ZZRC Team Phoenix Start Round 1 of ZRL

Phoenix

ZRL Round 1

Southern Coast Cruise

After a nail-biting wait for a race pass, Phoenix were lucky enough to make it into the starting pen for Round 1 of this year’s ZRL. Right from the start it was clear that Andy, Pierre, Dave, Martin, Nicolas and myself Tobi were suffering from identity issues. We hadn’t discussed our sock and hat colours in advance so we had two riders in orange, and two in green with only back pocket squirrels to tell them apart. I was supposed to be in red but forgot my hat and I really, really wanted to wear my funky new lightning socks. Andy was so befuddled by this that at the end of his first pull he rather confusingly called me by his own name and after that it seemed that the easiest thing would be if everyone was called Andy. So Andys 1 to 6 set off together and despite not really being sure who anybody was, we managed to get into the right order almost immediately and were soon flying along in a lovely straight line.

It’s a tricky course to stay in line on but we did much better than I thought we might, and we got off to a flying start, with lovely smooth transitions at the front and some really great lines. Over the three and a half months that we’ve been racing, we’ve made great progress with our technique and it was fantastic tonight to see the seamless changes of front rider with the quick and efficient drop to the back by whoever had just finished their pull. There was a small amount of bunching in the middle now and then but considering the rolling nature of the course, it really wasn’t too bad.

About half way through, a gap developed and Nico went back to bring Dave and Andy back in. A combination of Nico’s expert sweeping skills and some serious determination from Dave and Andy meant that they closed what was threatening to become quite a serious gap very quickly. In the meantime, Pierre and Martin took extended pulls at the front until we were all back together again. By now we were nearly at the end of the course and we kept together perfectly, staying in line until the last few hundred meters when we got excited and launched into a bit of a mad dash! We crossed the line together slightly ahead of our predicted time, which was a fantastic result!

This was a great debut in ZRL and we did ourselves proud. Our lines and transitions were very smooth and we worked really well together as a team. Next week’s points race will be something new for us, but I know that we will approach it with enthusiasm and determination as always. And hopefully we will all have regained our identities by then!