 So we're approaching the finish of the hill ride and Tommy you're just saying something before about if I want to win an A-grade Criterium something's great practice. What's that? All right so Matt I'm at O'Mara Cycles Cafe and I'm waiting for a local legend at the Criterium scene Tommy Nankervis. Many of my subscribers will know that I've got a goal ended this year I really want to win an A-grade Criterium so today Tommy has agreed go for a little ride together and he's going to share with me some tips on particularly training what I should be doing leading into the Criterium season and I'm hoping later in the year when we start hitting the crits he's going to share some race tactics with us. I should also probably mention that Tommy to last season I think you won about 15 A-grade Criteriums which is pretty unbelievable in itself. The season before he won 25 A-grade Criteriums in one season and I don't care how good a sprinter you are that's quite unbelievable. Bikechase we actually applied for Guinness World Record they denied us because it's an amateur event but yeah here he comes right now. How are you mate? Yeah so Tommy supports the Melbourne Demons and for those of you who aren't from Australia the Melbourne Demons are an AFL side and they have made the finals in 12 years so it's been misery for their supporters and Tommy is a very passionate demon supporter so mate tell me you made the finals where were you on the Sunday? What happened? I was just we were watching it moment usually I watch on my own because I get to round up and we were at Mum and Dad's and I was screaming my head off and going to smash their TV when they they lost the lead with six minutes to go and Mum wouldn't we hadn't seen Mum and Dad have been away for six weeks or something and they were back and all she was doing was yelling at me to stop being so loud. Didn't even say hello just went glued to the TV. Right interesting so all right we just finished our ride I'm getting a little bike lesson here so what have I done wrong? I'm just disgusted with the state of the uh back end of the bike here look at this. Have a look at that looks like it hasn't seen a wash in... I was out in the dirt trails this morning though is that an excuse? Look at that wheel the other side's even worse. Look at this side and I've just had breakfast off of it. To be fair though I was riding on the dirt trails this morning is that is that an excuse or how long before how long were you home before this ride? Two hours? No excuse. Are you doing the criticism? Just on camera? Yeah. Well I don't know if I've got a chance of winning one. No I'm not. I'm not having a chance. Yeah I was just thinking about that before when we were riding in I was like oh if it's up to if we're in a small break do I say five grand and I'll give it to you. I won't say anything afterwards. You're in the prize money though that's the thing isn't it? Or giving the prize money that happens a bit doesn't it? Oh yeah no usually you do that. Yeah if you make yeah if someone helps here or yeah yeah. How are you going up? Have you been a bit crook haven't you? Yeah I've been a bit yeah no my intention is not to race till um probably about the start of November I don't reckon. Oh right okay yeah. So what do you do otherwise just because you haven't had the base or? No because I've got to it's going to be pretty intense watching through till the end of September watching Melbourne. Oh of course of course. No no I just I'd like to I love training and once it's a quick start you don't really train much anymore so I'd like to just kind of have a bit of a usually I'd spend this time with you training but I just haven't been able to because I've been crook and I just want to spend that kind of extra bit of time getting some longer riding in and I know I just love going for long rides you can get a passion for going out on on the two wheels again. So how much long riding do you think you need to do like for me like it's mid-August like what should I be doing now like if you want to hit the crit seats it's hard in October. What defines a long ride for you? What should I know you say well normally like we call it after seat the form finder that's about a 130k ride um there in back is that's is that long enough? Oh yeah maybe you want a tiny bit longer for me it's five hours five hours or four hours on the pedals maybe. Right how many times a week? Probably two. Two? Two times a week? For how long? Before you start building an effort. It's got to be six months I reckon. Six months. When the crits finish? Yeah probably a couple of months. Yeah yeah no efforts at all. No no you do efforts but yeah that a lot of people would say that you don't need a long ride but you do yeah there's ways around having a long ride but if you want to be good for the whole season I think you need to have a longer ride. Yeah okay and when you do your long ride are you just pedaling? Yeah I just like riding I just yeah yeah if you don't do those long rides what's that going to do with your crits? Well that's what that's what that's why I'd like to start a bit later just so I can have a couple because last year I didn't really do any and you said you were sort of yeah just because if you race if you race if you race um Sunday morning and then Tuesday afternoon and then you're kind of tired for the rest of the week you don't really finish you don't really fit a long ride in I wouldn't do it on a Saturday and then just because I want to be at home or do whatever else and then then you start wondering where you're going to get a long ride from so I just yeah yeah okay when do you start building in your efforts or do you not just wake the crits? Yeah usually just on a Saturday morning on the whole ride I just try and smash it you know rather than just sitting in through the hills I might try and go be at the front and swap off turns on the way down and on the way back or try and attack in the finish or do something. Yeah okay are they are they well done? You know when you normally do efforts you do like a minute on and five minutes off or two minutes on five minutes off like if you're doing them in a punch ride are you timing it or you just don't really feel like it? No no no you just try and go to the like say if you can slip away in Mordy and you're trying to get to Blackrock it's like eight k's so it's probably going to be like 11 minutes or something practice going up the front yeah yeah they're all going in a small group and going beyond