PO Box 121, Dapto NSW 2530 info@illawarracycleclub.org.au
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PO Box 121, Dapto NSW 2530 info@illawarracycleclub.org.au |
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29 April 2008 - Roselare
If you have stayed tuned since last episode, where we saw what 'national' kermese racing was like in Belgium. Then today you are in for a treat, as this weeks' (really long) episode is titled: "Roselare" 'The race on many first but the of the wrong kind' Guest Starring: There comes a time in a young cyclist life when they must take the next step and try and challenge the 'big kids' of the world. For this little puppy, it probably wasn't the best idea to do this after being down and out for a week with the flu. But, like working in a gold mine as a contract geologist, you soon learn; if you don't work, you don't get paid. So to give a few hints of what the day had in stall for me, I did have a few "firsts" occur, such as the: 1st time I got a "sun tan" in Belgium, I went a bit pink
on my wist. *This truly shows I am now more of a cyclist than geologist, when my hands are so soft they get blisters from braking!?! Oh how sad. So seeing as we know I've turned all-soft, I'll start from the beginning. From Wednesday I was actually back on my bike for longer than an hour without coming home completely wasted. Then Thursday, I came home wasted. That was a short-lived recovery! Friday was a much happier day, when Emma Johansson (excuse the use of full names, both my friends are called Emma!) called me up to head out on the canal. We joined the bunch and taped alongside the canal which winds it way up to Gent and back and Gent and back and yes you can then go to Gent again, but I'm sure you be quite tired by now and its not a good idea to ride that far two days before a UCI race. Nonetheless I accidentally did 90km for the day, but no harm done, its not like I had to go to work! Emma twisted my arm and forced me to chill out with a hot chocolate after the ride. So you wonder what we do with all our time, when racing and training full time… there's your answer. Women will always be women, ride 3hrs, and chat for 3hrs. I'm sure you just can't imagine how I could talk for that long!? But alas, it wasn't just about hair and makeup, I did absorb quite a lot of knowledge from this very talented young lady. Some tips on winter (well Aussie summer) training, which will definitely fit in well with the Aussie summer track racing and also advice on race tactics etc. Get to the punch line! Ok, it's not a bad joke. I'll get to the race day. As they do here, the race isn't on til 3pm. So my lift to the race doesn't arrive til 10:15am. So rise and shine 7am for standard issue breaky- coffee, muesli, yoghurt, and banana. Then going all 'hard-core-eating-machine', I backed it up at 10am for Round 2. I bet you can guess, pasta, and this time I killed it, plain pasta with a dash of tomato sauce!?! Yikes, that's what happens when you don't do your grocery shopping or at least when you do your shopping but can only fit so much into a backpack whilst riding your bike to the store. So off to the race at Roeselare, I wasn't particularly pumped to race as I knew I couldn't go nuts and attack as much as I'd like to try. The flu knocked me about a bit, so I knew I would have to ride conservatively, so sad and not my style. Nonetheless, I would still endeavour to get the best result I could and focus on other things throughout the race, such as positioning before the climbs. I can now give you my 'standard issue' pre race procedure, as I've done more than one race. It's pretty much the same as home with just a few tweaks. T-60mins: kit up, have young man grease your legs up with start oil (too bad he's not my type otherwise that would have sounded pretty cool), drink 'team-issue pre-race carbo-loading' drink (ok, its just like red cordially and that stuff used to make me hypo as a kid), roll around the course to warm up and hopefully suss out the finish. (Big tweak..) Line up as 'Team SCF Liedekerke' to be presented to the crowd. See photo attached, where you can see why they have labelled me as 'team sprinter'! I look like a tank compared to these little girls. The girl to the left of me is Hannah, a very accomplished Belgium rider who often rides on their National Team, quite the climber. A quick hello to any other Aussies I see around, including Alexis Rhodes, whose response was "What the hell are you doing here?" That could sound horrible, but she was just a little confused as to… well, what the hell I was doing there! Other Aussies were Sara Carrigan (Lotto) and Louise Kerr (Swift