SRS- Great Southern Classic; Albany (April 26/27th, 2008)

This weekend was a great opportunity for my husband and I to get away in the “Hearse-st” and have some quality time…cycling. Sure enough the rain started just as we drove into Albany on Friday (which is every bit of a 5 hour drive from Perth) but thankfully stayed away until we were walking out of the event presentations on Sunday. Friday night we had the most fabulous dinner with one of my cycling mentors- Mr Murray Hall and his family. Murray has won a whole bunch of medals…right up to the Commonwealth Games, and is basically a champion on so many levels. Murray was the first person to ‘identify’ me as a cyclist and asked me if I was interested in being competitive. Competitive, me…is there a question here?

Anyway, back to the racing. Albany Cycling Club put on a fantastic event, one that would put some Perth cycling event organizers to shame over and over again. They have purchased a fancy timing system; such that each individual bike is fitted with a transponder so your individual time is recorded…down to 1/100th of a second (which we will come back to). Every corner was perfectly marshaled, with clear instructions as to where we were meant to be going, and some words of encouragement as we went past. There was a course for climbers and one for the sprinters, something for everyone. I am hoping word will get out and the event will have even more support next year. My instructions for the weekend were to ‘have fun, have a hit out before next week, but not to bury yourself. Try things, if they work, great, if not don’t worry about it”.
There were some usual suspects that were ones to watch; Keith Gill (who excels consistently and is getting fitter by the minute) and Riley Patterson (who would definitely be in Open if he was fit…but something about doing his TEE). Murray was racing in Support, he is getting himself really fit to take on the Masters men at the World Masters Track Championships later in the year. All the other men in lycra look the same to me. For the women: Sarah Fraser (apparently not doing too many kms as she is working hard in her own recruitment business, but is very talented and has years of racing/bunch riding experience and knows how to win races), Clare Morgan and Holly McClennan (both keen to gain State Road Rider Series points from anyone, which is great to see; they have both been doing some hard-core training from the Time Trial expert- Lorraine Schultz) and a new face; Katherine Morrison.

Stage 1; Frenchmans Scratch (aka the hilly one)
It was only about 47kms long but it had some reasonable hills in it. Nothing in comparison to what I had been riding in Tasmania, but nonetheless…hills. We started with a group of just over 20 in Support. After we worked out who had the squeakiest bike that any of us had ever heard, and waited for the train to pass as a part of the neutral start we were off. I was racing with booties for the first time- trying to keep my toe warm so maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much; my Luke thought I looked like I was wearing my slippers. Anyway, the bunch was active right from the start with a few of the men having hit outs early. I was impressed that it wasn’t going to be a boring ‘sit in’ race. The wind was up, which was great for the wind turbines, but no good for my cycling.

We came to the first of the hills and a tall rider in Kalamunda Cycles kit did an awesome attack, a couple of guys jumped on his wheel and so did Sarah Fraser. ‘Kalamunda Cycles’ blew up spectacularly shortly thereafter, leaving the two guys and Sarah in a break 100m up the road. We could still see them down the descent prior to the turnaround point, I climbed the first hill after the turnaround point with about six others and we got a gap from the rest of the bunch. About ¾ the way up the hill Sarah was not able to stay with the two guys anymore and sat up and waited for our group to come past. The climb continued on for a bit more and Sarah and I got dropped from the boys, we were on our own.

Sarah seemed to be struggling more than me so I was doing a TT effort (good training I was thinking) on the front to try and get back on as it flattened out. At this point Murray came flying past (I knew he was coming, but failed to notice just how fast), we could not get on his wheel to work with him, and he seemed to be on a time trial mission himself. A couple of guys working well together joined us from behind and Keith Gill (who had punctured from the group in front) was just getting back out onto the road. Keith took charge and got us all rolling through (well most of us anyway).

