Victory at Singapore National Cycling Championships 2011

Singapore 2011 National Championships

Tim Wilkins of Cannasia-Cannondale is the new Singapore National Road Race Champion after a masterful display of tactical road racing saw him ride off strong opposition from the OCBC team and last year’s winner Lee Rodgers. Tim struck with two laps to go of the criterium-style race, taking Lemuel Lee from OCBC with him but easily out-foxing him in the sprint finish to take the crown.

“It was a great feeling taking the victory after all the work from the team,” said Tim. “Lem went to the front about 400m from the line but had nothing left for a sprint; he was really exhausted and wasn’t bluffing. This meant a relatively easy haul around him 70m from the line.”

It certainly was a great team effort, which came at the end of a long hard season for the Cannasia-Cannondale boys that included a second place in the Tour of Thailand to a semi-pro and riding with the full pros at the OCBC series of races in February. Even the day before the road race, Rob Hensby came fourth in the individual time trial championship and behind a storming Lee Rodgers (Fuji), defending Singapore National Champion Darren Low (Cycleworx/FS7), and Junaidi Bin Hashim (OCBC).

Big job, well done

Tim took the road race on a 122km flat street course in a corner of Singapore where the Cannasia-Cannondale team can regularly be seen training. He pounced on encroaching tiredness and fatigue in the bunch to build on the work the rest of the team had done to then and was just reward for the weeks of training the boys put in. Despite the excellent performance of Rob in the ITT, it was the road race championship the team was really after. They knew they were up against it as the field contained Lee Rodgers, winner of the 2010 race and fresh off an awesome performance in the UCI 2.2 Tour de Singkarak.

The second job, said Rob in his pre-race team talk, was to mark Darren Low, second to Lee on the road but was crowned the 2010 Singapore National Champion and also fresh from the Tour de Singkarak. Ever a wily rider, he would also never be out of contention. But these two riders, to their disadvantage, were part of two smallish teams. The other main threat was the second biggest team in the race to Cannasia-Cannondale, the OCBC Cycling team, fielding eight riders plus a Passione Cycling ally, and five of whom were also coming off the Tour de Singkarak.

Up against this field the only advantage Cannasia-Cannondale had was being able to field 11 riders, and to use them for various roles throughout the race.

“We can’t out-power them but we may be able to out maneuver them,” said Rob at the team briefing when he laid down the plan that played-out perfectly. “Everyone in Cannasia-Cannondale knows how long they’ll last and therefore how best to contribute to the main goal of winning the race.”

With none of the typical tropical downpours Rob had to put up with during the ITT, the race began under sunny skies. Ahead lay 35 laps of a 3.5km circuit, with two 180 degrees turns in each lap.

The team knew what they had to do to follow Rob’s plan and executed it perfectly. The pace was quick from the start but, as expected, it didn’t take long before OCBC launched their first attack. And then the next. And then the next.

“I basically closed three holes to OCBC riders during this part,” said Juergen Dorr, aka The Juergenator. “During one of them I had Marcus Leong from OCBC on my wheel but he wasn’t able to pull leads as he had a team mate further up the road. I realised pretty quickly the guy ahead was fading and wasn’t able to increase the gap.”

This first attack set the pattern for the day. “But it was really hard to break away alone or even in a pair on this course over a longer period of time,” said Juergen. “The course is too fast to allow people to stay away.”

But as they do every Sunday on the Thomson ride, OCBC kept on attacking in pairs with the intention to tire the peloton through the race by making it constantly chase. Rob’s pre-determined tactic for Cannasia-Cannondale was to let OCBC sit out in front for long periods of time without the danger of them getting too far away.

Cinders’ house of pain

In between attacks from OCBC, Lee Rodgers also started testing the peloton to see who would respond and how quickly they could. One of Cannasia-Cannondale’s powerhouses, Nathan ‘Cinders’ Baltoski says that constantly chasing attacks from anyone wears anyone down, “but chasing down an attack from Lee Rodgers squarely fits into a whole new world of pain.”

“Lee went off with Timmy Wilkins and me in pursuit after about 45mins. His pace went up to 55km/h, but that wasn’t fast enough so he attacked again and the pace was up to 60km/h. That clearly wasn’t enough either so he went again.”

“Things got blurry after that, so I have no idea how quick we were going; I was doing everything I could just to hang on. Thankfully after a couple of minutes of this, the bunch had us in their sights and Lee sat up.”

Cinders would be back into the sanctuary of the peloton quickly enough knowing that after a few minutes of recovery, he would have to do it all over again. But the attack had the effect of shelving out around ten riders from the back of the pack and putting several more into the redzone.