Racing). Ready, Set, Bananas… The race rolled out at a nice tempo but when you add the strong winds it turned into a bit of gutter action. The task for the first 30km was to get up the front ready to turn into the narrow road before the climb (38km mark) and avoid being caught up in any crashes, which there were many! Chicks racing, what can I say? I must say I did manage a nice move; cutting up the outside of the peloton 3km before the climb and hitting the front at the preceding decent. I held a top 30-position heading through the cobbled village, turning left into a lane that fit 2 riders abreast which took us to the first climb of the day. It was here that a group of 8 broke away, a very frustrating sight, when you know you can ride faster up the climb but can't get through and 'bollards' (aka sprinters) reversing through the bunch. Bugger, but you live and learn. There were six short climbs in total, where the chase group mostly rolled over the top, though a few riders dropped off and sometimes on the descents. The big teams had riders in the break, so it was left to AA Drink to try and pull it back. High Road didn't seem too interested and Swift only had 3 riders left, so no one to give a hand in the chase. The gap got just over 2min at one point, but AA Drink did the hard yards of reeling it back in. With around 20km to go it was at 1m10s. I heard them talking, they thought that it would not be possible to close the gap. But somehow in the last 8km loop around the town the time was dropping rapidly. The main part of the race was an out and back loop with many turns here and there, but the loop around the town had turns here, there and everywhere! It was at this point I realised no matter how good my legs felt, my poor little finger had really copped a caning, I just hope it could hang in for the last 8km (see picture attached, my finger the day after). I was in luck; I remembered what the managers said about such injuries back in Cobar… take a teaspoon of cement and harden the ***k up! No cement in sight, but a sip of my 'team-issue race-time' red cordial mix will do the trick…. The aim of staying at the front of the bunch was a great plan, thou I think the other 40 girls had the same idea. Fortunately I hit the front with about 2km to go, thou what I was to do next was a mystery? Aghh! Should I keep on trucking or wait for another wheel to follow!? Option 2 was a good idea, but in all the confusion (just in my head) I let too many wheels pass as I was freaking out about the final corner.... so Ppsssssssssssttttttttttttttttttt goes my speed, like a deflating tyre and out the arse I go. Then in defensive-offensive mode coming out of the corner into the final 200m sprint, I was able to put the power down… but a case of too, little too late. So the consolation prize was a good lesson in racing pro's. They will push you around, but you should just push back. I may have had lots left in the tank, but not enough skills to put it into action. For such a big race, I had was confused as to what role I had to play in the bunch- no team, no lead out and no one to lead out? Well I had one teammate left, but she was behind me. So for next time, I guess just pretend you are in one of the other teams and suck their wheels in the sprint! The stats for the day:
On the Social Side: Lining up at the start behind German National Champ and High Road rider, Luise Keller, a fan was asking for her autograph. I kindly asked if she'd sign my jersey, which I'm sure if I were serious she would have! Another Belgium phenomena, I was asked to be photographed- glasses off, up straight, portrait style. This guy knew my name and results and wanted a mug shot for his photo album. His wife said it was normal to do this in Belgium, after I said people would arrest him in Australia for being a so strange. And so it brings me to today. I had a lovely day this morning as I joined Emma Davies Jones (Eng) and Jenny Fay (Ire) on a recovery ride around the farm lanes surrounding Oudenaarde. It was a good thing we didn't stop into a pub for a pint, with an Englishwomen, an Irish and Australian, they would have thought it was some kind of joke! Ha haa yes, I might be thousands of miles away, but my bad humour will still infiltrate your lives. After beautiful spring weather over the weekend, where you could smell the flowers in the air, its back to rainy days in Belgium. I will try and dodge the rain tomorrow and get out for a couple hours, thou an easy hour day Wednesday, as 3 days of racing follows. So stay tuned for next week adventures of "I Like Bikes" as we race back to back to back at ….
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