Face down wondering why??
I realise I am currently having a great opportunity, being able to race a bike here in Europe, without having to work, its being a professional, minus the money, massive support of sponsors and unending supply of racing equipment of course, but still similar lifestyles. However days like today I find myself wondering whether it is really so great or worth all the effort.
I wonder if there are signs that tell us we should or shouldn’t be doing things, I think most, in fact all, of my non-cycling friends would say not only the last week, but maybe the last year prior to coming over here would be enough of a sign that maybe this isn’t the sport for me; but somehow I keep wanting to succeed. Getting back up moving forward, moving on, building a bridge and getting over it, or one of my favourite sayings ”eating a tablespoon of cement and hardening up”.
No need to go into detail of car accidents over the last year, but the last week, 3 out of the 4 races seemed to have bad luck in some way or another. Someone once said to me, you make your own luck in a bike race, which I believe 100%; am I then wishing these things upon myself, do I really want to come back to Australia that much. Or can sometimes there be bad luck, and as all the dutchies say “shit happens”.
4/6/11 Race 1 Raced exceptionally well, windy, hot day, but had no kick in my legs, so went from 8th to 22nd in sprint, but was happy with my race.
5/6/11 Race 2 Therme Kassieme Omloop UCI 1.2, quite a big race top teams etc. Was racing exceptionally well, feeling good over the cobbles, got 3rd in the first cobble sprint, always ensuring I was in the splits of the peloton and being attentive. We came up to the 2nd last 4km cobbled section with 40k to go. I wasn’t happy with my position so I started riding around on “bumpier” cobbles, only to have my front wheel taken out from underneath me by someone else moving out and putting me onto the sand next to the cobbles 5 inches deep and I ended up on the ground. I got back on my bike, and caught back to the peloton in about 500m, then I hit a sharp cobble…..PUNCTURE, I didn’t realise this at the time, but apparently I should have kept riding my flat until after the cobbles as it would be easier to get back onto the group, but I didn’t. By the time my wheel was changed (midget bikes make changing wheels all the more harder, as do lose brakes) and I got back on the bike, I was sitting on 55km/hr behind the car over the cobbles, it just didn’t seem easy, then onto the road, I chased on the back of the car for 3k before the judges told me I wasn’t allowed to get pulled back up and I still couldn’t see the peloton anyway (remember I told u it was a long wheel change) so end of my race (although I was kind of happy as I’d been on my limit behind the car).
Lesson 1 Dont change a flat on the cobbles, always keep riding your bike at back of bunch until your team car is there and you are on smooth roads. Although it was nice to get praised for not throwing a hissy fit at our mechanic for taking to long!!!
12/6/11 Race 3. First Belgium kermesse for the year, I was excited, I knew the course would suit me, it was a little windy, a 15km lap with a couple of rises, windy roads and a fast finish. Was a very negative race, every break was pulled back, it was to end in a bunch sprint. I was sitting in 5th wheel for the last 1km and feeling great I thought this is it, I am going to go great, then at 200m to go as we were starting to jump I felt something hit my rear mech as well as heard it, I stopped pedalling and looked down and then realised there was 100m to go and now I’m in 20th position….
Lesson 2 don’t stop sprinting at 200m to go no matter what….. when I checked my bike at the end of the race there was a gauge out of my rear mech and it was a bit bent so I hadn’t imagined anything at least.
13/6/11 Race 4 So I had initially not planned to race today but was really keen and had quite enjoyed yesterdays race, and thought it would be a great hit out prior to this weeks 3 day UCI 2.2 tour Rabobank Ster Zeeuwsche Eilanden starting Thursday. So I headed off on my own for the 1hr 45 min drive to De Pinte for another Belgium kermesse. I was a lot less nervous today than I have been all week at the start, I know I’m fit, I’d ridden the last 1km 3 times already and I had let a little bit of air out of my tyres as I thought it was going to rain a little bit. First 3 laps were a lot more aggressive than yesterday, I had gotten in a group of 3, three different times, but no one was still letting anything go, I was riding up the front but not doing really any work as best as ever. Half way through the 4th lap, I heard a crash and thought eww, that sounded nasty. I was sitting in top 20 riders, but we were bunched over the road. We went over a bridge turned to the right, down the bridge, took it easy around a slippery roundabout, someone attacks. I was in the middle so no need to attack or chase, wait, soon someone will respond, and space will be created for me to move out around and forward, then the girl in front of me suddenly changes direction rapidly. Takes my front wheel out and before you know it I’m face down on the asphalt with a girl on top of me screaming at the top of her lungs in obvious pain. All that was going thru my head was “how does something like this happen when I was so calm”, and “CAN SOMEONE TELL THIS GIRL TO SHUT UP” (little did I know at the time her nose was broken, quite painful I imagine)….. I looked down at my injuries; not looking too bad, I can feel some cuts on my face, and there’s a lot of blood coming out of my knee and elbow, and I’m a little dizzy so its race over for me, not safe to continue. Now to check the bike, on first consult it looks fine, a few scratches on the levers, a new left hood required and maybe some bar tape. I get back to the finish line, lift my bike over the fence then look down at my frame and see the bad news, yet another broken frame. The top tube is cracked, I want to go and cry, all I can think about is this will now be bike number 6 for me in a little under 3 years. When I would realistically still like to be riding the bike I chose to buy prior to getting hit by the truck nearly 3 years ago now. Although they have all been great bikes, not great circumstances to get new ones.
