 In this video, I'm going to share with you some scenes from an A-grade Criterium at the purpose-built Skippy Park Criterium track held by the Sunshine Coast Cycling Club. I'm also going to pinpoint a big mistake that I made in this Criterium race that just might have cost me the race or at least a place on the podium. We'll never exactly know and I'll let you be the judge in the below comments section once you've witnessed my cock up. Now a bit of context here before we get into the details. Number one, yes, this was the course where I crashed just over six months ago. I'm right. No, you were not all right Dickhead. You had a severe leg infection after that. Number two, it's a small field as you can see. I think there are about 17 starters roughly, but you will see four riders from a UCI Continental Team Pro Racing Sunshine Coast. So some pretty handy riders that would do damage in any A-grade Criterium in the country and for all my US friends, A-grade is the equivalent of category one. And I think because of their tactics, that's Pro Racing Sunshine Coast and the sheer size of this Criterium race, it actually makes this Criterium bloody tough, which I'll talk more about shortly. And number three, I'm going to label this purpose-built 1.1 kilometer Criterium track The Roaster. And look, here's Marge from the 1950s with her brand new Skippy Park Roaster. She puts that chicken in for some cooking and that thing is completely fucking fried within minutes. Here's to the Skippy Park Roaster. Nice one Marge. So that was my 1950s television voice. Let me know what you think below in the comments. But ultimately, all I'm trying to do here is emphasize my number three point. And that is Skippy Park is hard, bloody work. There is no shade here. There's no trees or buildings to create some partial relief. The temperature is going to jump between 35 and 36 degrees Celsius, which is roughly 97 Fahrenheit. And the humidity was 67 percent. The wind conditions were also up, blowing 30 kilometers per hour north to northeasterly. So you'll see a few wheels and riders getting blown around this track today. And within a few minutes, cyclists roasting themselves, getting popped left, right and center in the roaster. So what I'm going to do here is let's fast forward to five laps to go. And I will fast forward some scenes here from time to time to work through the learnings. Now, before we get going here, don't forget I've recently launched a free online video training for road cyclists looking to take their performance to the next level. Link below. And I've just welcomed nine new students into a course called up level road cycling course. I'll put everyone's names up on the screen here. So welcome to all my new students. And there's literally only one spot left before I'll be shutting that course down for the remainder of 2019. It's been open for just over 24 hours now that last spot. So link below for anyone keen to go next level with their road cycling in 2020. So my thought process here, as we're essentially now approaching the finish of this criterion race, was that I would try and help our Mike Onus, who is currently the Sunshine Coast Cycling Club A-grade Criterium Champion, who rides in a white kit with a local bunch of like-minded guys. That's including myself, actually. I believe we're calling the racing component of this group North Coast Racing. It's brand new. And I'll put a link to the Instagram profile below for anyone that wants to follow the team. So back to the point, Mike is a bloody handy rider and he's got a kick. So with seven riders left in the race at this point in time with five laps to go, four of them from a continental team, Pro Racing Sunshine Coast, I thought, how can I help Mike out? So I thought, I'll go off the front and I'll force the Pro Racing Sunshine Coast riders to chase. Little did I think, I would stay away for almost a full two laps, frying myself in the roaster. And I can tell you the tingly sensations and out-of-body experiences were starting to happen at this point. I was absolutely cooking. So as you can see, roughly two laps after that attack, I'm back in what's left of the bunch. And often in this situation, you would actually see a counter attack. Someone else go off the front after my little try. But clearly the roasting is real and everyone is very fatigued at this point of the race and perhaps saving themselves for the final sprint. So after sitting in for essentially another lap, there was this slight slingshot opportunity that I couldn't quite resist. That's where the bunch slows and you maintain your momentum and go off the front. So here with just under two laps to go now, I go off the front again with similar thoughts in mind. But this time you just never know, maybe I could pull this one off. So this is actually where I like to pause and let's go back to the start of the race where the big mistake came into play, which happened very early on in the race. So we're now back at lap two of this criterion where the roaster really started to heat up. You'll actually see a female cyclist here also, I believe Veronica is her name, who's joining in on the men's A-grade thumb. Well done to her for getting involved in this race. I was very impressed and she is about to make the right move here too, not me. So here is where the big mistake happened. There's five riders already up the road. If you've been following this channel for a while, you will have met a Scottish mate of mine, Ian, who also rides for North Coast and he was in a five man break. Now while the pro racing