2023 Year in Review
If someone had asked me five years ago, at what level do you think your cycling will be at in 2023. I would have replied better than where I am now. In 2018, aged 50 I dipped my toe into the local road racing scene as a novice in D Grade. Looking back on the year, 2023 is the year where I became a more rounded cyclist. What I mean by that is being competitive in a wider range of events and better race craft.
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| Highlights from Strava |
The type of riding I did this year varied more from previous, where I focussed on Zone 2 riding for the first four months of the year as I prepared for an Ironman and I credit this with the improvement experienced. Following the Ironman, I returned to road racing and had my most successful season ever, with 8 podium finishes and that promotion to C grade that I had been working on for a few years. All up, I completed 29 events across triathlon (Olympic, Half and Full IM), Individual and Team Time Trials, Criteriums, graded scratch races and Handicaps. Unfortunately no multi-stage tours or track cycling, which I will come back to in 2024.
Date | Goal/Comment | Result | Achieved |
01/01/23 | Avg 35km/h at Amy Gillet Almost made it, but getting dropped by the elite riders in my age group half way up the Deans Marsh climb meant that I could not go with them and a second group formed. Leaving this goal on the table for 2024 | 34.8km/h |
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01/01/23 | Amy Gillet Gran Fondo, Top 20 in Age Group The depth of this field in the 55-59 category is insanely good. I had to let them go on the climb and ride my own race at my pace, which was fortuitous, as I picked up about 5 riders in doing so. I managed some record numbers on the day and my fastest ever Amy's which was helped by the conditions. Ultimately I was pipped for 6th on the line by hundredths of a second, but it was a great day out. Changing this goal to top 10 for 2024 | 7th | 10-09-23 |
01-01-23 | Earn a promotion to C grade or be consistently placing in D grade with Northern Combine or B grade with Northern. Promotion was earned in the NC race series after a win in the Hell of the West, a top 10 in a handicap and a couple of placings. Goal for 2024 is to place in a couple of C grade events with NC and B grade events with Northern. | done | 19-08-23 |
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No FTP goals this year, so I'm going with a stretch goal to see if I can increase my record FTP by 2% 4.34 w/kg before the Tour of Mansfield in March. | |||
01-01-23 | Do a 3-5 day hike with Paula Ok, this is not a cycling goal, but a personal one. In 2023, Paula and I did a 3 day hike on the Kepler Track in NZ and a 5 day hike on the El Camino trail from San Sebatian to Bilbao. Hiking is something we both enjoy, so I'm keen to do more of it. | done | |
27/08/21 | PR on Mt Pleasant Not completed and to be honest, I'm going to drop this off as I feel it's too dangerous with traffic and kangaroos |
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01-01-23 | PR Kinglake with a sub 20min I only rode Kinglake a handful of times in 2023, so I'm not giving up on this one yet. |
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01-01-23 | Ride Victoria's Seven Peaks. Victoria has some of the best mountains in Australia to climb. This has been on my list for a while and I'm hoping to tick it off in January while life is a little quieter. | ||
01-01-24 | Strength train twice a week. Post Ironman I had my most consistent strength training phase since Covid. As I get older, I know that maintaining muscle mass is vital to support healthy ageing. My focus is on two 30-40 min sessions per week, which are done in the afternoon on the hard riding days. The workout is primarily based on TrainerRoad's strength training for cyclists. | ||
01-01-23 | Get out on the mountain bike at least monthly with Mauricio and Andrew. Apologies to Mauricio and Andrew. We did get out and ride together on a couple of occasions. |
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01-01-24 | Improve sprint power between 1-30 seconds. During 2023, I recorded my best ever sprint numbers between 3-23 seconds, which was very gratifying. This was assisted by working on technique and strength training. | ||
01-01-24 | Do something epic every month As I get older, I like the idea of setting myself mini-challenges. It could be a hike, a ride, run or even a swim. Just one thing which gets me out of my comfort zone. | ||
