New recruits get Rapha Condor Sharp's 2012 season underway - 13/01/12

As has become customary for Rapha Condor Sharp over the past few years, the British team fielded a presence in the very first races of the new season, the Jayco Bay Criteriums and The Mars Australian Road Championships in Victoria, Australia.

Darren Lapthorne was the first antipodean recruit for the men in black in 2009, and was followed in 2010 and 11 by Zak Dempster, Dean Windsor and Casey Munro. In 2012 in line with the teams new direction focused on young talent, two fresh faces were signed up from down under. Richard Lang from Sydney has been on the radar of Kristian House since the two rode together during a brief spell in 2008, and Tasmanian Ben Grenda comes to the team as a former National U23 Criterium Champion.

While the first week of January still may seem a long way away from the start of Rapha Condor Sharp’s European season, the Bay Crits and the Australian National Championships has always been a reliable first test of the season.

This year Lang was the sole RCS representative in a star studded Bay Crits lineup, and he had a week of mixed fortunes in what is becoming a very demanding event. He takes us through the action.

“Urban Hotels was the sponsor for our composite team, which featured some top riders including Chris Sutton (CJ), Bernie Sulzberger, Bert de Backer and Koen de Kort.”

“Day one on the water in Geelong was a super tight 600m hotdog course. It was definitely going to be a shock to the system. Races like this one always get off to a furious start. I wasn’t feeling too bad, but I didn’t ride aggressively enough and I missed the 13-man break that went up the road. It didn’t matter too much as we had CJ and Bernie up there. While the rest of the field that was still left was pulled out. We ended up CJ running 2nd and Bernie 4th but also taking the sprint jersey.”

“Day Two in the Botanic Gardens was an easier course on paper but it was made much harder by the 45 degree heat. This meant there was a world first, having a feed zone in a crit, something that was just ridiculous! Once again a big move went and we had Bernie in it so we were sweet. I just had to stay attentive just in case anything else slipped away. It came down to the break fighting it out for the win and Bernie took a nice 3rd place and cementing his place in the sprinters jersey.”


Richard Lang raced in his new colours as soon as Jan 1st.
Image courtesy of Cyclingtipsblog.com  

“In the mornings before the crits (which are normally late afternoon –Ed) we tap out a few hours training together, and I just knew day three around Portarlington was going to be a rough one. The course was either up or down and as soon as the gun went, my body did not agree. I just felt so empty it wasn’t even funny. About 15mins later I was on the sidelines watching the field getting smaller and smaller. The break once again stuck and CJ and Bernie were up there in the bunch kick. At the end of the day Bernie (who will also ride in the UK for Raleigh in 2012) was still in green, and both CJ and Bernie were still in touching distance in taking the yellow.”

“Day Four was on the other side of the bay in Williamstown. We cruised an hour before and I knew the legs were slightly better so hopefully I could have a good day. GreenEDGE pretty much controlled the race till halfway then CJ lit it up and put half the field (including me) on the sidelines. It came down to a bunch kick with both CJ and Bernie running in the top 10.”

“It wrapped up a pretty successful week for our team; we won both the overall team prize, as well as the sprints classification through Bernie, who also managed 4th overall.”

“Overall on a personal note I was slowly improving over the four days, as my legs and lungs hadn’t felt intensity like that in a while. It was a really good start to the year, and I’ll only be getting better from here on in.”

Unlike Lang, Ben Grenda chose to skip the intense four days of criterium racing to better prepare for his defence of his Australian criterium title, which took place the day after the Bay Crits.

Grenda who was representing the Tasmanian Institute of Sport, was once again in the thick of the action in the criterium title on the streets of Ballarat, but a near collision in the final bend cost him dearly and he was quite content to take home a bronze medal.

“I was pretty nervous coming in to the national crit title being defending champ. I had put a fair bit of pressure on myself to perform as I didn’t want last years ride to look like a one off.”

“Long story short I had no team mates so I had to gamble when a small group went off the front late in the race. Fortunately one of the bigger teams missed it and the race was all back together with a lap to go. I got caught back going into the last hair pin corner so I had to make the dive bomb move up the gutter which put me in good position coming out of the corner for the up hill sprint but I lost a lot of my speed on the exit. Coming across the line I was relieved to have come away with a medal and pretty satisfied with my race.”

Grenda’s good form continued with a strong 5th place on a hilly circuit perhaps not ideally suited to his powerful frame at the U-23 Road Championships on the following Saturday.

“In the road race the AIS guys took over and put the hammer down from about the halfway point. Within a couple of laps of them being on the front the number of guys in the race had cut in half. Three guys including eventual winner Rohan Dennis got away with two and a half laps to go and another guy rode across and joined them. Being a big guy I found the going tough over the mountain every lap (12 lap race) but ended up being the only real sprinter in the main bunch (about 15 guys) coming in to the finish.”

“I managed to win the bunch kick for fifth by a length or two. I was again pleased with my performance and it has given me a good start and a bit of confidence coming in to the new season.”

In the Elite men’s race that was an all Australian affair for the first time, as previously the organizers had run the event as an open race that allowed foreigners to compete for the win, but not the title (Britain’s Jeremy Hunt is actually a former winner) Richard Lang was again the sole RCS representative.

Lang along with all bar 21 hardy souls abandoned the race during the latter stages when the tough Buninyong circuit, and a highly aggressive GreenEDGE team that were desperate to take out their first national title at their first attempt, tore the field to pieces.

The two Australian recruits will now finish off their pre-season preparations in the heat of the Australian summer before heading to the Northern Hemisphere to join their new team mates at the team’s second training camp in late Febuary.

<  ·  >