And then what happened?

Victorian Road Champs
NTID TT Camp
16th - 18th August 2009

As you have probably heard, Sunday's RR at Portarlington was cancelled due to dangerous weather. It really was quite horrendous, I have never seen winds like it! Trees were having trouble staying upright, so I am not sure how cyclists were going to stay perpendicular to the ground!!
(Taken from Noire Edition 37, see them at: Noire- a webcomic)

Thus, Sunday was an unexpected recovery day.

Monday: we headed to Ballarat to have a look over the Nationals TT and RR courses. This is the year that I am going to front up to for the National TT, glad I saw that hill at the start so I know what I am getting myself in for though! It is brutal! If I can manage that I think I will be able to manage a ride that I will be happy with :) Being realistic, I won't be riding the RR so I didn't take too much notice of the course, although it also has "the hill" and a speedy descent!

Tuesday: testing time at CycleEdge, one 2 minute effort and one 10 minute effort. Having never done these before, I wasn't sure what to expect. The 2 minute one was alright, I was pretty happy with the power output for that one and yes I did need the bucket, thanks for asking. The 10 minute one I was disappointed with, I really struggled to find a gear that gave me a suitable cadence, as a consequence my power outputs was all over the shop and my average was way down on what I normally put out- boo.

Wednesday: official start to my break! Woohoo! Don't get me wrong, I love my bike, but I need a break both mentally and physically. However, don't think I'll be sitting around doing nothing, I have two other bikes that need to be ridden, starting with RAW Track on Friday night, followed up with some mountain biking over the weekend!

Be sure to come back soon for some bike reviews-I have new road and track bikes to tell y0u about!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your bike- the weather is getting warmer out there so you have no excuse.

It is all fun and games, until someone loses an eye

Victorian Crit Champs
Saturday 15th Sugust 2009
Geelong Botanic Gardens Course
Warmish, little bit breezy.
15 laps of 2.3km oval, sprints every second lap from lap 13-3.

Fast and furious was the order of the race today. The course wasn't technical, you just needed to be careful of the odd hole and the bitumen cutting away to the grass/dirt. There was also a slight rise on the opposite side to the start finish line which had the effect of bringing the speed of the bunch back under control, unfortunately it wasn't enough for anyone to actually get away on.

Nothing got away today. Many tried, including myself, but there wasn't a break to be had for love nor money. It was clear very early on that it was going to come down to a bunch sprint. Also clear from early in the race was that there were a number of nervous bike riders in the bunch, and that combined with speed can be a dangerous combination. The hint of what lay a head was in the couple of adventures I, and several others, went on off the sealed road in acts of self preservation.

Coming into the final sprint, everyone was getting themselves sorted out for the finish and all of a sudden there was that dreadful noise of carbon meeting bitumen. Unfortunately it wasn't one or two bikes, it was about 30% of the bunch that was hitting the ground. I was positioned on the other side of the road to where things happened, yet still needed a brief detour on the grass to not get caught up in things. With all the commotion, I hesitated a little, my initial reaction was that the bike race was over and that sprinting would be a bit hollow. I don't think I was alone in that thought. I did get over my hesitation, though it was a little late, to finish 8th. Given the circumstances, I am somewhat ambivalent about this.

Jenny Macpherson was first over the line, ahead of Peta Mullens and Davina Summers.

The damage to the girls with the NTID group for the weekend included- broken collarbone (Bec Halliday), serious grazing, abrasions and bruises (Sarah Roy), black eye and soft tissue damage (Bron Ryan), and some bruising (Laura Luxford). I believe that there was another broken collar bone and some other injuries. Heal well and swiftly girls.

Who left that there?!

Victorian State TT Champs
Gnawarre to Ceres (outskirts of Geelong)
Friday 14th August 2009
Bit of wind, not warm, but not cold.

Flying in to Geelong on Thursday there was time to get a look at the course before we raced over it on Friday. After seeing the 28 km at about 70% of race pace, I was really looking forward to racing it, although a bit apprehensive about the final 1 km, which was considerably vertical! The first 27 km was going to suit me really well, power climbs, fast descents and some flat bits for charging along!

Friday went to plan with my warm and pre-race preps. Oh, except for needing to get Mick to go back and get my license which I had left in the cabin, oops.

The course went out from Gnawarre for 8km then turned and came back past the start and kept going for another 12 km. As I came back past the start, I was feeling incredibly good, much the same as I had at Calga a few weeks ago. The roads were straight most of the time and you had a good view of who was coming after you had turned and who was ahead. After I had turned I saw Kathy Watt bearing down on Suz Alway- Suz was 2 minutes behind me, Kathy 1 min behind her. Suddenly, along with the other aims of the day, I added the goal of not letting Kathy catch me (and hopefully to finish ahead of her!).

As I passed the start line I was starting to make ground on my one minute marker. It took a little while, but I reeled her in and was still feeling incredibly strong. Down the fast descent I snuck a peek at my SRM, only to see my speed creeping over my previous fastest of speed of 72kph- 76 kph was the max speed for the day, adrenaline anyone?!

