Bumps, Blades, and Bowballs- Cambridge Boatie Chat

Grrrrr....not a good outing. Two people *still* out of comission so rowed with two subs.

Race pace of 39-40 sounds FAST for boys, FTB?

Grrrrr....not a good outing. Two people *still* out of comission so rowed with two subs.

Race pace of 39-40 sounds FAST for boys, FTB?

Yup.

Although that's only really for the first minute, we'll drop down to 38 after that, probably!

Hit 42 out of the winds, though, and that was quite exciting.

ok so i guess my predictions for the first division (M1):

FaT
Jesus
Caius/LMBC (not sure if lmbc will catch caius)
Emma
Downing
Clare
Pembroke

I'm out of predictions now - the last few are just guesses. Oh and I'm assuming that Caius will at least be a bit better than their recent performances suggest!

I would be highly surprised if your boat was to go over the course at 38. In all probability your crew would be dead after about a couple of minutes; just basing this from seeing you guys on the river - your crew don't look *that* fit. Plus if your still rating that high when people get tired it could become a bit of a mess. We're only planning to wind to about 40 and then drop down to 34ish. It's not all about rating, it's putting the power down effectively

....although being in div 3 I would imagine that it's highly unlikely you will row over, seen as though carnage usually ensues before then!

These are good points, but I can assure you that there are race plans and so on considering all this... not that I'll reveal them, though, you never know who might be reading this To be fair, race pace for the first minute or so will probably be high at 38+. It's just the adrenaline, I suppose, and I will be riding on them to keep efficiency, and will doubtlessly drop down.

In terms of fitness, though, whilst they aren't the fittest boat on the river, 2k at rate 36 is achievable. We managed all of Head of the Nene rating above 33, with the first third at 35-6, and combined with the adrenaline of bumps keeping high power and efficient rowing (which has come on over the past week a huge amount) shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Which can be compared to Clare Hall M1 who plan to do bumps at rate 27 or so...

In other news, how much have Caius stacked their first boat? I've been hearing rumours and all kinds of gossip about what they could do and the people they have available, have they changed anything yet?

so excited about bumpage!
our getting on race yesterday felt good, and the crew seemed to respond well when i shouted, 'push for doughnuts'. it's all about the post-race sugar fest.

so excited about bumpage!
our getting on race yesterday felt good, and the crew seemed to respond well when i shouted, 'push for doughnuts'. it's all about the post-race sugar fest.

JESUS DOMINATION!!!

(Joke)

Willa you think Jesus are strong enough to climb in M1?

lol, I have no idea what i'm saying here. Reality is, I don't think I've mastered the correct bumps technique yet, I'm far more of a fixed distance rowing type of rower.

I can't really tell for sure from my vantage point here in America. They lost Don this year, who is without a doubt one of the finest coaches I have ever worked with. But then again, the past couple of years they've always shown huge promise coming in to bumps and then somehow disappointed slightly on the day. (e.g. the infamous ejector crab of 04, which I was so lucky to be a witness of, and then helped us bump clare back on the re-row). They're going to fast, I'm sure of that, and I have no doubt they'll push hard at First and Third. But recent results suggest that FaT are a strong crew themselves, and I can imagine that once they get the headship after the first day, they aren't going to be letting it go without a fight. And jesus will have been busy on the first two days getting their bumps, so FaT will already have had a day to get used to the conditions at the head of the river - and I can imagine that things feel pretty comfy from that vantage point.

To take the headship from a crew you need a chasing crew which is markedly better than the headship crew. That is obviously the case with FaT vs Caius this year. Last year, FaT looked at least as good as Caius, if not a smidge better. But it wasn't nearly enough to get the headship.

But then again, Jesus are a bunch of monsters and so I wouldn't be too suprised if they did chase down FaT. But my money is still on FaT to hold on to it.

just my two cents.

I'd just like to apologise to Catz M2 on behalf of FaT M5 for embarrasing you all like that.

They asked for a practice race against us thinking we were M3 or something, from Ditton to the Railway Bridge. We gained about two lengths on them. Quite a confidence booster, considering they're halfway up Division 3 and we're about a third of the way from the bottom of Division 4, although apparently every single one of their boats spooned last year...