Lesson 3. If once u fail, try and try again until you succeed and always have a smile on your face, it makes you feel happier.
After getting patched up by a Belgie first aid man, that is nowhere near our level of st johns guys and girls in terms of cleanliness or ability, showering and sending the obligatory “I’m ok but……my bike is broken , I’ve been in a crash etc” text messages to my mum, and dutch family I pack up the car and drive home eating strope waffles (the most amazing dutch biscuit things ever). So now I have ordered a new NSeven frame already, as this is what Patrick the son of my dutch family sells and he will get it to me by Wednesday, we will spend Wednesday night building a bike, and Thursday I get one ride on it before I race the race of truth time trial Thursday evening for the tour which has never been my strong point anyway.
And I will continue to learn and hopefully create some good luck for myself. Why me is the question everyone wants answered, but we will never know, so why not I say. I do feel lucky to be over here experiancing this life and of course I can still make something of it, still……
Maybe I should just be getting a steal frame instead??
Sometimes bike racing, really just isn’t bike racing…..I don’t know about you, but for myself, riding in the gutter (or right on the edge of the road) for 2-3 hours in single file, trying to hold the wheel in front, with a side wind nearly pushing you off the road, trying to sit just on the left of the girl in front of you so you get a bit of a wind block in echelon formation from the 40km/hr winds, only to get pulled out of the 130km race with 30km to go as you and the 20 girls you have been pacing with are outside time limit is not really a bike race. I’m sure the 40 girls that finished of the 150 starters may have been a tad happier than us at the finish. But that’s Holland and bike racing and the Dorpenomloop Aalsburg finished for another year, to say myself and Eefje (fellow team-mate) were a tad unhappy with ourselves in the showers after Saturday was an understatement, although we both knew we had been unable to go any harder at that point where the peloton was ripped to shreds by no other than Marianne Vos. You always say, what if I was on a different wheel, or 3 girls closer to the front, or hiding more in the wind, but in that moment where the wheels are slipping away from yours, or the girl in front of you, there really is nothing else you can do. So we both said tomorrow we will ride better, tomorrow is for us.
We showered got in the team car and did the 2.5 hour drive to the north of Holland for the following days Ronde Ron het Ronostrand, another 125km classic, with 3 UCI teams Cervelo-Garmin, Dolmans and AA-Drinks and 150 more girls on the start line. We woke to howling winds, and rain yet again as well as an early race start for Holland of 9am. To say the 6 of us in our hotel corridor at 7:30am were unexcited about rain was an understatement.
The rain seemed to have stopped 45min prior to starting and we got a good 25 min warm up prior to the 10 min lining up to get a front spot on the start line. I knew the race was going to be heavy due to the UCI teams and the fact it was a race in Holland. It was 3 large rounds of a 30km circuit, and 3 small rounds of 12km. There were 2 klinker/pave/brick road sections on the large circuit and 1 on the small.
My ability to sit up the front of a peloton has become so much better and I was always up there. On the second lap a group of 6 escaped off the front on some klinkers and I had been sitting 10 wheels too far back in the single file to warrant going with it, there were some huge splits in the peloton (however I did not realise this at the time) and our group was working & never let the break get more than 30 seconds up the road. Within our bunch there were numerous attacks, but nothing seemed to be sticking, I went with a few moves but was also trying not to punish my legs as well. At the beginning of the 1st small round the break was only 80m ahead of us, and I realised we were going to catch them and that their would be some counter moves quickly following. We didn’t catch them until just before passing the finish line with 2 laps to go, we had a peloton of 50 back together. It was directly into a head wind, I was away with 3 other girls in the first counter but the wind was so strong we only lasted 3km. Then the moves started happening on the klinkers. My thoughts were just stay follow wheels, don’t create an attack and be attentive. It kept splitting them coming back together. On the last round going into the head wind & then over the klinkers it really split up, I was in the 3rd group of 6/7 riders, and we worked so hard and then their was a group of 5 of us off the front with 6km left. They brung us back and we were a group of 25 at 3km to go. It was going to be a sprint, I knew at 1km to go it was a right then 2 left hand corners. I got my elbows out and tried to take my corners perfectly moving up and timed my sprint a bit late, but finished 12th; Kirsten Wild from AA drinks was the eventual winner, who had gotten 3rd the day before. First 6 riders were professionals and only 54 finishers from the 150 or so starters. http://www.wielerland.nl/index.php?option=com_database&c=u&sc=1&id=26012&Itemid=242
To not only make the final split of 25 but to be going with moves and still have the ability for an ok sprint at the end was quite a large improvement on the day before. Of course there is plenty of room for improvement and I want more, but on this day, I was hiding from the wind quite well, following the correct wheels, only moving into the wind when required and got some elbows out to hold my place in the bunch and to finally feel the power I had felt in my legs back at Oceania’s return; these all were positives to come out of the race.