your heart you know whatever your heart rate threshold is going like real deep like harder than race pace yeah right yeah so that's why you start doing to build efforts into your training yeah all right yeah right interesting what about during the week? You've got to be motivated to do your efforts and stuff right I'll try and I'll I think I have to do some now because I haven't ridden for the whole winter so yeah okay yeah interesting if you say to me before even the old rides would like just a just a finish to practice just print finish yeah a couple bit of flak for saying that I suppose but all the uh bogan's in their utes will be out to get me but seeing as they just tried to run us off the road a minute ago yeah yeah because there's because it's a race simulation like the whole point of the hell well I don't know what the origins of the hell I'd wear you know now yeah yeah yeah there was a it was a VFL training ride for the Bernie Quinlan and a few a few bikes around here so with um yeah it's just like and it's kind of evolved into a race simulation you know it's a practice race really you stop at the red lights and all that and you know go as hard as you can up the hills and you try and beat everyone that you're there with it makes it it's mimicking a race try and beat everyone to the finish so I'm trying to hurt everyone that's what it's kind of exact same as a race you know the guys who can't sprint they try and go really early and yeah guys who can sprint try and wait till the sprint or even I know that when my sprint's not going so well I'll consciously focus on trying to have a good finish in the into black rock here coming really late and coming off the wheels whereas if you're racing for a win you might forget how to do that stuff or if you're always seemingly in breakways and you're not contesting a bunch of sprint yeah then rather than getting found out when you're trying to do it at the finish of a race you can practice it on a Saturday morning yeah okay and if it doesn't work you haven't invested or lost anything so when you normally come off the wheels yeah it's about 170 to go 170 to go which is probably pretty far for most people most people probably wait till like 50 or 100 if they're good off the wheels but is that and what would you do on a grip yeah probably longer longer yeah right but then like a fast sprinter would go like in the last 50 or 80 meters or something yeah okay I can't do that though so would you recommend like at external to alright like leading into the season would you be doing doing other sort of other stuff like that in the quest for what in in the figure targeting to try and win a race yeah yeah absolutely yeah what sort of stuff would you recommend oh I can't say no no you want to okay well how about actually this um strength or weaknesses like if my my weaknesses are spring but my strength is say three five and effort should I be focusing on training more on my strength or trying to build my weaknesses yeah well that's a funny thing because they it's um I would say the focus on the strengths absolutely without question but I'm I'm trying to get good I'm trying to get better at golf yeah and I'm really good with my irons yeah and so I just practice my irons all the time and I'm terrible at cutting them around the edge of the green but I never practice it because I'm not good at it right but golf you need to work on your weaknesses of it bike riding you need to just focus on your strengths really yeah sprinting is such an integral part print though like you're not you're not strong at crits I'm so strong at sprint um should you still not be well yeah but yeah that can be the case but a lot of guys who aren't good at sprinting still win a lot of crits if you're no good at climbing are you ever going to be able to train up to win a climbing race or do you just focus on a race that suits a guy that's a bit chunkier yeah okay what do you want to say that you're chunky same as me not as big as me though yeah okay that's how that's how I say it yeah I'm never gonna I'm never gonna be as skinny as it was more well like I've lost weight before to be better at climbing but the only intention of that was to be able to make it over climbs to help the team or hopefully see a sprint finish that was on the other side of climbs yeah but with my strength being sprint what I sacrifice being able to get over climbs then takes away my winning attribute which is the sprint yeah so you know you yeah you have to focus on your strengths that's all there is to it really the three to five minutes where that's the power that you need to win any race yeah I'm you know you could you could be sure that all those sprinters in the world tour that's their main target is working on those three to five minutes because that's where races are one yeah right yeah it's different for them because they're running to a finish will be at like probably 500 watts for four or five minutes yeah and then they have to sprint after that well there'd be two ways one is you probably wait till after all of us and then you go smash it up to Mount Eliza after that because that's probably what the four minutes that's probably three and a half or four minutes from Humphries Road to Mount Eliza Village yeah yeah yeah yeah so there's one of them right and then the next one would be is if people go away you maybe try and make a move around the edgy hotel yeah okay because you've got the hills there yeah and then you get a little bit of recovery down into a rickets and then from the bottom of rickets to the finish is two minutes yeah okay so then you just go again there two minutes right there you go wouldn't that that's how I would figure it out yeah okay but then it's like Glenvale Sandown and South Melbourne or Port Melbourne South Melbourne like what's your view on all three like if you win it if you win at some quarter like is that is a cred in that for me yeah author um yeah yeah of course yeah yeah where would you put on the list out of those three third okay aside from the supercrit days I've only I think I've done it five times and I've only not won it once yeah okay maybe six times and not won it once yeah yeah it's just it's two it's two I know it sounds stupid to say but it's two the crit course is too flowing and too fast yeah and you can bust your arse the whole day and then the bunch just catches you in the finish I don't like the back straights a bit scary like that sweeper in the left hand sweeper before the last corner like