pts
3rd 5 pts
4th 3 pts
5th 1 pts

If riders end up with an equal score, the winner should be the person with the best ITT time.

[GrantF]

While this event might be great for committed A/B/C Graders and regular "multi-taskers" (ie those who ride all three disciplines) it would need some thought as to how it would attract the burgeoning ranks of beginners, D/E graders and Time Crunched Cyclists (to quote my new guru Chris Carmichael).

Or maybe this event isn't for us. But I still think the club has to put more thought into how it engages this group and I repeat my earlier idea for a "T" or "Training" bunch during the earlier road races - non-competetive but with a couple of senior riders to take us through the mechanics or road racing at Calga.  Harder to do at crits because of high speed and stricter discipline but throwing us in at the deep end and relying on a crash or crash through approach, literally, could be disasterous. I don't think the weekend training rides fill the bill as my experience is that they are more social outings with less coaching than I had hoped.  And a lot of us with kids simply cant get away at those times.  Saturday afternoons at Calga is a big time commitment for many of us.

Matt
Racing is racing - think you'll find there's no more room or time at Calga than at Crits.
I think what you really want is to put yourself out there & ask some questions / get some experienced riders to show you the ropes.
You'd be surprised how helpful/friendly fellow cyclists can be - maybe you could move yourself in the bunch rides and talk to a few different people until you find what you're after.
This is certainly how we used to do things anyway - like most things in life "you don't ask, you don't get".
The one thing I would advise is to get some pointers from more than a single source (so you don't end up being blindly led by the blind).

If you really want/need some "official" courses then they're out there already - it's up to you.  eg. http://www.impactcycling.com.au/index.php/topic,1772.0.html  or  http://www.impactcycling.com.au/index.php/topic,1779.0.html
What we don't want is to make these things compulsory - isn't it great that you can actually start racing without going through too many hoops?