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When I came home form Okinawa yesterday, I found an envelope in the mail from Funride, the organizers of the Tokyo Enduro event on December 13th. 
We got four certificates with the results, 5th in the mixed category and 25th (to my surprise) in the overall category. Ulrike Jan is the racing name of Kaori Machin, in case you wondered.
Also we got a lapchart. I must say we were a pretty fast bunch, James in particular (44.6 km/hr average on his fastest lap). I marked the best lap times of each rider. One can see two things clearly, first that we always lost at least a minute of lap time when we changed riders (7 times = seven minutes at least, so we could have probably done one more lap if we have changed only three times plus we had 2.5 minutes left at the end of our last lap) and that staying with a fast group pays off (compare James times in his first run when he was out with the leading group to his second and third time). So, now we know and next time we have to be even faster.
We got four certificates with the results, 5th in the mixed category and 25th (to my surprise) in the overall category. Ulrike Jan is the racing name of Kaori Machin, in case you wondered.
Also we got a lapchart. I must say we were a pretty fast bunch, James in particular (44.6 km/hr average on his fastest lap). I marked the best lap times of each rider. One can see two things clearly, first that we always lost at least a minute of lap time when we changed riders (7 times = seven minutes at least, so we could have probably done one more lap if we have changed only three times plus we had 2.5 minutes left at the end of our last lap) and that staying with a fast group pays off (compare James times in his first run when he was out with the leading group to his second and third time). So, now we know and next time we have to be even faster.
3 comments:
Very impressive! Congratulations again.
Just curious - how much drafting were you able to do after the first change (and all subsequent ones) vs how much pulling did you do for others?
BTW, the right tactic must surely be to exchange riders exactly when others do it (i.e. the next person needs to be on standby), and let the slowest rider go onto the course last.
When I was on the track for the first time, the riders were vastly dispersed over the track and I couldn't found a fast group to ride with so I was mainly on my own until the end. There was no drafting at all and I did lap times in the range of 7:30 to 7:45.
On the second time I found at least one other rider who was trying to draft behind me and I could convince him to do some of the pulling, perhaps 25% of one lap. And in thefinal half lap we were overtaken by a faster group to which I could hang on, did almost no pulling then. But one can see that I was faster on the second time.
To be honest, I think the right tactic is to stay with the fast group from the beginning to the end witout exchanging riders at all. You loose one minute in the pit and it is impossible to sprint away from the fast group, riding at 45 km/hr average, get one minute in front of them and exchange riders.
To wait until a fast rider in the group goes into the pit might be a good alternative, but there will be only the two of you, so that will somewhat, but you will not be as fast as the group and it is doubtful if you will be able to get back to the fast group again.
Besides, the second rider of the time doesn't neccesarily know who the other second rider is, that has been exchanged from the fast group.
An even better strategy would be to stay with the fast group and then make one pit stop to get the remaining three riders on the track to form on independent group for the second half of the race.
Very impressive result indeed. James was the fastest and probably should have added a few more laps when he was going so strong. Myself, like MOB, I could rarely profit from any serious drafting and most of the time I found myself doing the pulling. For the 2010 edition, two-man teams with only 1 pit-in will be key to a podium post.
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