The day dawned cold and cloudy, with the tops of nearby mountains shrouded in clouds. After an early (7am) breakfast and the obligatory macchiato, we loaded our bags into the car and drove the 40 min to the TT course. It would be a long day, with me racing at 10:46am and Kalvin (travel buddy, domestique and warmup coach) racing at 3:28pm.
Upon arrival at the course, the first stop seas the pre race bike check to make sure my bike was UCI legal. I knew it was borderline so I wanted to get it checked rather than getting told on the start line I couldn't ride it. As I feared, they said my seat was too far forward, and they made me move it back 5cm. I'm sure changing my bike fit an hour before my race had an impact on my potential power output, and it certainly affected my position, when possible I had my hands a few inches down from the gear levers at the end of the bars. But so be it ... High on the list of things to do when I get home will be a bike fit with someone who will ensure it is UCI legal.
The warmup went well, we had some rollers and Kalvin talked me through a warmup session. By the end of the warmup I was, well, nice and warm - plus the sun had started to peak out from behind the clouds. And there was still no wind, hooray!
I got to the start area nice and early, which was good because it was pretty chaotic! But I was ready and relaxed, took my place, mounted the stairs, mounted my bike, and they counted down my start time "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 go".
Down the nice wide ramp, around the corner, onto the main road and up hill straight away. I was passed less than 1km after the start by the Aussie Lady who stayed behind me ... She would go on to finish in third place in our age category.
On the descent, it was nice to have full use of the road with no cars. I did the descent 1min faster than I had in practice ... And still got passed by four people!
Then we had the flat section along the lake. I was slightly conserving energy because I knew I had the hard climb to go. I could feel the power was mostly coming out of my quads rather than my glutes and my pedal stroke was less smooth than normal, due to the change in saddle position. I was also trying not to get distracted by the lake, which was looking more beautiful than it had when I had the camera out during training.
Then a tight right turn across a narrow bridge, and it was onto the climb. At least I could now sit up and drive the power from my glutes a little more. The second part of the climb, where it gets to 13%, was hard. But the people cheering "go Australia, allez allez" at the top helped - it was great wearing the Australia kit and having people cheer along the course :)
The hard part of the climb was done ... Then a small recovery before the longest 5km of my life, with a gradient around 3%. I kept thinking I should be pushing harder, I was willing my numbers to go up - both power and distance, so that the finish line would come sooner.
Eventually, around a curve and up a hill into the finishing chute, out of the saddle for 5-10m in an attempt to sprint for the line... And then I crossed in a time of 52:35 for 24.1km. Average speed was 27kph.
Looking at the times I had predicted for each of the segments of the race, I went faster on the descents and the climbs and slower on the flats than expected. Maybe I should only race up and down hills?
I had perfect conditions and did the race about 1 min faster than I expected. I also finished 10th in my age category (not last) so I am satisfied with my result ... But also motivated to train harder and prepare better so that I can be more competitive in future.
The fastest female time was 39:57:57 and the fastest male time was 35:25. The men went in the afternoon, and quite a strong wind had picked up.
Now to decide on my race strategy for the road race ...
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