Tortoise vs Hare

The good people from the Vikings Cycling Club have a 3 race series for summer, known as the Hilltop Finishes. As the name suggests, the race finishes on a hill top. I missed the first one, which finished at the Tracking Station, but was told that the race up Corin would be good for me, even if just for training.

The 830 start was perfect for this time of year, although after the torrential downpour the night before, the humidity was pushing 97%!

Women’s A grade was combined with Men’s C grade and we rolled away about 90 seconds behind the A/B grade men. For the first 20 km we stayed together quite nicely, although I realised after that we had actually dropped the other girl who was racing. With a bit of wind around and the impending very long climb, there was little incentive to try for a break away.

The hares in the bunch (ie the dudes) started playing silly buggers and attacking each other about 1km in to the 14km drag to the rec centre. Knowing there was an awful long way to the top, I chose not to partake in this. I was also busy getting my ice cold bidon from expert soigny, Matt.

Patience was going to be key to getting to the top, as far as I was concerned. I found myself a tempo that I could maintain all the way to the top and set about my tortoise approach to climbing. My pace was faster than training pace and attacking over the crest of each of the rollers ensured that slowly but surely I was able to pick off the boys in front of me! At times it was even a bit stealth like!

End of the day, patience was a virtue and I even surprised myself being able to attack from the KOM mark from Canberra Tours gone-by. I missed 5th by 10 seconds- perhaps I was a little too patient! I was the first woman home and in the end I wasn't as far down as I might have been at this time last year! I like progress!!

And if you know me, you will know that I am not known for my hill climbing. After this, however, I reckon there might actually be an inner climber and they might be ready to come out and play!

Just for fun, here is the speed and altitude profile from the race.
That is a lot of climbing at the end!