Nothing much happened until the final 2km uphill finish (plus the bit of climbing before); Keith and one of the other guys (Matt Fletcher?) went off the front at the bottom of the hill and stayed away. I was happy with climbing at my own tempo, they were much stronger and I would end up out the hoop. Our little group climbed steadily and before I knew it we were nearly at the top (I remember thinking, is that it?), I kicked and sprinted for the line, a little disappointed that I had not given the hill and the race in general some more, winning our little bunch sprint to take 9th place and 1st female. That was fun, I thought. Race legs located…still on the search for “eye of the tiger”.

Stage 2; Ken Ingham Memorial (the longer, flatter one)
Luke and I and our fuzzy heads woke up this morning with the desire to sleep some more. We somewhat uninspirationaly got ready for Day 2. It was serious freezing but thankfully dry, the BBB booties got another run today; they were a winner yesterday. Fleet cycles have kitted me up with all the BBB winter gear; the little head warmer hat has been the biggest surprise, it is so toastie and is a fashion statement all to itself. Murray and I went out and planned out the finishing sprint to the line. So I knew what I was meant to do (again, I will come back to this). We talked about the wind, the long finish and the necessity to not go too early.

The race went out on South Coast Hwy (towards Denmark) with a strong tail wind. There were some good attacks, but it would be very difficult to get away with the wind. I did some work on the front, probably more than I should have, but I was racing to try new things. There were a couple of bergs and it was not surprising when a serious attack went about 50kms into the race. I chased and got into the break of 9 riders. Again, Keith Gill sorted us all out to roll through. I was struggling in the wind a little bit and Sarah had some words of encouragement to the affect of ‘come on Davina, you are a full time cyclist’. Even that didn’t fire me up, I had no bite (which is very unlike me).

We came to the last few kms with crossing the railway and a right hand turn. As I saw it; the support vehicle slowed turning the corner, splitting our group into two with five or so riders turning on the inside line in front of the car and me at the front of the second group. I thought that the vehicle was going to stop, then it kept going slowly around the corner. I had to brake (as I was unsure of where the car was actually going) then go slowly on the outside line of the corner around the car. There was about 40m between the two groups and I did a pretty serious effort to get back on just as we started the final little climb before the finish. I nearly reached my max heart rate just trying to get back on and was confused about what the car was trying to achieve.

We climbed steadily and I tried to get my breath back, I was not sure who else also got back on, Luke tells me that Sarah was right behind me. A couple of the guys started the sprint (or picked up the pace on the downhill) early, as expected. I let them go a bit and sat back, as I had planed. Then I am not sure what happened, but all I know is that I panicked. All my planning with Murray went out the window, when I saw the line. I kicked up to the back of the guys and went around them, smack into the wind. I thought about going back behind but there were riders there now and I was all dressed up with too far to go. I was in the lead and tried to hold it for as long as I could, but was so angry with myself for mucking it up even before the race was over. I watched as the guys came over the top of me before the line and counted up where I was going to be finishing. I was over it by then and if I needed icing on my cake Sarah came next to me and threw on the line to take 4th from me by 0.011second. She had timed her sprint to beat me very well and deserved the first female prize. I could not have mucked up the sprint more and are taking a valuable lesson away from today. In case you haven’t worked it out, I was disappointed with my sprint.
A special thank you to John Smith-pictured here with me (and his wife Betty) for keeping an eye on all of us at all of the events, I am not sure what Cycling WA would do without them. I had forgotten that I had lightheartedly said to Greg Connell (Albany Cycling Club Committee Member) that I would beat him on Sunday, as he could not race on the Saturday. Thankfully, I did, but not by much as he finished 9th. I get the impression he was a little surprised that the women did so well. The prize money was good and I was pleased that ACC supported womens’ racing by having specific womens’ prizes. My ‘eye of the tiger’ was re-located as I watched Sarah go up and accept her first women prize for Stage 2. So a productive weekend not specifically in terms of results but personal outcomes. I spent some quality time with Luke before going away and caught up with Clare & Hol- which is always good fun. I am hoping that this event and my training in the last two weeks have prepared me well for next week’s NRS race. Stay tuned.