1st place with a solid base

This weeks weather caused chaos. With the beginning of last Saturday thinking I wouldn’t be riding at all for the week. Then the Wednesday crash. Friday no ride due to bullshit amounts of rain. Saturday turned out to be one of the nicest days riding we have had for a while.

My plan was to pedal out for 3 hours with hills. Last weeks ride clockwise with the four climbs was the route and along the way I gave the ride a name. Quad run. Old Bathurst, Lappo then in and out of the NP at Glenbrook. Slowly Old Bathurst is getting easier but it still is a very unforgiving climb. This time with HR Monitor on I could see the 22% section was maxing me out for 6 minutes at over 160bpm. Nice and painful.

I pretty much worked out on the descent back to Lappo via Mitchels Pass that the NP would be closed and yep, I was right it was – the weir was flooded so no go for the extra 2 climbs. Shame. I just continued home.

Sunday was the big one. First Roadie Race ever [i.e. not a short crit] + the new wheels would be out on course. I’m smart enough now to know that if your going to race, don’t take new equipment and expect it to be ok on race day. With this, and not meeting training hours this week there was one thing to do. Ride to the race, race, then ride back home. Just to make sure 9 hours were met and the wheels would be bedded in.

Riding off from home the minute I started pedaling,the girl was a different beast. The new wheels meant climbing and holding speed was taking so much less and effort and it felt exhilarating. When you crest a climb these wheels spin up so fast you feel like your moping! I cannot wait to do an Alpé de Heights rep. I am confident i will smash the 10:20 PB

I made it to the regatta center and racing began at 8.00am. I still wasn’t entirely sure of the distance the race would be. It turned out to be a 12 lap race and that being twice the distance of the crits it was a shock. I felt good but was in pain from the previous days ride but still I took lead a few times and was happy with the girl by now as the gears had 80% settled/bedded in. They are still a bit noisy.

The final lap was one of the slowest I have raced, no one was prepared to jump so when we crossed the bridge I ended up stepping up my pace a bit and found myself in about 4th wheel. Once we straightened up I hit the gas and from there it was pretty obvious no one had anything left in the tank to catch me. I took the 3 guys and crossed the line about 2 bike lengths in front comfortably. Happy days.

Then there was the ride home. By this stage I was in very spent. Legs were aching as was my arse just from sitting for so long over the last two days. I managed to make it home but had to make an emergency stop at Glenbrook bakery to smash a donut, spinach and cheese roll and cream bun… mmmmmm…. In total it was a tad under 4:30:00 ride so it meant I smashed the 9hr target time for the week by almost a full hour. And the RS80′s are so bloody nice to ride. Super happy with the purchase.

I was placed in C Grade by the club so I will see how the next race goes. I may move up – maybe not… we’ll see.