01-01-23 | Make a gravel ride happen with my wife In 2023, we sold my wife's road bike and are yet to buy a gravel bike. We did however hire bikes in Wanaka (NZ) where we rode some gravel and Barcelona and enjoyed a ride together. Perhaps the latter more than the former. | done |
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10-12-23 | Do an Everest WTF, I hear everyone saying. On the 22-12-23, I completed over 9100m on the Kelvin View Short KOM climb about 9km out of Euroa. It was a great day out. | 268km 9113m 14h 6m riding time | 22-12-23 |
01-01-23 | Finish top 10 or top 25% of Masters C or 6 depending on the event. Rolling this over to apply to a multi-stage race in 2024 | 10th at the Nationals Gran Fondo in Ballarat and 7th at Amys | 07-01-23 |
01-01-23 | Win a handicap. The goal of winning a handicap is still unrealised, despite 5 races. I was happy to make the podium in 3 of them, top 10 in one and just outside the top 10 in another. Rolling this over for 2024 | ||
01/01/23 | Finish Top 10 or top 25% of field in an ITT This was initially meant to be for a 3 stage tour, which I didn't do. I managed 5th best time in my age group at the Ironman, so I will take that as a win. 2024, Top 8/20% of the field. | 5th for the bike leg in my age group at Port Macquarie Ironman | 07-05-23 |
05-09-22 | Finish top 25% of age group at PM IM As I wrote in my Ironman blog, this was my initial goal and despite taking an injury into the event, I just managed to sneak into the top 25%. | done | 07-05-23 |
01-01-23 | Win a crit In 2023 I toyed with different ways to win a crit, but I still haven't landed one. I got close with a 2nd on the Tear Drop and launched some unsuccessful long range attacks on National Boulevard without a result, but had a lot of fun and made new friends in the process. Rolling this goal over for 2024. |
Doing my first Ironman at the age of 55, was a highlight of my year. With targeted training, rest and nutrition, I was able to execute a near perfect race and nutrition plan. Unfortunately I injured my hip flexor just two weeks out from the event and had to walk the last 19km of the marathon leg. I learned a lot in the process and will go back and have another crack in around 5 years time. What I gained most out of the training was an appreciation for slowing down and doing a lot of Zone 2 or MAFS training. We all hear it talked about, but very few of us have the patience to persist with periodised (80/20) training.
Ironman Finish
When I returned to road racing after the ironman, I had the base, but initially lacked some top end speed/power. After some targeted specific training from TrainerRoad, the results began to happen. In addition to the sprint power numbers mentioned earlier, I produced my best ever power numbers between 1h15min and 14h.
Again I competed in the 150+ Team Time Trial at Ballarat where we improved our time on the three previous efforts and I'm confident that we can do the same in 2024.
In September, I competed in the Masters 6 road race at the Australian Nationals held at Dookie, not far from where I grew up in Mooroopna. My goal was to stay with the bunch, but after one too many efforts I was cooked and limped home behind the bunch. The next day I rode the Strathbogies, found a great hill to Everest on and another adventure was born.
One of the most satisfying races of the year was a teams event where three of us from Northern, took on 6 riders from Eastern. The 3 of us worked together and picked up 1,4,6, with my job being to shut down the breaks and make the attacks, while my two sprinters stayed out of the action. Sixth place felt like a win and my team mate shared his winnings with me. What a great guy.
To wrap up the year with an Everest, was the perfect bookend to 2023. It's been a year of friendships, rivalries and personal bests. In addition to the blog and telling my own stories, I've enjoyed writing a few race reports as well, which has been a lot of fun. I've learned a lot from interviewing other riders and listening to one old pro who told me "you do too much." I'm now sticking to his wheel and following his moves. I really couldn't ask for much more than that. Happy new year everyone. Onwards to 2024.
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| Euroa Everest Sherpas: Carl, Jake, Andy, Shane & Dan |
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