NRS-Mersey Valley Tour, Tasmania

Before we get started I need to admit to kicking my toe on the kitchen wall (accidentally) and that almost half of my foot and little toe are purple-the purpleness increased after I took this photo, but you get the idea. This was a little silly I know, and has resulted in me having great difficulties in walking and pedaling. Obviously less than ideal two days before the start of the Mersey Valley Tour (Second event of the Elite Womens’ National Road Series). We had a WA ‘Team’ that had come over for the event; Darryl Benson (coach/mechanic/chef/cleaner/driver etc), Elite Men: (Adam Semple), U/19 boys (John Dunlop, Sam Davis, Patrick Gill) and U/19 girls (Melissa Hoskins, Camille Pallett). I was the only Elite Woman from WA. There was 13 Elite women entered and we were going to race the road races with the 16x U/19 girls. They had seeded me #2, I am not sure where they were getting this information from, but with a few seriously good riders in the field I was very impressed with being #2 (NB: Second is still the first loser, in good time I will be seeded #1).

STAGE 1: TIME TRIAL (15kms of pain). I rode to the course with the U/19 boys and my warm-up was good, my toe was hurting (I was putting on a brave face). It started to rain just as I was rolling up to the start line. My start time was 10.32am, just behind Carlee Taylor (Miss Amy Gillett scholarship holder for 2008). I only began to be nervous as I saw Ruth Corset at the start line. I had picked her to win the tour. We had driven the course the day previous, Mel and Camille had ridden it but my toe/foot was too sore for me to do the course. It was undulating, but with just enough kicks to hurt, a bit of wind and 15kms of false flats. Before I knew it, I was off and the whole thing hurt, about ¾ the way through I had a bit of mouth spew and realized that I was either pushing it hard, or struggling. Seriously, I felt that I was struggling; the speeds that I estimated that I would be able to sit on, I was no where near what I was able to do. I did what I could, with everything that I felt I had and I had to be happy with that, but for some reason I wasn’t.
We had to wait until that night for the results. Darryl had to pick them up from the Race Director, Dave.
Elite Women- Top 5
1 Corset, Ruth 23.2.91
2 Summers, Davina 23.03.77
3 Taylor, Carlee 23.09.0
4 McDonald, Marilyn 23.38.6
5 Neylan, Rachel 23.41.4

Holy crap…I was really happy with that. Less than one second off the winning time. After time trialing reasonably well the last few TTs, maybe I could be really good at them if I did some specific training… There was some discussion about a mix up with the U19 women’s times. Mine is in the ballpark for what I recorded on my bike sensor, so I am confident that my time is accurate. The only downfall was my toe hurt even more now, I was really hoping it would get better for the next day.

STAGE 2: ROAD RACE #1 (The hilliest one).
This was the race that I feared…and I was presented with the polka dotted jersey to wear for the day (as I was second on GC after yesterday’s TTs). If you know anything about me you will also find this incredibly ironic as I would not be surprised if I went through my whole cycling career and never wore this jersey (climbing is not my strength). But as someone (important) pointed out to me on this day “you might not be the best, but you are far from the worst, and are not that bad”. Anyway, I learnt a few lessons today.
1. Be in the right position when a move goes. Because you are never going to know when this may be, ALWAYS BE IN THE RIGHT POSITION.
2. Don’t anticipate the people in front of you will chase. If you see the move, move too, don’t hesitate or it will be too late (I hear a little voice of Brian Taylor that I have heard before).
3. If you miss the move, don’t do ALL of the work to try and bridge the gap. Because, guess what, you will blow up (and it will be very messy when you can’t get on to any of the groups going past).
4. If it is raining, use ksyriums…not bonties (do we need to re-live the crash on the descent?). Did I mention that it rained for most of the race?
5. Sore toes hurt on climbing, descending and the flats. Actually, every pedal stroke, one legged pedaling helps only slightly.

Needless to say I was not able to retain my polka dotted jersey…finishing some 12 minutes behind the winner and 3 minutes behind the bunch. Bad day at the office today, my chin was still up and I was positive about tomorrow. I knew today was going to hurt, but I should have gone better, if I had of been a bit smarter in the race. Of the WA girls, ride of the day went to Melissa Hoskins.

STAGE 3: ROAD RACE #2 (The slightly less hilly one). I was so fired up this morning and all ready to have a go, did I mention at any stage that my toe hurt? The weather was better, but I was still going to use a ksyrium rear wheel, fearing for my life was not something that I wanted to do two days in a row, if the Tasmania weather wanted to make my day. There were hills, but they were mostly power climbs with recovery after. I could do this.

We started in Kimberley; out to Railton and back to Kimberley (where the first of the climbs were). This was the point at which I got a flat front tire. I was not sure at the base of the hill, and I found the climb hard so I focused on that (it was probably twice as hard due to my flat tire). At the top of the climb, I confirmed it was flat and pulled over…and waited for a spare. I was a little frustrated at this point- to say the least.

I got a new front tire (with thanks to MB coaching for the neutral spare), was officially coming last and time trialed like a crazy woman to try and get back onto the bunch. There were girls popping off the back everywhere…I was trying to get them to work with me, but I ended up riding off most of their wheels and catching the next person in front. Most of the comments from the girls were “where in the hell did you come from?”. Despite being a reasonable time trialist, I was no match for the bunch, and knew this all along. I finished around 7 ½ minutes behind the winner and 3 ½ minutes behind the bunch. I cried and was not happy. I know that the courses were never going to suit me and I was never going to win, but I still would have liked to finish better than 9th on GC. Of the WA girls, ride of the day went to Camille Pallett.
All in all, a mixture of emotions from the trip; some valuable lessons learnt. I have two weeks to get my toe better and my confidence back to have a red hot go in Mooball. I can't see any further ahead right now.