I made the mistake of thinking the ride from Dickson to SFP would be a good warmup but i reality by the time I arrived with honorary Valkyrie Paddy for company - I felt shattered.
Sunday was actually the first day in a long time where I've actually really truly had sore legs - as opposed to just feeling a bit soft), and that's a good thing, because I hope it means that the sprinting on Red Hill really translated into something...I guess we will see this weekend.
Verity, Ches, Anna and I were the Valkyries present for this coached session, and helping us out were Coach Simon, World Champion Sue Powell (fyi - having World Champions at your training is pretty friggin ace), Alex, Paddy and maybe others but my memory fails me right at the minute...
We practiced holding form and 'Chase the Rabbit' with Paddy as the rabbit. I bonked on the first lap but Ches and Anna were in fine form.
The session was mercifully short, and finished with some lead out sprints - on each lap it was one of the Valkyries turn to sprint and i drew the card for the last lap. This suited me well as I barely hung on for all the laps prior - but:
A funny thing happens when the end is in sight. Rounding the top corner I suddenly remembered that based on average results in the last 8 weeks of training and racing - I had th potential to put up a pace the other girls couldnt sustain (give or take their ability to follow their lead out riders wheel).
So as we rounded the corner I started yelling to Alex, Up, Go GO GO GO, each time he increased the pace, I called again (which led to a few surprised looking head checks from him - he seemed to be saying "More Speed? For Real??"
I'm pretty sure I even yelled to him "Go, the other girls can't hold on". (sorry ladies).
We managed to break away with a decent lead, but Paddy (leading out Verity and Ches) was quick to respond and my undoing was Collarbone Corner.
At this much faster pace, I didnt start wide enough and s left a giant gap for Paddy to pull Ches through in front of us.
I wasnt giving up though - I was absolutely determined that the last 8 weeks of training and being ahead of Ches (friendly rivalry in a squad is SO BENEFICIAL), and indeed the months of training since February when Ches was concentragin on Rowing weren't going to be defeated in a crit sprint.
So I hun on and as we rounded the last corner in to the sprint straight, she was a few metres ahead - but this is where I remembered my first (and only other) crit race ever, where someone pipped me in the last two metres and I'd had no idea, so I screamed past Alex (poor use of a lead out guy at this point) and HAMMERED it up the straight.
Paddy, doing a casual headcheck spotted my attack and yelled to Ches to push it which she did - I caught her at the line but she made it across the line first with my wheel in line with about the middle of her bike.
It was an awesome sprint.
Things learned:
- Always sprint the whole thing, you never know when a surprise attack is coming
- Ride behind your lead out guy rather than next to him when it really counts (d'oh)
- When you think you've got nothing, throw down the hammer
- Having a squad makes training awesome, the encouragement, the friends and the rivalry.
- Having a really awesome and supportive Club like Vikings RULES because great riders turn up to help us at practice.
- World Champions go really really fast
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