Photo from http://adozeneggs.com
I went into this series of handicap races as the reigning female champion and was hoping to put up a good fight to try and retain the pink ribbon, but 2009 wasn't the year for it.
I have already posted about the first stage (see here) and I had hoped on an improved performance at the second stage at Stockinbingal. And under the circumstances I can't be disappointed with 8th over the line on the day.
I had scaled back a couple of training sessions earlier in the week as the threat of flu loomed, you know the feeling when it is there but not quite ready to hit you? Race day came, I wasn't great for the drive across- bad enough to need some cold and flu drugs, but not bad enough to think racing was a bad idea! In what has become a pre-Stock tradition, we park in Cootamundra and rode the 20 km to Stockinbingal. It is only a 40 km race after all! It was during this warm up ride I was started to think racing wasn't such a bad idea, though we decided that was a result of the medication kicking in and I'd be alright once I got to the start line. That was kind of true!
The race was pretty uneventful from my perspective, at least the first 39 km- my bunch rolled along at a reasonable pace to the turn around, although I realised when we turned that we had lost an awful lot of people by this stage and in fact we were down to 5. The 5 of us worked really well on the way back, valiantly trying to stay away from the bunch behind, and we almost did it. We were caught with about 4 km to go, thankfully it was only the bunch that started behind us, and some of the ones who had started with us. This gave me a good opportunity to take a breather and work out where the best place would be for the sprint- I was determined to better my 4th place from last year. A couple of the Riverina clubs were getting their trains worked out so I kept an eye on them.
About 1km out it almost all went wrong! I suddenly found myself sandwiched between two guys- one trying to swing of his train and the other, I think, lining up for the sprint! There were a few very anxious moments as I waited to feel the scraping of skin on bitumen and thuds of carbon and wheels colliding... but somehow that never eventuated, maybe it that was thanks to time on the boards. Anyway, I picked my way around the bunch to the other side of the road where I had clear space for a run at the line, I wasn't giving up hope on that 4th place or better yet! Unfortunately I started to fade just before the line and actually was rolled on the line by Jacqui who had followed my wheel for the last 3 km without me even knowing she was there!! Cheeky cheeky!
So all things considered not a bad effort, but it would pay off! I ended up too sick to go to work on the following Monday, nor was I able to train for most of the week, maybe I should have had that lay down...
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