We said the race would be a good “time to try” and it seems like you agreed with us! Many new riders joined in and we had our biggest ever start line-up for the B-race.
There was a steady 25kmh wind blowing cold air right along the start/finish straight which made three sides of the course challenging, with headwinds and crosswinds to deal with. Thankfully, the wind wasn’t too gusty and everyone was able to safely get round.
Also amongst our starters was Saudi Games cycling champion Mohammed Aljaber, who looked lean, strong, powerful and cold – almost as blue as his race jersey!!
The A-Race would set off for a half lap warm-up/sighting of the course, while the B-race riders would wait another 2 minutes before starting their race. They had a whole lap of warm up so that all the new riders could see the course and understand the layout and where they would need to ride carefully. Committee Member Mohamed Abou Ghalwa would lead riders around for the B-race. His preferred biking discipline is mountain biking and it appears in the photo below, that he is still imagining riding on a bike with wide handlebars!
Of course, Mohamed is a very experienced rider and fully understands how to ride aero. Look at this masterclass of technique 😉
Attrition – big word for “I wish I was fitter”
Almost everyone gets tired on the long races at Midweek. There is no easy way of getting your bike over the “camel humps” hills, as they are up to 12% in gradient. It just needs power from the legs. Each time you ride them, you feel like you have less and less power available. So at the start of the race you feel great but by the end, everyone feels like they wish they were stronger and had done more training.
Please understand this is normal and not just you who feels this way.
Spirit of Fair Racing
Unfortunately there was an incident towards the end of the A-race where one of the leading riders suffered a puncture. Given that this rider is part of the Al Sharq club, they had a support car on the course and which stopped and was able to provide a spare wheel. This is not a problem for us. As long as a support vehicle never provides any wind blocking or drafting for riders and does not get in the way of any other rider, we are happy that they go round the course.
However, a number of other riders reported to members of the Organizing Committee that once the spare wheel was put on to the bike, the rider then held on to the car and was towed back up to the leading group. We will update the rules on the website to make sure that everyone understands, this behaviour is forbidden and is against our ethos of “fair competition”. We investigated the incident and have discussed it with the team.
Because our rules were not 100% clear, we have decided in this instance to apply a 10 minute penalty to the rider’s time. This time penalty is around 3x greater than the time saved by being pulled and reflects how serious the club is, to promote fair competition. In the future, if any rider is found to have gained an advantage from drafting or being pulled by a vehicle, this will result in a disqualification (DQF).
Podiums and Rider comfort
Because the B-racers finished quite a while before the A-racers, many people had started to feel cold again and decided to head home. We hope to be bringing you good news very soon, that we will be acquiring a hospitality tent for riders to shelter in before and after races, to enjoy food and warm drinks safe from wind, rain or strong sunshine! We think this will make our racers a much happier place to be and for supporters to come along to.
B-Race
In the Bronze position (and first Masters age grouper) was Mohamed Abou Ghalwa, just behind Suliman Alsughier for Silver position. 1m33s ahead of both of them was Ahmed Alqhatani with a finishing time of 1:31:12 – pure gold! Well done to all the other finishers who put themselves to the test. Give yourselves a ‘pat on the back’.
A newcomers to racing with us is Claire (Gina) Charleton who comes from a Triathlon background who was the first finishing lady, with a time of 1:46:38 which gave her 11th place overall. We give strong applause to Daad Almoudi in only her 2nd race with us. We don’t care how fast you were going because we want to celebrate that you battled with the wind and hills on the course, longer than 50 of the 60ish people registered for the race. Your courage and determination were admirable!
A-Race
As I write this race report, I’m disappointed. Two riders, Ahmed Alomrani and Rayan Alkhuwaiter had yet to lose a race this year. This was the first time they started on the same day. I was hoping for fireworks on the last lap but it seems that a gentleman’s agreement was made for Ahmed to pull ahead before the last corner and cruise to the win in a finishing time of 2:14:27. I suspect they had both pressed hard on lap6 of the race (along with Badr Almuhana who later punctured), because they gapped the Al-Sharq bunch. If we had been paying spectators, we would have asked for a refund of our ticket money!
In third place and 5 minutes back was Abdulkarim Al Bashir, heading the cluster of 5 Al-Sharq team mates who’d seen Ahmed and Rayan leave them 3 laps earlier.
Rounding out the places for the top 10 (+10:32 from the winner) was Richard Cross (Team Very Old Men), then Abdulrahman Alanssary (Team Young But Likes Donuts, +14:48) and then Anas Al-Babtain (Team Somewhat Old But Nice Bikes, +21:07).
Another 6 riders completed the whole distance, but fatigue and punctures meant that 11 other riders didn’t do all 9 laps, which sadly included our Saudi champion. Mechanical issues can affect the best of us. A top tip from our Head Marshal Alfie Piñano –
“If you are using inner tubes, trying putting a little bit of tubeless tyre sealant inside them to protect you from small punctures“.
Thanks Alfie.
Next Race and Schedule Change
The next race is Friday 10 February, a 12.5km Time trial in the Ammariah Hills, starting at 21st Street. Location and course details are on this page.
The Organizing Committee has listened to rider feedback and we’ve decided to move Race 12, the 100km ITEA Road Race, to be at Bonita. Many riders missed the 100km race there in early January because of the rain and flooding. So instead of doing another long ride at Midweek, we’ll have a more tactical race at Bonita on 24 February.
