Australian Cycling Grand Prix Time Trial, Ballarat, Vic.
Friday 15th August
27.4km loop course with lots of corners
Raining, windy and cold!
I was so excited about this race! I had learnt my lessons from the disaster a couple of weeks ago, had had a pretty stress-free week at work and had been stomping through my training. And, more than anything else I was going to enjoy this race no matter what! OK, that sounds a little nuts, but I don't think there is really any other way to approach a race.
The flight down to Melbourne was good and uneventful, I even managed to get a little more sleep. A slight hiccup with the rental car saw us end up with a Fairlane Ghia in place of the lost Corolla- we weren't complaining, this thing was plush :) . Unfortunately we had miscalculated how long it would take to get from Melbourne to Learmonth, and were a little later arriving than expected. That was OK, Matt and I are approaching "well oiled machine" status when it comes to pre-race prep. There was a downside though, I had a rather truncated warm-up which was not ideal in the bitter conditions.
After a bit of a wobble down the ramp I was away as number 7, somewhere in the middle of the field. The aim today was to stay relaxed and ride as well as I could. Conditions were tough out on the course. It had stopped raining by the time I started, but there was still that horrid drizzle around that covers your glasses and makes it very hard to see. In hindsight I possibly should have made better use of the tail wind in the first part of the course, and I should have been more conservative in my gearing for the hill about 2/3 of the way through, and maybe I could have been more aggressive in the second half of the course, but it is always easy to say that now, and these are definitely things to remember for the next race. Apart from over-gearing on the hill, the toughest part of this race was the wind. The amount of energy I spent trying to hold my bike vertical was unbelievable. Apart from causing me to almost kiss the road a number of times, the wind made it really difficult for me to find a good rhythm to power home, especially when there were 2 or 3 riders within passing distance! I got one of them, but frustratingly couldn't get the next (the other had a technical problem, and had to withdraw).
At the end of the day I was 6th, which, given the last couple of months, I was pretty happy with. Since this was only the 4th competitive time trial I have done I had no expectations going in to this race, the plan was to have a better ride than NSW titles, and that was what I did. From a development perspective there is plenty to improve, and that is enough to keep me looking forward to the next race and get me through training.
Full results and report can be found at cycling news: well done to Bridie on a sensational ride and the other podium finishers, Stephanie and Davina.
Special thanks to the people behind getting me ready for this event (and all the others)- John Forrest (Pothole), coach and Dean Redzic, strength and conditioning coach. You guys do an awesome job and certainly makes my job on race day a bit easier! Thanks :D
Thanks for reading, catch you next time :)
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