The weight of expectation

Some days I am my own worst enemy. I am sure that there are very few athletes that wouldn’t be able to relate to that. Sometimes you will set the expectation on your performance so high that the journey to the result is well below capability. These are the most frustrating days and this weekend I had one. It is one thing to be physically underdone, but to work against yourself is the toughest reality to face. The final result may not have ended up being any different, but you know that you didn’t give yourself the best opportunity to ensure that it was the best you could have done.

It is necessary to have goals and to have determination and the confidence to back yourself. It is the ability to balance these factors without creating unrealistic expectations that make a successful athlete. It is when the balance is out that weight of expectation becomes too much.

NSW Points Race Champs may not have gone my way, but I know where things went wrong and am determined to overcome that and come back to the boards flying! In the meantime, I will accept the bronze and be grateful, given how I feel I performed, that I achieved any sort of result.

Oops, I did it again

NSW ITT Titles.
Somersby, NSW
Sunday 25 July 2010

About this time last year, this happened. It was time to see whether I could do it again.

Due to work on the Calga course, we were on a new course for this year’s edition. On the profile, it looked to be a cracker- no major climbs and overall downhill. Despite a head cold at the start of the week, I had had an excellent lead up to this event and was feeling reasonably confident. We took a drive over the course on Saturday afternoon and identified that whist there wasn’t any difficult climbs there were a few places that dragged a bit and would require some time out of the saddle.

Race day dawned and revealed perfect TT weather- sunny, but not too hot and no wind. Well, there was no wind while I warmed up but it picked up a little before I started, although in the end it was not enough to trouble me.

The race went according to plan, and was largely a blur! I descended like a demon and took all the technical parts perfectly. The only thing I would have liked to have been better was my climbing, whilst it wasn’t bad, I just didn’t dance as well as I could have over the crests.

If you haven’t figured it out, I successfully defended my title, taking the gold by over a minute! It was a super fast ride, with my average speed well over 40 kph, with maximum speed over 70 kph (yes, I may have been speeding on some parts of the course!!)

After such a cracking ride, the only thing I have to complain about is the traffic on the road! For various reasons I wish the roads had of been closed, or at the very least that there had been more traffic controllers. Please, NSW Cycling if you are reading, you have to do something about that!

Special thanks to Mick and all the guys at Onya Bike Belco and Civic for the tireless support and keeping me decked out, Brian (coach) for excellent guidance, Glenn (ACTAS) for generous equipment loans and Soigny/Mechanic/all-round good guy, Matt! You guys are awesome!!

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)