Past the 5 km marker I was still riding the race plan and feeling good. Same thing at 3km. Then about 2km, the course started to kick up, that was OK. Then at about 1km it just kept dragging. Suddenly my speed was washing away and I was losing time. The encouragement of the kids at the local primary school had a massive impact on my dragging myself to the top. (OK, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it certainly felt it!) As I crested the hill, I found myself a sprinting gear and made for the finish line quick smart. Sian tells me the disk appeared to be working hard as I took the corner for the finish, and we all know appearance is everything!!

In the end I stopped the clock at 43:55.06, 7th place. I also achieved my impromptu target of not getting caught by Kathy, and I finished in front of her (just!). 96% of the race had gone to plan, damn that 4% for raining on my parade!

SA rocket, Carly Light, continued her awesome form, smashing the field with 41:27.55, Louise Kerr took silver (42:30.20), fellow Canberran Bron Ryan took the bronze (42:54.94) and Sarah Roy was 4th (43:09.09).

One day I will be a better hill climber, until then, sheer power will just have to do!!

A few things I like

So, the last couple of weeks have been all about training and making sure I am as ready as can be for the next NRS round in Geelong (August 14-16). Instead of telling you about how "life is a highway" (yes there has been endless highway kms), and how much fun it is to beat the postie up a hill, here are three things that make these kms bearable. (By the way, these are in no way "cash for comment" items, just things I like.)

1) Elmore Oil. Made in Bendigo, Victoria (Australia), this is my favourite oil for self massage. Pharmacologically I am not sure how the tea tree, eucalyptus and olive oils actually combine to relax tense muscles and even if it is just a placebo effect, it works for me! www.elmoreoil.com.au for more details, don't be out off by the arthritis pain relief, though I am sure it is excellent for that as well, this stuff is gold. Although, it is not quite a complete substitute for Phil, my masseur at Canberra Massage...

2) Bellweather Windstorm gloves. Technically these are mountain biking gloves, however, when it is below zero here I don't really care as long as my fingers are warm. These were an awesome recommendation from Bobby at OnyaBike Belco, and I haven't been disappointed. In fact, rather than find my hands too cold, I actually had to take them off on my way to work one morning as my hands were too warm! And, yes they have a toweling bit for wiping your nose in the cold too! My only complaint is that they can be a little cumbersome when it comes to getting things out of your pockets or unwrapping your food- hot tip, be prepared! And to top it off, they are inexpensive too, RRP $40.

3) My fixxie. The perfect recovery bike for me- enforced small gear all day and no free wheeling! No it is not one of these new fashionable fixxies that has been blinged out, it is a geared bike that has had some corrective surgery to fix it. To be honest, it is the ugliest bike on the road, but so ugly it is HOT! (If it wasn't so cold outside, I'd go and take a photo for you!!) I really do enjoy riding this bike, reminds me of track, and I can feel the benefits of continual spinning that transfer across to the rest of my riding.

Just thought I'd share a few hot tips and mix things up a bit :)

Take care and thanks for reading.

Dancing on the pedals

NSW ITT Championships
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.

L to R: Sarah Roy, me, India McLean

More photos here (including previous races as well)

Wanted...

A jersey that says:

Unauthorised wheel suckers will not be tolerated.
Do a turn or back off!

It is a pet hate of mine to have people I don't know sit on my wheel and not offer to do a turn. Mostly it is when I am riding to work when it annoys me the most. Generally it is a guy sitting on and usually I am on my fixxie!
Although there was a guy trying to hang on today when we were motorpacing along the highway, he didn't last long though, I kept calling the moto up, hehehe :D

I don't mind if you want to share the ride, some of my best rides home have been two-up TTs along Adelaide Ave, but it is just not right to just suck a wheel! Especially when the wheel you are sucking makes it obvious you are not welcome, for example slowing down to painfully slow or riding in the gutter, or both together!

If your excuse is that you think you are superior to the wheel you are sucking, knock yourself out and go past, it will make no difference to first wheel riding along and they won't have you free loading off them!

I believe this is a way of life in Italy... drop over to Vicki's blog to read about her experience.

OK, rant over! I feel better now :)

Fortune Favours the Brave

DBR Australia ACT Women and Juniors Tour
NRS Event
Stage 4: 71.8 km RR
Sunday 5th July
Still Windy!

At the start of the day I was 20th on GC. Whilst not exactly outstanding, it was definitely better than I was expecting. My goal today was to finish as close to this as possible.

It also occurred to me that this was only my 3rd complete stage race. Wonder what I have actually been doing with myself...

The course was similar to Saturday's stage. Out along Uriarra Road all the way to the Homestead, U-bolt and back to Coppins Crossing Rd, to the end of that, U-bolt and then back along Uriarra Rd for 10km to the same turn around as yesterday and then back to SFP. Lots of ups and downs and the false flat which doubles as a wind tunnel!

