Wantabadgery (near Wagga Wagga)
Sunny and Hot!
The focus for these 2 races was obviously the ITT with the RR being a bit of a bonus while we were there. The ITT course at Wantabadgery is perfect for me- false flat, being slightly downhill on the way out and then uphill after the turn around. Running fixed, the only concern was the wind, which seemed to be a head wind both ways- not sure what was going on there!
The race itself was pretty straightforward, I was racing in D grade, since there was only 2 women competing it was against the men or nothing and I was 4th away. The main competition for me was actually the U17 boys that were racing. I had a cracker of a start and remember thinking how much fun this was (hmm, did I mention it was hot? :p). I had passed 2 people in front of me within 2km and picked off another one after the turn around. U-bolts on a fixed wheel are a bit of fun and I certainly lost a bit more time than I would have liked at the turn around, but that didn't seem to worry me too much. The SRM output showed that I finished fast up the "hill" and I certainly felt strong despite the wind. Official time for the 10km was 16:09.07min, which gave me first place (and would have had me in the top 8 of the other 3 grades as well!). I had hoped for a 40kph average, but the wind made that a bit ambitious for me today.
Unfortunately I didn't get as long as I would have liked between the ITT and the RR, but that is the fun of double header racing and you take what you get I suppose. There was about 18 started (I think) and the pace initially was pretty sedate, that was OK I needed to ride the ITT out of my legs before the going got going, unfortunately 6km from the start there is one of the steepest, nastiest little pinches I think I have ever encountered in racing, it just kind of went straight up. This is when I realised that my legs really did a bit longer to recover from the ITT, and slowly the bunch got away from me as they approached the top of the pinch, and with a long fast descent on the other side, all I could do was suck it up and chase! So this became my second TT for the day! (of course I could have just turned around and rolled back to the start as I really wasn't going to catch them, but where would the fun be in that!) So chase I did. And I kept chasing slowly picking up other guys who had been spat out, first one and then another 2. A four person paceline is so much more efficient than just me in the wind! As we covered the last 15km our little time trial team had become about 10, a mix of D and C grade. By the final 1km we had spat a few of those out and the final sprint was the 4 of us that had come together after the KOM. After some poor positioning, I really need to learn how to make others come through and take a turn/get off the front!, I ended up 2nd in our little sprint, which worked out to be 7th overall. Not too unhappy about that at all, given the disaster at the start!
All in all it was a good weekend for Onya Bike Belco- my results here, and also at the Scott 24hr Mountain Biking: first in the Male Musketeers (team of 3) and the Mixed Musketeers, fifth Mixed Team of 4. Nice work everyone!
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