sunshine coast riders also had a man in the break, who is actually their team manager, Stu Shaw, they're not just there for fun and games. They're actually there for a hit out and they take each other on, which is awesome to see, albeit the rest of us have to hang on to the constant attacking and chasing in very harsh conditions. So from where I'm sitting, it kind of looks like I've got a wheel and everything should be okay, but those pro racing sunshine coast boys are putting in a solid attack and they're going for the break. They are chasing like we are, so the pressure stays on here and I'm left behind another North Coast rider, Will, who had already put in a reasonable effort before that attack and this rider I'm directly sitting behind, I believe his name is Sutton. So Will rolls over and Sutton rolls through. For what I was expecting would be maybe a 10 to 30 second effort max, but it turned out to be quite a fair bit longer, which you'll see unfold. You can also see I dropped the wheel here for a bit, which is a silly move in itself, particularly before this bend, where you can actually conserve a lot of energy by sitting on the wheel in the right position given the blustery and changing wind conditions. Now Sutton's putting in a big effort here and to be honest, I was expecting the flick or the elbow flick through for quite some time, but he appeared to be more than happy to take the load, so I continued to sit in for a while. Now the problem with this effort here is that we don't really appear to be gaining all that much on the chasing bunch, which is roughly I'd say between 100 to 200 meters away. In fact, we're kind of dangling in no man's land here and I guess what I was hopeful for is that the chasing bunch set up a little bit. However, it is silly talk when you think about it because how often will the chasing bunch sit up? They don't or they rarely don't because they're chasing like we are, so the gap doesn't really improve. So I finally roll through hoping that I can return that favor to Sutton and he jumps on my wheel, but there's also no time to dick around here because it's a large gap and it needs to be closed as quickly as possible. No man's land is not a good place to be, particularly in a roaster. So let's have a look at the time here and we'll play a little elevator music and see just how long it takes me to close this gap. Now excluding some of the tricky bends on this course where you're mostly pedaling but not in the same capacity as riding in a straight line, I'm pushing between 400 to 500 watts here and then between 500 to 600 watts at other times. So basically I'm going deep into the red in the roaster early on in the race for a significant period of time. And this, my friends, is very damaging. Now if you watched the number one mistake cyclists make in Criterium Racing, which I'll link to below with Tommy Nankervis, a local crit legend in Melbourne, he discusses jumping across these gaps quickly with a big sprinting effort. But the challenge I faced when I started to close this gap is that I didn't really want to leave the rider I've just been sitting on, Sutton, who just pulled almost a full lap turn in the lurch. Plus I would have been sprinting directly into a tricky and technical part of the course which might have been wasteful in itself. So I went with the grinding effort here and as a result I've gone over a minute and a half cooking myself. And let me tell you, I felt really caned after this effort. It took me a solid 10 minutes of sitting into recover before I could get back involved in the race. And the problem was there's not many places to hide in this crit. There's simply not enough riders and the pro racing Sunshine Coast boys are there for a hit out. So there was no getting comfortable. So let's go back to the final part of the race here. And what was interesting is that I kind of yo-yo'd off the chase group here. My wattage is not large by any means and I felt like I was riding super inefficiently given my fatigue levels, humping the bike like I'd just been released from prison. I also turned my head way too many times to see if the chasing punch was coming for me. But what I truly ponder reflecting on this race is yes, I did put in another big attack before this one, a few laps prior, but that was a targeted attack. So I have no regrets there. The mistake of that upfront 400 to 600 watt effort for 90 seconds in the early stages of the race, that mistake my friends could have been the difference here. If only I had jumped on the pro racing Sunshine Coast riders wheels, ASAP done say a 10 second effort for 1000 watts versus a 90 second 500 watt effort. Who knows what I could have had left in the tank here. And it just goes to show how important riding smart is, i.e. concentrating at all times and really being economical with your efforts. But as you can see, the three pro racing Sunshine Coast boys got up for the podium, well done lads. And Ian, Mike and myself stupidly rode home after riding to the race. So that's a 120 kilometer return ride in itself. So the whole day total at a whopping 100 miles or 160 kilometers in seriously hot and windy conditions. So no wonder doing the dishes and putting the kids to bed on Sunday evening post this race was possibly the hardest experience of my life. Now quick shout out to a supplement I've just started to use called ModX. I was actually surprised at my form during this race given my recent training capacity. So maybe this stuff really works. More details to come on it. And I'll catch you all in the next video.