It was during this first part of the race that we lost one of our big enforcers, Matt LeCornu. Feeling the best he had in weeks and looking forward to having a big race, he frustratingly had to retire because of a broken spoke. With no mechanical ‘grace’ laps allowed in the race, it was impossible to change a wheel and expect to be able to get back onto the peloton. His race was done.

Other early retirements included Dave Gowty and Jeremy Broome who led the pack from the start, protecting the team’s potential race winners Rob and Tim by covering everything that moved at the front. Inevitably the fast pace and constant counter-attacking took its toll and they retired at the half way point.

“For me, the race lasted 20 odd laps,” said Jez, “and the memories fit into two parts - the early memories, where I felt strong, and the later ones, which are dominated by cramping muscles.”

“Part one included the tight corners, where early on there was mayhem as everyone looked for a tight, clear turn; and then part two, when everyone was knackered and skittish, and coming out of a turn meant getting out of the saddle AGAIN to get back on.”

“I remember the times I went into the red, striking another match; after being nicked on a corner and having to chase back on, closing down a group which had stretched away.”

“When the matchbox was empty, I rolled into the tent area, done.”

But it wasn’t a bad place to watch the rest of the race unfold he said. “Seeing the black Cannasia-Cannondale jerseys jumping off the front throughout the race was fantastic, including the Juergenator’s relentless will and Snowy's epic for a couple of laps.”

An epic attack indeed. By halfway, one of the team’s new members, Andrew “Snowy” Thomson, was unable to contain his natural attacking urges any longer and did just that. Time and time again until his matchbox emptied too.

“For the first few laps I patrolled round the front with “Diesel” Dave McAdam, making sure that we could cover anything. The feeling of looking around the peloton and realising the strength we had there was a great feeling, and spurred me to try a few short breaks of my own.”

A strong OCBC move later with one initial rider away and another trying to catch up eventually forced him into action.

“A rider in pink Lampre kit wound himself up for an obvious move, so I sat on his wheel, changed down and waited. Sure enough, he sprinted off to the side and broke away from the group. It was easy to sit on, and as he slowed I just keep pushing through to drop him.”

He then set to trying to catch the OCBC break as he was a decent distance from the peloton.

“After what seemed like an eternity, I caught the rider trying to bridge but he wouldn't work with me, since his teammate was already up the road. I started feeling the effects of the heat and lack of training caused by illness and after a few laps pushing, I realised that the gap wasn't coming down. I was tiring but kept pushing, hoping that at least the pursuit would tire out some of the non-OCBC riders.”

As he predicted, the peloton swept past, he went out the back and the race was over for Snowy. Not long after this, the peloton started thinning further as more and more riders were tiring, and the Cannasia-Cannondale team wasn’t immune. Soon after the departure of Snowy, Dave and Jez, Nathan also retired, all having put in big efforts very early in the piece to protect the leaders.

With the field being whittled down, OCBC started putting in some really big attacks. Again, Rob’s pre-arranged tactic was to let them sit out the front and “burn”.

“But it’s a fine line in judging just how far up the road an escape can go before the elastic snaps,” he said.

With spectators all around the circuit giving the escapees and the peloton updates on the time gap, it became evident the break was putting 10 seconds a lap on the peloton. With no sign of tiring, action was required.

Diesel Dave takes over the story. “With about 15 laps to go Rob yelled for the team to come to the front. There was a breakaway almost two minutes advantage up the road. Ho Jun Rong from OCBC, who had been out for a while, was eking out more and more time every lap.”

With each lap taking about five minutes and elimination for the peloton if it was caught, the Cannasia-Cannondale team needed to bring him in. Up ‘til now, apart from a few attempted breakaways, Dave had been saving his energy for the second half and ultimately harder part of the race.

“But now it was time to do my job, get to the front of the peloton and test how my legs were really going. Slowly but surely, over the next six laps and with the help of some other riders, we hauled him in.”

The next breakaway was a little bit more challenging as it contained two strong riders, one from OCBC. Letting a breakaway go always helps to settle the peloton, says Dave, “but we had let this pairing go too far with only 6-7 laps to go.”

“Back to the front I went and this time was helped by a greater number of riders from different teams - the peloton sensed the urgency of this one. There had been regular attacks all day usually with an OCBC or Cannasia-Cannondale contingent but now the attacks were coming one after the other while we also tried to bring the breakaway back in.

“But you could sense folks were getting very tired.”