The bunch had dwindled from Saturday, which most of us weren't unhappy about, but the pace at the start was rather pedestrian and I found myself getting cold and bored... time to mix it up a bit. At about 3km in, I manoeuvred my way to the front of the bunch and went for an attack. I wasn't sure what the bunch was going to do, I wasn't really a threat to overall GC and in the conditions it would take a superhuman effort to stay away all day. On a glance back the bunch hadn't reacted, nice, figured I'd keep digging. Next check Jemma O'Brien was on my wheel- cool, misery loves company!

The two of us continued to swap off through Uriarra Crossing, taking the QOM points, and then along with false flat. Today this stretch was a wind tunnel at its finest. We had to work so hard to even keep moving along this section, let alone hold the bunch off! In the end the bunch caught us at the turn around. That was a lot further than I expected!

Back along the towards the Crossing, I tried to sit in and recover, but that was made difficult by the wind. You know sometimes it is just better to keep rolling through... the things you learn hey?! Then I managed to get stuck behind a dodgier wheel than mine on the descent into the crossing, bugger, lots of ground lost! Determined not to drop too far down GC, I forced my legs to go "fast" up the first of the three sisters. It is easier to do this when there are people in front of you to chase! On the second sister I even managed to pass the spares car!! (Yeah, small things I know!)

A small group of us came together, including Chloe McIntosh, India McLean, Delphine Astier, Heather Evans and B-grade winner Zoe Watters, and we stayed together for the rest of the race, encouraging/willing/dragging each other to the end of the race! We were all creeping towards the end. Myself, maybe I spent a few too many biccies on my adventure up the road, but you never ever know if you never ever go!

As expected there were lots of lessons learnt today. My hot tip from this weekend is: get the little things right and the big things will be easier!

In the end I was 25th on GC, (18th if you take the U19s out) which I am happy with. I was also 4th on QOM which makes me smile :)

From here, it can only improve.

Thanks to ACTAS for the support over the weekend- Glenn, Brent & Sian. Thanks to Pothole and Dean for preparation. Thanks to Matt for putting up with a grumpy cyclist!

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.

You might surprise yourself

DBR Australia ACT Women and Juniors Tour
NRS Event
Stage 2: 38km RR
Saturday 4th July
Sunny, little breezy.

With the ITT out of the way, it was time to relax, sit back in the bunch and get to the end of the tour. The rest of the stages were just for "training".

It was a big field with the U19, Elite and B grade women all combined for the tour. I think there was close to 70 of us. (OK, compared to some of the races some of you are doing O/S that is not big, but for us that is a lot!) It would have been nice to have been able to use both sides of the road, but we weren't, so we had to suck it up and try and move through the bunch as best as possible. Although staying on the left of the line was more difficult for some than others and the commissaires weren't at all happy with us- and certainly let us know about it on Sunday morning. I believe there were a couple of crashes in the bunch in this stage, I know of at least one as they touched my wheel and came down.

The course was out and back and then left hand turn out and back and into the finish- kind of like a big L. The plan was to be at the front at the first U-bolt. Didn't quite go to plan and ended up a bit too far back when the kick went up the 3 sisters- not that I was ever going to stick with that! (Do I really need to remind you that I have been solely focused on TT and haven't really done any hills lately?!) But despite my poor position at the turn, I promptly set about making up positions and trying to limit the gap to the front of the race.

The little group I was with managed to hold our gap to the leaders until they headed for home after the second U-bolt. In the end I won the kick for our small bunch, finishing 19th, 2:39 on the front bunch. I can't be unhappy with that, I had expected to lose a lot more time and be much further down. Although, I will definitely be trying to improve my hill climbing!

Patiently Impatient

DBR Australia ACT Women and Juniors Tour
NRS Event
Stage 1: 15.5km ITT
Friday 3rd July
Temperature dropping and WINDY! (Typical Canberra weather.)

After last weekend's showings I was pretty gee'd for the TT stage of the tour. I knew I wasn't in much form for the rest of the tour with all the commotion at the start of the year, but I was going to have a red hot go at this stage.

Race prep was pretty much perfect. I had the day off work to go through all my pre-race habits and was fairly well set when 2:33:30 rolled around. I would be lying if I said I hadn't been nervous about this event, I always find that with the "big ones", and even more so on home soil- something about local expectations...

Going through the motions of the warm up

The wind out on course made it incredibly tough at times, it seemed to be coming constantly either as a cross or head wind, never did it seem to be a tailwind! So typical of Canberra!

At the time I felt I was riding pretty well, but in retrospect, I am not that happy with it. There are few things that I need to work on and by no stretch of the imagination was this my best TT. I know that this was but a small step on the way to target events, but as always, never happy unless there is at least a podium! Patiently impatiently!! If this was the absolute best, then there would be no point persisting, but this result encourages me to persist and keeps me driven.

In the end I finished 6th overall, 4th for the Elite women's category.

Out of the start gate.

I was glad to have my long sleeve skinsuit and knee warmers on!
(Photos from Andrew Stainley, ACTAS)