It's so much easier if you use your head!

Wagga Wagga Golden Wheel
13-14 November

Knowing that I was somewhat underdone and still on antibiotics, a double header racing weekend was going to a big ask. I was prepared for that mentally and as agreed with Brian, if it got too much then I would call it a day.

The story of the weekend was consistently finishing in the place just off the podium! Whilst this is frustrating, it is in no way disappointing given the state I was in. In fact, despite the lack of results, it was technically some of the best and smartest racing I have ever done! Which is more of a confidence boost than most results would have been (although the $ would have been good!)

The weather gods were kind to me on Saturday and just when I was really starting to feel my lack of endurance (I had made it through 4 events, including some pretty harsh marks- thanks Baz!) the heavens opened! That was the end of day 1.

Day 2 was equally as ominous but the weather gods weren't playing nice for anyone. Even with a re-jigged program, I only got one race in before we were all drenched! There was no Golden Wheel result nor a Rules Club Wheel Race this year. But we will all be back in February to finish what was started and this time I will have my head and my legs working together...

Such a fine line

Canberra Tour
Friday 30 April- Sunday 2 May

This weekend, of all weekends, I lost the battle of the work-bike balance. With no indicators prior, I can only assume that the stress of the last couple of weeks at work finally caught up with me :(

I raced on Friday and even though I was about 4 minutes down (who was responsible for having us finish at the top of Honeysuckle Creek?!!) I was really really happy with how things had gone on the day. I had had some very specific personal goals to achieve and I ticked all the boxes. I was totally geed for Saturday's stage.

The profile for Friday's stage- what a nice way to finish a race!!

I did all the right things for recovery. Had a lovely evening relaxing with Davina, her Dad and Matt. And got to bed in time to ensure a good night's sleep. It all came undone at about 630 on Saturday morning when I woke up feeling like I was swallowing razor blades my throat was so sore, a resting HR that was through the roof and swollen glands. A phone call to Brian confirmed that I was not to get on a bike. Hello cold, goodbye racing weekend.

I know it wasn't an event that was well suited to me, but I was really looking forward to the challenge of the weekend and learning as much as I could from it. C'est la vie, that is about all I can say.

Well done to all the girls who raced so well. Jo Hogan for taking an impressive win, Lisa Jacobs in second and Bron Ryan in 3rd. Bec Domange has a good write up as well. To the guys that I fed in Saturday's stage, I hope that you achieved what you were aiming for.

Time to rest up and come back bigger and better (figuratively, not literally!)

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)

"Trying is the first step towards failure" (Homer Simpson)

Stages 3 & 4 of the Tour de Riverina
Coolamon & Rutherglen HCPs.

I think I might have learnt my lesson, sometimes it is better to take a break and let some of the not so important things go by so that you can truly appreciate (and perform) at the important things.

The Coolamon stage was the weekend after the Stockinbingal race and whilst I had been sick with the flu I was convinced that I would be all right when I got to the start line. Unfortunately I didn't get to the start line. I seemed alright in the car, though I did have a bit of a cough- similar to the one that I had hampered me most of summer, but figured that I had ridden through that so surely I would be fine for the race. Wrong. I went out for a warm up, including some motor pacing behind a tractor, and once I started coughing on the bike I couldn't stop. I coughed and coughed, thought my lunch was going to come up, coughed some more. Being incapable of making a decision not to race on my own- I am not into looking soft!- I discussed the situation with Reggie. Being the wise Mr Mum that he is, no racing for me, probably not a bad idea since I had a wedding to tend to the following Friday! All was not lost, I jumped into the Commissaire's car for the Scratch bunch and had the best view of a bike race I have ever had (apart from the ones that I am at the front of ;) ). After learning a whole lot more about bike racing thanks to this different perspective, picking Jess Mac up off the road after she came down in a little crash going up the only rise of the course and getting Adam Phelan going again up said hill, I got to see the girls I train with all finish well and award Suz the prize for first female over the line.

The Rutherglen stage of the tour was the Sunday after we got back from our honeymoon, which meant I had been off the bike for about 4 weeks (not counting the ride on Friday afternoon and the bunch on Saturday morning). I really had nothing to lose and was, I thought, mentally prepared for what was going to be a tough race. However, I was physically well under prepared! I got through about 1/2 the first lap of the 2 lap course before I called it a day. The reality of the situation being that I just wasn't physically up to these races.

The trip to Rutherglen wasn't in vain. It was delightful to catch up with Lyn and John. And as fate would have it I had other errands to do in Albury.

Never Underestimate a Cup of Tea and a Good Lay Down

Reflecting on the 2009 Tour de Riverina
Stage 2- Stockinbingal 40km HCP

Photo from http://adozeneggs.com

I went into this series of handicap races as the reigning female champion and was hoping to put up a good fight to try and retain the pink ribbon, but 2009 wasn't the year for it.

I have already posted about the first stage (see here) and I had hoped on an improved performance at the second stage at Stockinbingal. And under the circumstances I can't be disappointed with 8th over the line on the day.

I had scaled back a couple of training sessions earlier in the week as the threat of flu loomed, you know the feeling when it is there but not quite ready to hit you? Race day came, I wasn't great for the drive across- bad enough to need some cold and flu drugs, but not bad enough to think racing was a bad idea! In what has become a pre-Stock tradition, we park in Cootamundra and rode the 20 km to Stockinbingal. It is only a 40 km race after all! It was during this warm up ride I was started to think racing wasn't such a bad idea, though we decided that was a result of the medication kicking in and I'd be alright once I got to the start line. That was kind of true!

The race was pretty uneventful from my perspective, at least the first 39 km- my bunch rolled along at a reasonable pace to the turn around, although I realised when we turned that we had lost an awful lot of people by this stage and in fact we were down to 5. The 5 of us worked really well on the way back, valiantly trying to stay away from the bunch behind, and we almost did it. We were caught with about 4 km to go, thankfully it was only the bunch that started behind us, and some of the ones who had started with us. This gave me a good opportunity to take a breather and work out where the best place would be for the sprint- I was determined to better my 4th place from last year. A couple of the Riverina clubs were getting their trains worked out so I kept an eye on them.

About 1km out it almost all went wrong! I suddenly found myself sandwiched between two guys- one trying to swing of his train and the other, I think, lining up for the sprint! There were a few very anxious moments as I waited to feel the scraping of skin on bitumen and thuds of carbon and wheels colliding... but somehow that never eventuated, maybe it that was thanks to time on the boards. Anyway, I picked my way around the bunch to the other side of the road where I had clear space for a run at the line, I wasn't giving up hope on that 4th place or better yet! Unfortunately I started to fade just before the line and actually was rolled on the line by Jacqui who had followed my wheel for the last 3 km without me even knowing she was there!! Cheeky cheeky!

So all things considered not a bad effort, but it would pay off! I ended up too sick to go to work on the following Monday, nor was I able to train for most of the week, maybe I should have had that lay down...