My big comeback ride this year after recovering from my cycling accident in January was L'etape Australia. A distance of 157km with 2,800m of climbing, including two "KOM" climbs - it was a tough one.
I'd been feeling a bit nervous the day before, so I decided to try some visualisation. I spent half an hour or so the day before the race picturing the start line, riding at a comfortable tempo pace up the first climb, working in a group along the flats, and descending with confidence. I also pictured how much I'd eat and drink and which feed stations I'd stop at. The visualisation helped with my nerves as I felt like I had a plan for the race, and more control over the outcome.
It was an early start in the morning, up at 4:30am NSW time to get ready and get to the start line before the road closures kicked in. Good thing I had arrived a few days earlier to adjust to the time difference. Carol and I made our way to the start line and found Sam and Richard, then we were off!
Right off the start line, there was a 3.5km climb to get warmed up. Good thing really, because it was a bit of a chilly morning with fog on the mountains still when we left! The climb also split up the peloton very nicely - I had been worried about starting in groups of 800-1000 riders, but it was very well managed and not congested at all. I settled into a nice steady pace for the climb and was pleased to see I was holding my own - getting passed by some people but passing a number of people myself.
After the climb, we had a lovely 15km or so of mostly downhill, where I recorded my max speed of the day - 75.3kph! I'm super pleased about this highest speed as it has been a bit of a mental barrier to go downhill fast after coming off.
We then went through Jindabyne, and up and down a few more climbs. By this stage I had more people passing me than I was passing, because the groups that started behind me had caught me up. At some point Chris Frome passed me as well but I didn't see him as it was just a blur of fast riders.
After turning into the Eucumbene Road, the road was relatively flat for 30-40km until the sprint point at Berridale.
My race plan was to ride the first section at my own pace, then hopefully get into a group with a few other people for the flatter sections between 40-75km. Thankfully, I was able to execute this plan. I had a group of half a dozen guys pass me on a climb at the start of the flat section. As the road flattened off, I managed to catch back up to them and join into the group.
It was a good group, with the guys in front working in pairs at a solid steady pace then peeling off. I was a bit worried about whether I'd be able to hold the pace when it came to my turn on the front, but the guy next to me was great and we just rode at my pace.
When we peeled off the front, I realised how big our group had become. It was at least 30 people by this time. I went to the back, relieved my turn was over. It was a bit more chaotic at the back though, so I spent the next 20km or so trying to keep a safe distance from the bikes in front and save my energy. I watched the wind direction and tried to stay on the side out of the wind. There was a bit of yoyo-ing - they would speed up going downhill or be a bit strong going uphill, then I'd have to work a bit harder to catch them back up, then I'd be on the brakes again. But I decided it was worth it to stay protected in the group, as most of the time I was spending very little energy.
Then we went around a corner or maybe up a longer hill. The group got away from me and although I was working at around 75% pace, I couldn't catch them. There was me and another girl off the back, and we looked at each other and realised that we weren't going to catch them. This was only about 5km before the sprint point at Berridale, so I wasn't too worried.
We continued to work together and chat a bit until we got to Berridale. I did the slowest sprint I've ever done through the 350m sprint point - I was the 10th slowest female through the sprint segment overall! But I figured what is the point in sprinting when I have mountains to climb, I decided to save my energy.
Berridale was my first planned feed station stop. I considered continuing on, but with the chaos of being in a group I hadn't been able to eat anything much for the first 75km (2 and a bit hours) and I was getting hungry. Good thing I'd done some carb loading the day before to get me through.
So I stopped at the feed station, scoffed a quarter of my vegemite roll, filled my empty drink bottle with water and mixed in my drink powder. It was a quick stop and I was soon back on the road again.
The next 30km until the first hard climb of the day were more undulating than the previous section, so I wasn't too worried about riding on my own. But I was soon passed by three guys who I tagged along with, and for the next 25km I was riding in small groups - moving up to the next group on the climb, or getting dropped on the descent, but mostly managing to stay out of the wind and ride at my tempo pace.
There was a feed station 2km before the hard climb, Col de Beloka. I decided to stop because I needed to go to the toilet and my lower back was feeling a bit sore. Having done a recon ride of the climb a few days earlier, I knew it would be taxing on my back so I took the time to get off the bike and stretch while in the line for the toilet. With relieved back and bladder, I extracted my bike from the bike racks and went on my way.
Everyone was trepidatious approaching the Col de Beloka. At least I knew what was coming: a slight downhill riding in the big chain ring, then a slight corner and suddenly the road points upwards at close to 18% gradient. At this point you really want to have good control of your gears and be able to quickly get into the small chain ring and your easiest gear. You also want to have even more gears!
I'd been having some trouble with dropping my chain in the past few weeks, but I'd worked out how to manage it, so thankfully I had no troubles clicking down through my gears. I was also riding my bike that had been set up for climbing, with compact chain rings and a 32 tooth cassette on the back. Even with my (easy) gearing, my cadence going up the climb was around 50rpm. I was doing much better than a lot of people though - about 2/3 of the riders were walking up! And some of those that were riding didn't look that comfortable, doing the zigzag across the road to try to reduce the steepness of the gradient.
I just kept going at my steady-steady pace, reducing my cadence to keep my power within manageable levels. I did record my highest heart rate for the ride going up this climb though! It was getting quite warm by this time, around 30 degrees, and there wasn't much shade.
The climb is very tough for the first 1.5km, then flattens off for around 1km. There were some people sitting in a ute and cheering at this point, which was very welcome.
