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)

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)

Pretty sure a gel on the start line is a warm-up... right?

Goulburn CC ITT 37km
Windellama (Road)
Cold, wind increasing, rain just holding off until we finished!
28 June 2009

Backing up after the performance at Dapto involved an overnight stay in Goulburn to reduce the amount of time spent on the road.

After careful planning of what time we needed to leave to get to the start, which I believed to be in Windellama, a small locality about 30km from Goulburn, we settled into our hotel room to watch the Wallabies thrash the Italians.

The problem really started when we couldn't find anyone else that looked like they would be racing a bike around Windellama. A quick phone call back to Canberra to get contact numbers in Goulburn revealed that we were completely in the wrong place and in fact were 30 km from the start line!! And about 30 minutes from scheduled start time!! Thankfully they called the race organisers and let them know we were on our way.

Record timing to get into my skinsuit, register and wheels on bike. I had about 1 minute to get to the line by the time I was dressed. I rapidly inhaled my gel and got to the line. Fingers crossed that I wasn't too stiff from yesterday and that I would get through this rather long TT!!

I made the conscious decision to ride conservatively on the outward leg to try and get myself warmed up. Despite this "conservative" approach I still posted a pretty tidy split and felt remarkably good. I even managed to remember to drink and feed, something I am unaccustomed to doing as most of the TTs for women are less than 30km.
Prize for winning B-grade=>

The return leg was more aggressive and I was happy to record a negative split, even with the ever strengthening cross-head wind! I had set myself a target of 1 hour for this course, without any real basis, and was happy to have gone 24 seconds over that target given the "warm-up" I had had, and the fact that I was backing up after smashing myself at Dapto!

The SRM data, and the follow car driver (Thanks Matt) both said that I had ridden smoothly and consistently- you can't ask for much more! And the final results said that I had posted the 2nd fastest time of the day (which was fastest female, but I was the only one!) and I had accidentally burgled B-grade (I never know when racing away from home!!).

Thanks to the Goulburn CC for a very well run race and friendly faces, despite the miserable weather! The post race food was most welcome!

Results:

Windeallama Road Time Trials - 36km

28th June 2009

Place	Grade	Name	Time
1	b	Rebecca Barwick	1.00.25.30
1	a	William Lind	58.42.10
3	b	Phil Katen	1.05.40.79
2	b	Mark Gibson	1.05.24.52
3	a	Jason Mahoney	1.00.31.44
5	a	Noel Barrett	1.04.07.19
	a	Kerry Baxter	1.04.12.82
2	a	Jerry Gilchrist	1.00.28.07
4	a	Ben Hay	1.02.35.65
4	b	Adam Lambert	1.08.54.37
1	c	Chris Bushell	1.15.18.29

Course details:

ITT(i)S the season...

Illawarra Cycling Club ITT, Dapto
Saturday 27 June 2009
Warm and sun, with rain threatening!

I have a soft spot for this course. It was the first course that I raced my TT bike over last year (see this post) and being able to race on it about 12 months later gave me a good opportunity to gauge improvement.

According to the club website the race was meant to be 36 km but after a quick word to the organisers I convinced them that one lap of the course (~18 km) would be sufficient for me!

I was the 8th one away and the first one home. There is something very satisfying about that! And my time was 30 seconds than last years! Nice! According to the "official" results, I was third fastest over the 1 lap version and fastest female. And to top it off, the power output according the SRM was awesomely and consistent. Sweet!

There might be some form there after all!! :D



The course profile looks like this, if you are interested:

New Weapon

After much anticipation and extreme gratitude to Mick at Onya Bike Belconnen, I got to bring my new weapon home today!! The BMC TT02 time trial bike is my new weapon of choice and it is currently pride of place blocking the front door- hey it means I can look at it will I type this (did I mention that it also spent the day in my office at work instead of in the car!!)


The next job is to get the set up right before NSW ITT on 27th July. Hopefully the weather will be good over the weekend so I can get out for a spin on it. Up before that is the Illawarra TT Club Champs on 19th July. As usual, my mechanic supreme (and love of my life) Matt will be along to make sure the bike runs to perfection and to look after me- he is an expert at both and I wouldn't have got anywhere without him!!

A brief update on my wrist. Phil (my physio at Atlas Physio, Braddon) is very happy with how the recovery has gone so far, to the point where I was allowed to ride to work today for the first time in 6 weeks! Despite the very miserable winter weather, it was so good to ride to work rather than take the bus!! I still don't have full mobility back in all directions and I am still lacking a bit of strength, but it is definitely almost there.

So there you have it. Post number one complete. A huge thanks to Mick and all the guys at Onya Bike for helping me out with the weapon. Be sure to watch this space to see how well it performs!