Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is (Vince Lombardi)

My main road cycling goals for the year, thus far, have been:

* win (SRS) Pemberton criterium and Road Race- because it was my first road race ever (last year) and I came very last and remember the feeling like it was yesterday (won them both)
* win a stage at (NRS) Tour de Perth (won 2 stages)
* win a stage at (NRS) Mooball, NSW (won the TT stage, a little unexpected, but nonetheless meeting the goal)
* win the (SRS) state road race...well, this is where my story starts and attaining all road goals for the year finishes.

SRS #6- WA State Road Race; 114kms out and back + 1 x circuit lap; 1000m ascending

I had that feeling this morning (well, for the last few days, but I was hoping the rest would make it go away), that feeling where nothing works (inc. your bike) and everything hurts. To top it off, it was raining.

We had a reasonable group, with all of the usual suspects, plus a few new faces. Rebecca Halliday; having her second race, and Anna Kauffmann having her first- tough call with the first race being the State road race, but impressive to see them out there having a go. Someone I have never raced before; Nardine O'Connor (she may have done one of the SRS whilst I was racing over east) and Kelly Grey (who started with us for the Tour de Perth). I was disappointed that Clare Morgan was injured and unable to race, and Jo Bennett DNS, as both are skilled riders that would have made the race more interesting. Maybe next year, we need to be patient.

Not much happened until the turnaround point, a few attacks but nothing that was going to get away on this course. To be honest, I can't remember much of the race specifics, I wasn't feeling so good and coughing a fair bit, riding in a straight line even proved interesting. Andrew was riding in a following vehicle and has mostly filled me in. We had issues with rolling over, some riders just wanted to sit on the front, not roll through and time trial (which is fine is you can keep a decent pace), others who would roll through and then the others who wouldn't. The real race began from the turnaround point. Nardine O'Connor was off the front and no one seemed interested in chasing her. Someone attacked and Sarah, Rebecca, Melissa and I got away for a few minutes, but couldn't hold onto it and the bunch caught us.

The winning move came with a series of attacks (one attack and two counterattacks) on the same hill, Melissa, then Sarah (or the other way around) then Rebecca. I got the first two, but could not go with Rebecca and she was off the front solo. Lots of things were going through my mind as she was 50m in front.

We were slowly losing riders off the back, if the girls are not going to roll through and do turns, a group has to attack to avoid having riders "sitting on". If we all actively rolled through we would bring back breaks really easily, few wanted to put themselves on the line (I will come back to this) to make a good race of it. For the final 15kms I found myself with Sarah, Melissa and Cherie (I was impressed with Cherie's ride) and was again the main driver of the group, with the others mostly unable or unwilling to work. I felt for Melissa (she is still U19), I wouldn't wish restricted gears on anyone.

With Rebecca and Nardine still up the road, I worked to try and pull at least, Nardine back (we could see that she had fallen off Rebecca's wheel). We pulled onto the final circuit and I eased off the pace (expecting to get rolled for the sprint, for what we thought was third, assuming that the girls were too far in front). Unknown to me we had passed Nardine in amongst all of the men and Rebecca was only a few 100m in front of us. So Rebecca won, (there was unfortunately no sprint) for my second, Melissa third and Sarah forth (third Open Woman).

I was coming back to "laying it on the line…"Rebecca won because she laid it all on the line and had a go with a gutsy ride. I didn’t lay it all on the line and came second as a result. Congrats to Rebecca, I am not sure, but it may be her first state title, for road anyway. It was good to see Melissa actually putting her hand up for the ‘most aggressive rider’ jersey.

Cycling lesson #34: Have a go, why wouldn’t you have a red hot go?

Race data:
Av speed: 34km/hr, Max speed: 70km/hr
Av HR: 162bpm, Max HR: 190bpm

In the other state races for the day; a similar situation occurred with the U17 girls with my hill climbing buddy, Bella King (2nd) and the Rickettes (Michaela-4th and Jessica Allan-1st), with Rebecca Mumme (NDCC)- 3rd.

A few of my friends from my Sunday Hills ride were having a hit out in the Masters divisions (http://southperthcycling.blogspot.com/). I am unsure of the final results, but hear that Peter Mah came 2nd with Bruce doing a heap of work to bring back breaks. Good to see Stuart, Mark and a few of the other guys out there, who are much more hardcore than ‘I have pulled my hammy’ Ryan.

Off to Kalgoorlie for my favourite race of the year this week (Australia’s richest handicap race- Menzies to Kalgoorlie). Nothing serious, this will be for fun.