The spectators and volunteers were outstanding throughout the course. You'd be riding along a road in the middle of nowhere and there would be a small gravel road with a volunteer stationed there to make sure no cars entered the road! All the driveways in the middle of nowhere also had sandwich boards up to tell the residents that the road was closed. And at all the small towns and major crossroads there would be a group of spectators, most of them dressed in yellow (the colour of the Tour de France) with cow bells and kids yelling "you're doing a great job!" It was a fun distraction from the challenge of the ride, and very appreciated.
The last 800m or so of the Col de Beloka kicked up steeply again to around 10-14%. But it wasn't as long or as steep as the bottom section and I knew it wasn't far to the top.
At the top there was a drink station. I hadn't planned to stop here, but I was hot and I knew the heat could impact my performance. So I stopped, finished off the last of one of my drink bottles, then refilled it with water. I squirted some water over my back and neck to cool off, had another quick bite to eat, then continued on my way.
As soon as I started the descent down from the Beloka Ridge, there was a headwind. I kept down in my drops, trying to stay aero and keep my speed up. I noticed that when guys got to the top of a climb, they would stop pedaling, sit up and have a drink. Whereas when I got to the top of a climb, I'd get straight into my big chain ring, in the drops, and keep pedaling. So I was passing a lot of people on the downhills in this section.
It was about 25km to the base of the next BIG climb, the Col de Kosciusko. I keep up a good tempo pace, riding mainly by myself. My goal was to drink a whole water bottle of drink mix over those 25km, then refill at the last feed station at the base of the Col de Kosciusko. I also planned to get a few snake lollies at the feed station to give me a sugar burst as I was going up the climb.
At the feed station I saw Sam and Richard! It was the first time I'd seen them since they rode away from me heading up the first climb of the day. Sam said she was struggling a bit, and they were just leaving the feed station, so I let them go and got on with refilling my drink bottles.
On my recon ride I'd made it up this climb in just under two hours, so I figured I could do it with one sports drink bottle and one drink bottle of water. I thought I'd appreciate the water to cool myself down or to drink something that wasn't sweet!
Sadly there were no lolly snakes at this feed station, so no extra sugar hit for me. Oh well, nothing to be done but head up the mountain! Looking back at my data after the ride, I was pleased that with four stops at feed and drink stations I was only stopped for a total of 25 min.
So up the mountain I went. I was still feeling ok - not a bundle of energy, but everything was still working well. I knew from my recon that the first half of the mountain climb (12km) would be tougher, with little reprieve, and in the second half there were a couple of downhill sections for a bit of recovery. So I set off at a conservative but steady pace.
I caught up to Sam and Richard somewhere in the first 5km of the climb. I rode next to Sam for a short while, but there wasn't much help I could offer her at this stage. I told her that the smoothest bit of the road was the yellow line markings, I thought this would help her psychologically and give her something to focus on. I then continued on at my pace, sticking to the yellow centre line where possible.
Heading up the climb, I had the pleasure of passing most people. There were a few who kept pace with me, and a few that I played leapfrog with - I was riding at a steady pace, but they would ease off and I'd pass them, then they'd speed up again and pass me. But most people were struggling by this point - quite a lot would stop for a break on the side of the road, and I saw at least two guys vomiting - yuk! I also was very satisfied to recognise a few guys who I'd seen riding away from me in the first 10km of the race - now I'd caught them and I was riding away from them 😃
It wasn't easy going though - I was in my easiest gear, and every so often I'd get out of the saddle for a bit of relief. It was hot, so I'd also spray myself down with my water bottle when I got the chance. There were also SO MANY flies that I was riding holding the handlebars with one hand and swatting flies with the other hand. Then I'd turn a corner and be confronted by a headwind. The wind was actually nice because it was cooling, and it was strong enough to blow all the flies away.
Approaching the first proper downhill section on the climb, I was a bit nervous as on the recon ride we'd had a crosswind on the downhill sections and it was strong enough that I'd been nervous and on the brakes for fear of getting blown off the road. But today we had a proper headwind - I'd never been so pleased about a headwind! I wasn't getting blown off the road, and if I felt like I was going too fast I could use the wind to slow me down. No braking on the descents for me today!
I enjoyed the brief respite on the downhill sections. At the 5km to go mark I was still feeling good and thought about starting to push on harder. But 5km is a long time when you're averaging 13kph going uphill, so I contained myself and kept on at a steady pace.
At 2km to go we went through a small town called Smiggin Holes. There were groups of people sitting in deck chairs on the side of the road, cheering us on with the good news that it was only 2km to go, and the last 1km was downhill.
Another 500m or so up the road, I looked at the time - it was 1:59pm. We'd started at 7am so I thought "now it is time to push hard and see if I can get under 2 hours". I didn't have a lot of extra energy at this point, but I picked up the pace gradually to the top of the hill. Then the downhill started - I was straight into the big chain ring, into the drops, and pushing as hard as I could. I didn't have the legs to get out of the saddle to sprint, and it was 500m to the finish line, so I just went as hard as I could.
I finished at 2:01pm, but as we had a rolling start for 500m or so before the start line this morning, my official race time was 6:58. This put me in the top 40% of females in terms of total finishing time, but for the two KOM sections I was in the top 27% of females (ranked 33 out of 132). Across the whole field (including guys), I was in the top 46% overall finishing time, and the top 28% for the two KOM sections. I was super happy to finish under 7 hours, and even happier to see that my climbing was my strong point in the ride.
This was a very well organised event and the local community really got behind it with decorations in the towns and lots of cheering as the ride went past. There were also loads of volunteers who did a great job. The other highlight of the event was the course, it was very scenic, diverse and challenging, and it was such a pleasure to ride on fully closed roads.
