23 June 12: Northern Combine ITT Championships. A couple of
road closures, diversion signs and google maps pointing us to the middle of the
road left us going in circles hunting around for the start of the bike race. A
little too keen, we had arrived a bit earlier than expected but pretty soon the
volunteers started showing up and we eventually found the start. The predicted
gloomy and wet weather never showed up – instead, we had great countryside
sunshine and some pretty crazy winds.
24km TT - I was off +7mins out of the 9 starters. Great – some
‘chocolates’ to chase down! I was more excited about the start than anything
else that day – we had a start ramp!! I’ve always wondered what taking off on
one felt like, and was stoked at the chance. The usual countdown – and off I
was. “Whee!!” I felt like a kid down a slide as I took off down that ramp. I’d
almost wanted to turn back and go back on again. Riteo, time to focus on the
race.
A short tailwind section before the left-hander onto the
main course. Smack – the headwind from
earlier on had certainly picked up and it wasn’t long before I was sitting in the hurt box. Some twist and
turns – headwind, tailwind, crosswind – it certainly made it difficult to find
a rhythm. Not long in, I caught my minute woman followed by another one closely
after. At around the 8km mark, it was just pure headwind till the turnaround at
the 12km mark. “Just another km, just another km – suffer now, get rewarded
later!” I kept convincing myself to push on. I eventually caught another 2
riders. I spotted Pip Read, who was 5 mins ahead smashing it on the other side
of the road. All the chocolates caught -
now it was just me against the clock.
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| Love this shot by MMcRitchie |
“Big gear, use that tailwind!!” the guys shouted at the
turnaround. As I dug in, the cross-wind nearly took the bike off under me.
“Woa!” Hold the bike steady, focus on the cadence. The beautiful countryside,
awesome sunshine, sheep running around – I was starting to daydream, heart-rate
was dropping. “Come on now – just focus!” As I hit another head-wind section, I
tried to focus all my energy into riding the bike. Not long to go. With the
finish looming in sight, and Michael’s cheers ringing on, I dug in hard to
finish off the bike race. And just like that, all that pain – gone.
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| A little distracted with the beautiful sunshine over the countryside |
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| Hurt zone.... (Photo by Michael McRitchie) |
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| Women's Podium - Myself,Pip and Alison |
24 June 12: Ouch – I groaned as I crawled out of bed that
morning. Both my glutes felt like someone had just kicked me in the butt. Not
used to racing time-trials, being in the TT position for longer than usual the
day before left me pretty sore that morning. Just brush it off – I was to race
the Preston Mountain Classic that day – and riding from Scratch meant I had to
focus every single bit of energy into the bike race.
The start at Strath Creek was buzzing with riders when I
arrived. Certainly a great atmosphere! Once the men had gone off – the focus
was now turned to the women. 7 of the girls took off in the 8minute bunch,
which left us counting down the minutes till we were off from Scratch. Racing
my first Handicap bike race – I was keen to learn as much as I could. A couple
of words of advice from my coach Simon, and I was soon off with the chasing
bunch of 8 women. It was great to have SKCC/Giant team-mate Clare Morgan and
the familiar faces of Sarah Riley and Lisa Barry to work with.
From the go – the girls worked hard together, each pulling
their share of turns. Easy up the pinches – got to keep the bunch together. The
first 13kms into Flowerdale flew like a breeze – we were all certainly hungry
wolves trying to chase down the girls in front. Despite the ‘mountain classic’
name, everyone knew that time had to be made up in the first 20km of the 70km
bike race – from there on, the race was mostly downhill before the last 2.5km
climb. From Flowerdale, the first drag over Break O Day started. Not too steep,
nevertheless, certainly more than enough to keep us gasping for air as we hung
onto the climbers in the group. Rachel Ward, Melissa Mckinlay and Lisa Barry
each rode strongly to pull us up towards Junction Hill. We were now down to 7 riders.
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| The scratch bunch at the start (Photo by Tony Reeckman) |
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| The girls working hard together (Photo by Tony Reeckman) |
The big downhill section into Yea – and we tried to get a
steam-train rolling. We got our first time check from a bystander – 5 mins. “Oh
no!”– only another 40kms left of the bike race we certainly had some work to
do! We caught onto the first of the 8min group just before Yea and rolled past.
Unfortunately, Rachel had a slow flat in her back wheel and was just only
managing to hang on. We managed to pick up another 2 riders from the 8min group
along the way but it was becoming evident that the Scratch girls were starting
to tire. We soon dropped both the 8minriders, and from the 15km to go mark – we
were back down to the 7 Scratch riders and still 3 mins off the limit bunch!
It was going to be really tough now and at points it did
feel like the bunch had given up with the chase. Nonetheless, the stronger
girls managed to hold the bunch together. My legs were grimacing by this point
in the race – my glutes had been a pain in the butt – and I had been riding
with my quads which were begging me to stop. I tried my best to contribute with
what I could.
Once we hit Strath Creek, the bunch knew that it was going
to be pretty impossible to catch the 8min bunch – the uphill section was
certainly not long enough. It was now a race for the fastest time. 5 of us hit
the first uphill section together, an increase in pace soon saw Sarah and
myself hanging off the back. Eventually Lisa, Clare and Melissa got away.
Screaming legs and not much left in the tank, I eventually hauled myself up the
hill and was certainly glad to have finished the bike race!
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| Glad to have finished!! (Photo by Tony Reeckman) |
Certainly a very well-deserved win by Lisa who won the
Fastest Time and 5th overall – she had ridden strongly all day! I
ended finishing 9th overall and was pretty happy with my efforts.
Despite the tough work of racing handicaps, I certainly enjoyed the bike race –
to the girls in the Scratch bunch – Clare, Sarah, Lisa, Rachel, Noni and
Melissa – thanks for working together and making it a great race. Thanks to Preston cycling club for organising the race – all the
riders were certainly well looked after with a feast put on at the Strath Creek
Hotel after! Check out some awesome photos by Tony Reeckman here and full results can be found here. A Handicap experience under the belt – certainly looking forward
to racing this again next year. Next up - NRS Canberra Tour – can’t wait to
heading off interstate with the team again!
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