It was crazy weather for a bike race. Heavy rain and strong winds. The rain was so heavy on the drive out to the start at Chidlow that I had to pull over at one point.
My warmup was only 15min, but then I headed down the road in the wrong direction to the start line and ended up at Great Eastern Highway! So I had another 15min flat out to make sure I got to the start line on time! This actually worked out well because I had a good warmup and less time standing around getting cold before my start.
There were only two women in my age category - myself and Amanda Nabi, who is significantly faster than me. So I figured I only had to finish and I'd get silver, and how hard I rode wouldn't matter. But I have been training hard and feeling good, so I wanted to ride to the best of my ability.
Amanda started 1 min behind me, and passed me at the 5km mark. At this rate I figured she would be at least 5 min faster than me overall, how depressing. I continued on, trying to keep pushing down the hills as well as up, and Amanda quickly moved out of sight.
The course was 12.5km out, then a U-turn and back to the start. As I headed back after my U-turn, Amanda was stopped and trying to fix some problems with her wheel. I felt bad for her, but there wasn't anything I could do to help. I also thought - if I can stay 1 min in front of her then I might win the gold medal!
There was a head wind on the way back, which also drove the rain into my eyes. So I hunkered down as low and aero as I could and half-closed my eyes to protect them. And I powered on. I couldn't see much ahead, let alone the numbers on my Garmin, so I just went hard. I kept thinking Amanda would be coming up behind me any minute, and I didn't want to get to the finish and be slower than her, and think "gosh if only I'd gone a little bit harder".
When I got to 3km to go I was counting down the kilometres. I kept powering on. At 500m to go I picked up the pace. It turned out the race was 25.3km so I actually still had 800m to go! Keep going, don't ease up until you cross the finish line! Phew. My power data shows that I averaged 10watts higher on the way back than I did on the way out, which goes to show how hard I can go with the right motivation!
I crossed the finish line and waited to see how far back Amanda was, but it turned out her mechanical issues were serious enough that she couldn't ride so she didn't finish the race. Which means I got the gold medal and National Champion jersey!
I'm really excited to be a National Champion. Even though in the end how hard I raced was irrelevant to the race result, I know I raced damn hard so I feel like I've earned it!
Well done to everyone who raced today in very ordinary conditions. And a HUGE thanks to the organisers and volunteers from West Coast Masters Cycling Club and AVCC who stood around getting cold and wet while marshaling and manning the start and finish lines.
Great to see some of the old guys still out and racing - the oldest age category was 80-85. The 70-75 year olds looked positively sprightly! Inspiring.
Also a special mention to Deb Kempe who trains with Hall Cycle Training and was the FASTEST WOMAN on the day. What an honour for a lovely humble lady.
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