Um, excuse me legs, we are RACING

DBR Australia ACT Women and Juniors Tour
NRS Event
Stage 2: 40 min + 3 lap Criterium
Saturday 4th July
Temperature dropping and WINDY! (Typical Canberra weather.)

One word, BRUTAL!

At the start of the week, I was totally gee'd for this stage. I knew I was under prepared for the RRs but I had high hopes for this stage. Alas, my legs weren't on the same wave length as head or my heart. No matter how hard I willed them they just lacked spark! Then once my legs didn't want to fire, my head started to over think the race, and I was worrying too much about trying to make sure I was a good position instead of getting myself into said position... vicious cycle! The good news is, I know where the problems are and I reckon I know how to fix them, so bring on some more racing already! In a nutshell, I am just going to think of it as lack of "match practise".

Throw into this mix a bit of laying down on the hot mix, the race being neutralised, what felt like cyclonic winds and the temperature going sub-zero (apparently?!) while we were on course! After rolling around for 5-10 minutes while the crashed riders got up and back on the bike, we were freezing when the race was restarted. There was also comments post race that suggested that the commissaires may have been a bit generous to the riders in the break away with the gap they gave them before we restarted. Oh well, hard to say what affect that really had.

In the end, the bunch was literally blown apart into several smaller bunches with front group taking a lap towards the end. The wind was coming straight across the SFP crit course with the only respite being around the very top corner, and the worst of it as a block headwind through the bottom section! Most of the riders ended up getting pulled off the course with 2 laps to go (myself included) or DNFing of their own accord. Amy Cure was incredibly impressive in the breakaway and then attacking her little group to take the win by about 20 seconds.