Somersby to Calga, 21.5km
26th July 2009
Overcast, but still- perfect for a TT
It is funny where you get your inspiration from when you're squeezing the last of what you've got to get over the pinch before the finish line. Being le Tour time, I found myself focusing on images of Contador "dancing on the pedals" (in the words of Phil Liggett) to urge myself over the top. Also the thought that it was only a pursuit left on the other side helped as well, odd how I break things in to track dimensions as well!
Today was one of the rare times in a bike race that all things come together. Although I did fail at reading this morning and timed my warm up to finish for a start time 30 minutes before I was actually away! Ooops! In the end I don't think that was the worst thing in the world I was incredibly relaxed and focused, rather than wasting energy being nervous and fretting.
I think the cow was a bit bemused about it all!
From the start I was comfortable on the weapon and was finding it easy to pace myself and hold a good speed. Conscious of the few pinches of the course, I kept an eye on power output to make sure I had something for the final nasty pinch and focused on holding good form.
Always a highlight- I looked down in a 60km zone to find I was speeding! Looked down a little bit later to find I was holding 71kph :D There was also the 6 people that I went past, which is always a nice feeling in TT.
Passing people in front of me, always makes it more enjoyable! (sorry Imogen!)
In the end it turned out that I had ticked all my boxes today- I'd been aggressive, I'd held good form and I had found that little bit extra to really finish off the race. One very happy bike rider! All that remained was for the official times and positions to be determined. My SRM was telling me sub 32 minutes, with an average speed of 40.3kph, but I wanted to see the official results before I got too excited.
After a bit of a wait- something was wrong with the electronic timing- we had confirmation of my data and the podium was decided. Gold, by 1 min 10 seconds, can't complain about that! What makes me the happiest about this podium is that it was at this race that I had my most spectacular fail last year (see here). Congratulations to Sarah Roy and India McLean on a fine effort for the rest of the podium. Also congratulations to Mitch Lovelock-Fay for gold in U19 and to Pothole for silver in MMas2. Commiserations to Sue Powell who copped a flat 4km in, pretty sure you were on form for a cracker Sue!
Special thanks to Dean Redzic and Pothole as my coaches for the preparation for this event; Lyn Heritage and Glenn Doney for their ongoing support; Mick and the boys at OnyaBike Belconnen; NTID program; and Matt for being super! And special thanks to Sian Mulholland for helping me out to improve my position.
1 comment:
Nice Ride
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