After having a dislocated knee half way through 2010 and spending 2 months off the bike, i had to start thinking ahead to 2011. My goal was to compete at the 2011 road champs. I came into this race with no expectations of how i would go, so i flew down to Ballarat to race, gain experience and generally have fun.
I decided to skip the criterium and focus on the road race and time trial. It came to Saturday, the morning of the road race, i gathered my things and headed down to Bunninyong to enjoy some pain. Being my first U/23 Championships, i was a bit hesitant of where i rode as ive never been in such a big field of riders, 121 to be exact.The race was 122km with hot temperatures and just a bit of wind. The race started off with a 7 man breakaway, and they managed to get a rough 6 minutes on myself and the peloton. The first 4 laps of the race were quite easy, and i was surprised at this because if was expecting it to be full gas the whole way. After 5 laps of 12 went by, i thought to myself "hey i might have a chance of staying with these guys", ohh how i was wrong. On the 6th lap of the race the peloton had really knocked it up a gear with attacks all the way up Bunninyong Hill. On that lap, the pressure was on and riders were getting dropped up the hill. As i was fighting to stay on the back of the peloton, as i was passing the struggling riders going up the hill, all i was thinking was "keep going, keep going" as my legs were burning.
On the 7th lap i was the one getting tailed off the rear of the peloton near the top of the hill, but i kept on fighting and i could see the peloton about 100m away, so a couple other riders and I worked together and managed to get back on the peloton, just before the start of the next lap. With all my energy spent to get back on the peloton, i knew the 8th lap was going to be even harder. Half way up the climb i was struggling big time, i was hanging on about 5m behind the peloton with a couple guys around me. At the steepest part of the climb i was blown to smitherines. So i pulled the pin and just started my recovery over the next lap. As the laps went on, more and more riders were grouping together or what cyclist refer to as the groupetto, and we all worked together to make it to the finish. I manged to make it to the end of the race and come in 54th position considering more than half the entrants pulled out. I am happy to have finished the race but what i have really gained from this race is that I learnt how much harder i need to train and look after my body. So this year i hope to be really stepping it up a gear and show everyone what im made of!!!
Now to the Time Trail.... Iam still fairly new to this discipline, so im going to keep this short and sweet. Two days after the road race i had made my way to Learmonth for the 27.1km U/23 Time Trial Champs. It was an overcast day and the road was greasy wet from the rain the night before. So i took off with a flash down the ramp and out to the open road. Around 15km into the TT Ben Dyball winner of the Road Race, was passing me. Before the start i saw him there and i was thinking to myself, HOLY CRAP!!!!! im gonna get caught and i think i had just cycd myself out of it. As he passed me, i hit the wall psychologically. I thought to myself, "just let him go, he's too good". So ive got to teach myself to be positive in the future. At the end of the day i ranked at 34th, im a bit dispointed with that as i think i could have done better. But im not going to get down. I am more motivated then ever to train harer and improve myself as a rider.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this : )
Stu
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