ABR Flying Monarch ZRL Race 4, Season 2

Team Report from Team ABR Flying Monarch, Race 4.

A challenging TTT for the monarchs produced some surprising results.

Firstly Faris kindly agreed to be loaned out to another team to make sure they could score points, leaving us with 5 riders. As soon as we got out of the gate, Dave set a good pace around 500w and then reduced the power for the rest of the group to get on - unfortunately, his power meter decided it was going to stay at 500w without pedalling for the next 30s so he shot off over the horizon leaving his team wondering what the hell he was playing at

The course begins with a lead-in from the Fuego Flats start pens to the rock arch, which is also our finish line. Travelling clockwise around the desert loop, descend through the redwoods and get dropped onto Ocean Blvd.

Take Ocean Blvd to downtown Watopia then hit The Esses to the Italian Village (sprint if you’d like). Take a right at the fountain to head towards the Volcano, then a left onto the glass bridge before continuing straight onto The Esses once more.

This time when we hit the Italian Village we’ll continue toward the 360 Bridge, but hang a right before we get there onto Ocean Blvd. We’ll ride almost the entire length of Ocean Blvd, turning right after coming out of the tube so we can head toward our start/finish line. The route ends at the sprint finish rock arch.

Not to be deterred the rest of the team settled into a great rhythm off the bat, and put in the 4th fastest sector one time, with smooth rotations and great communication.

Unfortunately, Dave was not able to fix his power meter issues and had to drop from the race. The monarchs were reduced to four almost immediately. The team soldiered on, but it was clear after about 10km that Barry was starting to feel the strain. The team radio chirped into life “Mission, protect Barry” - the team rallied and Barry tacked on 4th wheel, with Keith, Arne and Emma seamlessly rotating and sharing the work. Despite only having four riders we were up 30s on team NL behind us.

Keith and Arne started taking 1-minute pulls to ease the strain on the rest of the group, and they pulled like Clydesdales, never dropping the pace.

A bit further down the road and the strain was starting to show on Barry, the poor man had an average HR of 184 until this point and he was bouncing on and off the back like a Yo-Yo. The team did a great job of recognising the gaps and working as a team to close them or let Barry get back on without slowing down too much. Unfortunately, team NL were able to increase their pace, while we were still hanging on by a thread to overtake us in the final sector, but Barry had been digging so deep he developed an Australian accent by the end of the race.

Final result: 5th with four riders, holding on to 4th spot in the league.