Stage Two, Tour of Two Rivers

Waking up for the time trial I was not feeling positive, I hadn't slept well and was worried about how I'd pull up after the previous days race. I'd taken my TT bars with me and put them on but thought they would be considered illegal and taken off at the start, but I took the chance.

Riding into rego despite having had breakfast I felt flat and was getting worried about my ability to start and finish the race. With rego done it was a 5km ride to the start. Nice way to try and warm up as the wind from Saturday was back, it wasn't meant to be as strong but with no drafting today it would make parts of the course pretty tough.

Once making it to the start I did a bit of a warm up down the first section of the course, getting down into my bars to ensure they were in a comforatable position. I soon realised this section would be straight into the wind, I felt like I was barely moving. I just wanted to start and get it over. Still feeling flat I thought a gel just before starting might help get me through, which felt wrong since it was only 21km but I needed all the help I could get.

Finally we were away, in reverse order, so I was 4th to head off. As I watched the first person take off I panicked; a standing start, I'd never done one before and was not comfortable with the idea of someone holding onto my bike, I could just see myself falling sideways. The person who went off ahed of me didn't use the standing start, small relief; it wasn't compulsory! The one positive I had standing on that start line was I was in my comfort zone, I knew how to TT, but normally after a swim and before a run. So my plan was to go all out, there was no need to conserve energy for a run, there would be no wasted energy on a swim, I only had to focus on the next 21km's. I wanted to finish feeling like I had nothing left, I wanted to leave everything on the course.

Finally I was away; click, my left foot slipped in with ease no need to look down, a couple hundred metres out of the saddle and I was up to speed, then it was down into my bars (they didn't check them). The wind was picking up and I was feeling the efforts of the previous day in my legs already. I could see the junior from the day before just ahead; my first target, I needed to pass her and keep gaining time if I wanted to place in C grade. I caught and passed her. Ange was second to head off and I could see her in the distance and worked to close down the gap, not thinking I would actually catch her. I did manage to catch her and hoped she heard my words of encouragement as I passed.

My goal was to hold off Rach. I knew if I could I might have a chance of placing in womens C. I didn't realise that the Sun Rice lady that was in C the day before had gone up to B. So I just put my head down and kept pushing on. Soon I found myself spinning to no where, I could hear rach in my head "gear up" so I did and soon it was smooth with more speed, double bonus! It was faster than I thought I could manage, my legs were really hurting and I still had a lap to go.

Going through the start/finish and back into the worst of the wind I doubted I would survive the second lap. I thought I knew what it was like to ride in pain; I do; bone pain, but that burn in my legs was not something I'd pushed to before. But I couldn't give up I just found some anger to spurr me on.

The final lap became a bit of a blurr, it was like there wasn't any fuel left, but I'd made sure I'd eaten so I put it down to the efforts of the day before and pushing harder than I ever had in this race. Finally the finish line was in sight and I managed to keep the bike upright and cross it. I slowly rolled to a stop and got the bike off the road, feeling far from well.

I managed to roll back to the start / finish, to sit and watch the experts go round; Mens A, they make staing starts look so easy. Rach finished soon after me, really soon, so I only just mamanged the goal of holding her off, soon after she came in so did Ange. We decided to wait for the presentations as we were pretty sure that at least Rach had placed in B grade. Soon we were told that I had won women's C or at least that was what I thought he said. When he actually said I'd won out of the women, with rach getting second, 1st in B grade, Ange picking up 2nd in C grade. I couldn't believe it, my legs were burning the whole race and I felt pretty crap and didn't think I'd do that well. I was stoked to have done so well and was only possible because of the support and encouragement from my teammates. Without Rach and Ange I wouldn't have even gone to Griffith.

Some things I learnt this weekend:
* the best form of training can sometimes be racing
* don't train until you think you are fit enough to race, go out and do it, you just might surpirse yourself
* I ride better when I'm p***ed off
* I'm part of a really supportive and encouraging group
* despite my long 'taper period' I didn't loose all my fitness and endurance while my bone healed

A huge thanks to Rach and Ange, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have gone away and had such a great weekend and learnt as much as I did.