The End Game

With the breaks contained, Ho Jun Rong back in the bunch and the number of laps remaining fast diminishing, it was easy to sense the decisive point of the race was approaching.

Every small attack saw the elastic stretch to breaking point. It was only a matter of time before one of the attacks would eventually stick and was at this point the movers and shakers came to the front. Lee Rodgers, who had never been far from the action, was loitering with intent. OCBC were whispering to each other like plotters on a grassy knoll.

And then Lemuel Lee and Tim Wilkins attacked.

“The team quickly moved to control the peloton allowing me and Lem to get a 30 second gap within a lap,” said Tim. “But it was a tough few kilometres to the end even with the 30 second cushion. Lem was tiring and cramping so wasn't able to assist with much time on the front. It was still difficult to accept that the win was likely and I continued going well into the red until the line.”

The weirdness that is Singapore, tropical downpours hit right on the last lap, with one part of the 3km course soaked in driving rain and the other half completely dry. This played its part for Tim and Lem who used the hesitation in the bunch to their advantage.

“I hoped the rain would lash down as I knew it would certainly give the chasing group the jitters with greasy roads. On the final stretch I could see a small break was chasing us down [Lee Rodgers and Goh Choon Huat] but knew it was now between the two of us for line honours.”

But with Lemuel Lee soon to begin cramping, it was left to Tim to come out of the slipstream and take the first place.

Although the race had been won, there was still action behind the lead pair. Pete Bennett, who admits to being “the cycling world’s crappiest criterium rider” was stirring into action.

“With a lap and a half to go and with Timmy ahead of the pack, the primary job was to stop last year's winner Lee Rodgers from jumping across the gap to Timmy. With OCBC protecting Lem, and without any support of his own, Rodgers was going nowhere fast.”
“I saw the remaining riders began jockeying for position within the final two laps. A few dropped out, happy just to finish without being lapped, which left about 20 or so to battle it out for the minor placings.”

The speed jumped noticeably at this point especially round the corners as have-a-go heroes tried to get away but with a single lap left, there was still a gap between the bunch, and Timmy and Lemuel . Left from Cannasia-Cannondale were The Juergenator, Diesel and Pete; Joshua and Rob, with their jobs done, dropped behind to potter home and grab a well earned 100 Plus.

“We all felt the tension ratchet up among those left in the bunch,” says Pete.

Round the last dead-man turn and the Cannasia-Cannondale lead-out crew got into shape. “This is something we practiced the week before on the Thompson ride and it worked like a dream,” said Pete. “And today, it was going to be beautiful again.”

But with 500 metres to go, what looked like the perfect opportunity turned to disaster. The bunch paused, the Cannasia-Cannondale train went right and Diesel revved it up.

“But the pause was really a crash,” said Juergen. “After the last u-turn I was sitting on Pete's wheel and he was being led out by Dave. With about 500 metres to go from my left I could hear the dreaded sound of a front wheel touching a back wheel at high speed. Initially I thought we were lucky to sit on the right and we would be able to pass the crashes, but then somebody swept Pete of his bike and he crashed into the flowerbed.”

“Before I could say “Vanda Miss Joaquim” I was eating dirt and looking at sky,” said Pete of his crash abstractly.

Juergen wobbled but avoided the mayhem and Dave stormed on to finish ninth. Pete got up and wobbled home looking more like a rugby player than a cyclist but at least he improved on his last place last year, with a one-from-last this year. In thirty years time, he says intends to win it.

The Thinking Team

Cannasia-Cannondale now has a national champion. Tim won it with hard training, “wonderful” support from his family and great teamwork. And thought. It was won because the team thought about how to let OCBC tire itself out, how to watch Lee Rodgers and other main contenders like hawks, how to sacrifice and protect Tim and Rob and chase when the time was right.

Dave Gowty sums it up.

“I think the way Tim won reflects well on us being a thinking team. OCBC attacked making the two big early breaks, impressive in their longevity and obviously designed to wear the peloton down.”

“But with team work we dragged the escapes back and Tim waited until he sensed the peloton was splitting and made the decisive attack. He showed true sprinters smarts to not lead out but wait for the last 100m and blast past for the win.”

Craig Sheppard, who two weeks previously had picked up a chest infection and had to sit the race out watched the tactics unfold.

“Cannasia-Cannondale seemed to have the race under control from start to finish. OCBC were the most proactive at sending guys up the road but as always Cannasia-Cannondale left them out there just long enough to wear them down.”

“It was awesome to watch.”

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Photography by Craig Sheppard. www.craigsheppard.co.nz