if you're on the left it pushes you to the right and if you're on the right you have to cut into the left yeah and like Glenvale doesn't really ever have crashes and St Kilda seem to have quite a few yeah even in a grade yeah you see people crash there and no one wants to crash so yeah so what about Sandown and Glenvale and you'd need much fun it's nearly always a sprints and at St Kilda I would say so it looks the less almost less suited like you yeah you're never going to go away in the last two kays and stay away I don't think that's the big thing is that if you start a race you want to try and get a result in every race otherwise don't bother starting yeah that's one of the that's probably the first thing yeah so how do you how do you keep that mindset first oh it just wears you out so Sandown and Glenvale like what do you reckon for you for you better suit if you've got a good two or three minute pair then probably Sandown really because if you're um if you go in a small group there's a lot more breakaways at Sandown and they're more likely to stick yeah I don't know why they didn't used to be but they seem to stick and there's a lot of six man breakaways and seven rider breakaways and stuff yeah I don't know if once people realize that the prize money's gone or whether they don't commit to trying to chase and you know the group just rolls around like I've got no idea what's going on but they get to the climb and they sprint up the climb and then they stop and freewheel and then that's it yeah and when they do that like they maybe close back three seconds on the break but then as soon as they sit up they get another five seconds so yeah it's working the opposite way to what I'm bringing a move back would be but the break usually seems to rotate pretty well together there yeah and or I can maybe geez probably close to 10 times the brakes stayed last time so if you're in a move of six and then you just watch and mark everything that goes in the last two laps well it's only four minutes for a lap no one attacks at the bell they all attack it the back straight there's a good opportunity there depending on the wind especially yeah and it's a pretty long hard sprint so it's probably not really a sprinter's sprint it's a grinding sprint yeah usually a headwind yeah yeah so it turns into about a 25 second sprint but you've kind of raced to the corner there before it so it almost feels harder to race there though like when I raced glimbale and sand down like to me racing in glimbale like sand down just seems like a race I don't know do you find that or oh yeah when when I'm strong and when I'm good like sand down is much more suited to me because as you can like the stronger guys usually win but yeah you can kind of hide in glimbale but you can't hide it sand down yeah that makes sense yeah you can kind of but because the sprinting is long and hard you can't really if you if you're down on your game it doesn't really work if that makes sense tactics is definitely where the race wins come from but if the strongest guy in every race wins then like probably Dave Curley or Tom Weeper who win all the races but so how do you how do you because you can't really train tactics you know or you can yeah yeah yeah how do you train tactics I'm not telling is it a hell right thing as well is it true is it trying no you'd learn them on the hell right but you'd also learn them the best is track the best is if you can get on the track like if you can yeah because everyone's on the same gear you've got to use you yeah Thursday that's probably the perfect place to start just the outdoor track and Carnegie there why does that say she could tactics because you're on there you're all in the same gear or you can't change gears in the sprint so you have to time how you run at the wheels and how you come off the wheels and with enough time that if you can't keep pressure down to the finish line someone's going to roll over the top of you like it's all about timing how much you've got in your sprint that's kind of a trick to it have you seen guys go down to improve their closing yeah Nick Granger's one he's probably if he's not in a grade already we're very close right a lot of you know he was probably degrade the start of you know probably the start of last season and then b-grade is contesting every finish for the wind you know so wow it's a good case study yeah once everyone starts getting in the groove of the season at the end of the you know starts getting harder to win yeah the young guys have used their school holidays to train full time and is it definitely easier to win like in the first couple months you reckon oh i don't think it's ever easy to win probably wrong it's probably a good year to be the start of the season to go on well because they a lot of people would use the Melbourne to Wannable as their first right you know yeah you just naturally come in fit because you've got that race at the end of the year so you're fit in October and then you just hold on yeah and other guys like really motivated and they come out the start of the year and then like but then it kind of dies off by the time november comes around because eight weeks in and kind of having a break or anything yeah i couldn't tell you when there's been there's never easy to win yeah but easy to win once would be when it's wet but then there's other people who are good at cornering in the wet as well so i wouldn't put easy and win in the same sentence ever maybe eddie mookes or saigun can say that but i don't think anyone else in history has ever been able to say that oh what else i'm trying to think what else are you going to go into all aero stuff you're going to go aero jersey and those stupid socks and the aero helmet yeah i know all right mate i'll see you around thanks for your um thanks for your time appreciate it enjoyed it now this video was brought to you by tinelli in case you didn't know i'm wearing tinelli are you wearing tinelli tinelli as well yeah there you go and you tommy works for tinelli so if anyone wants any custom kits or just just some good kit anyway yeah how do they reach it oh you can look how do they reach it email i'm gonna get that one out no of course not no i'll leave that one in there yeah tinelli dot com dot au yeah tinelli quarry or otherwise one three hundred four tinelli nice all right mate thanks for your time appreciate it catch you out in the road hell ride see me off the front are you going to surrender are you i'm not sure about that