Friday, July 8, 2011

DBR Tour Stage 1 - Epic Fail

-staying up til midnight with friends helping to put bike together, lack of sleep and an untested bike was a stupid idea. But I could have told me that... Failing to prepare is preparing to fail etc, and I knew it wasn't smart but that's trying to race bikes and also having a career.

-borrowing lOvely white Rapha knee warmers makes you realize what great friends you have, but then getting grease on one of them then adds the stress of spending pre race time handwashing rather than getting to the race to warm up, so not ideal.

-borrowing someones TT Bars and having them put on your bike only to have them confiscated as illegal also not ideal and the time spent removing them really cuts unto a warm up, but live an learn etc.

-lack of proper warm up was just asking for the asthma attack from the beginning of the TT

-shake all that off and TRY to race only to drop the chain on the second hill was probably the last straw though.

-fortunately, managed to book in with the bike whisperer tonight who has also diagnosed faulty brakes, loose headset and incompatible shifters. FFS.

7 comments:

  1. Ouch....sorry to hear it Rach. I think we have all made the mistake of making changes the night before, so can sympathise.

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  2. Not an ideal start - sorry you had such a bad day.

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  3. oh Rach, that sounds really tough. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, especially after the bike has been whispered to.

    Why on earth couldn't you use TT bars in the TT??

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  4. :( Rach - So sorry to hear about all that. Hope that it gets better from here for the rest of the weekend. Like Haylee, I'm wondering too why your TT bars were deemed illegal - that seems strange?

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  5. :-( That sounds really tough Rach. Good on you for persevering through all of it though to actually get out and start. Hopefully you'll have a better day tomorrow, particularly after some Bike Whisperer TLC. You have a calvacade of Valkyries thinking of you and hoping for a better day for you tomorrow.

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  6. The bars probably aren't illegal. It sounds like (according to what Rach has said) the bars were higher than saddle. (see UCI Cycling Regulations 1.3.022)

    Said bars do kick upwards a fair bit, but they've never been picked up as an issue beforehand (I have even used them in the Bright and Canberra Tour TT's, though this means little)

    While it does contravene said Cycling Regs, I'm surprised they decided to take an exception to it.

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  7. Rach, consider your crappy, stinking bad luck all over with now! Good luck tomorrow. Cherrie.

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