Now for 2 days rest, then race Wednesday, 2 days rest, race saturday and sunday and hopefully have some top tens to report. All 3 races are some big classics with UCI teams, wind and on Sunday some real cobbles and another UCI 1.2 race.
I remember back in school I was never one to ask questions, I would sit there quietly and do all my work, maybe get one or two wrong, but always listen to what was required and then proceed without requesting further assistance. Then throughout University I got frustrated with people asking for help on their assignments, my train of thought was we are supposed to have already been provided with all the information we need to complete this so you should just do it, although some may say I had more of a reason to ask questions than most considering I was asleep for most lectures, but that’s another story. Then when I got my training programs from Mick Chapman, I would just do what it had written down, without any questions asked, and thought I was doing it correctly after the information he had given me. What I’m getting at is that I’ve always been someone who doesn’t ask a lot of questions (although my dietetic clients may think otherwise), have faith that people give me enough information and often don’t probe too much more, maybe I guess you could say one of my not so good traits if we were in a job interview.
However this last week I have realised (at 25) that maybe asking, re-analysing, getting 2nd, 3rd 4th and 5th people’s points of opinions isn’t actually “cheating”, and often we don’t learn things the first, or second or third time they are told to us, no matter how good a listener we are.
It may have taken me 6 years and the 8th person to tell me in a different way that I had heard it before but this week I realised that training in E1 really does make a difference. Now I have always done all my efforts exactly as on my program perfectly to the T, but the rest of the time, especially if I am on my own you will find me singing to myself and going along quite slow think 25km/hr averages, HR 110-120bpm. Now I feel that the media is partly to blame for this (read this as sarcasm) as you always see everywhere people saying that the most common problem in cycling is training to hard. SO I always made sure that his doesn’t happen. I always assumed due to my lack of questioning and getting more information; thus some times to assume IS to make an ass out of u and me; that as long as I did my efforts perfectly and spent the time and km’s on my bike, the HR the rest of the time didn’t really matter. Now is took someone who has English as a second language to explain to me that this is not correct and that if I train in my correct zone, I will not find the races so hard…..simple yet, something my personal observations missed. Not due to my lack of contact with very knowledgable people, due to me being so goddamn ”independent” to ask for more assistance than I thought was reasonable.
But this has explained why I never seem to get hungry whilst out training on my own, I used to do 140km on water and 1 muesli bar…possibly because I was only burning 1200 kj/hour.
So with this taken on board, I have set an alarm on my HR watch to keep me in the zones and trained for 4 days correctly. I then had a race on Sunday, Omloop de Kampen classic where at our pre-race meeting I asked 5 different questions, then sat down after the race and analysed with 3 different people and worked out exactly where I went wrong and what I could have done to fix it.
Where I went right on Sunday, I raced 80% of race in top 25 riders, I went in a lot of the moves by following wheels, not bridging myself, was finding it easy to get back to the front most of the race and was active within te race
Where I need to work on, I didn’t hold my position in top 10 from 5km to go, and dropped back to far, then when I tried to go around in the 2nd last round about at 1.5km to go I boxed myself in counting on te person in font of me to take the gap, and went from 20th wheel to 50th….need to not count on anyone, and make my move to the front at 5km to go and stay there
This last week has also given me more of a drive to do well, and I have extended my trip here until the 14th of September, to give myself that extra month to achieve my goal of winning a race here in Europe in 2011.
Race no 1……..finally :)
So after a week of coming down with yet another flu, sitting around with the sniffles and making the tough decision of every cyclist to pull out of a race prior to the start. I knew if I did race the classic on Saturday I would not go well, and it would be a bad start to my year over here. So after some advice from some clever people (Theo & Leonie) and my begrudgingly agreeing with their advice I sat at home again on Saturday after a little pedal (I actually went and did some shopping lol) and waited for Easter Monday to come around, my sniffles and cough to go away and my head ache to not be there any more.
My ride on Sunday was a promising hit out as I did my first efforts since arriving over here, so nearly 2 weeks and my body acted as it should…phew as I was worried I still had remnants of a cold.
We (Leonie & Theo, my dutch parents,and I) headed off Sunday morning at 9am to Waddinxveen for a criterium,30km out of Rotterdam. So although it only took 1.5hrs to get to Waddinxveen, as Theo had said it would; I know I still don’t speak too much dutch, I can still tell when it appears we may be lost and unable to find the race, so I sit in the back of the car in silence, glad I had encouraged us to leave 30 min early. We finally get to the sports hall were entry’s are taken with a long que (60 min prior to racing) I line up and then when I finally get to the front they say I have a form toi fill out (being an Aussie and all) and then they make me wait for another 15 min until everyone else has their number, before they charge me 10 euro to borrow a transponder. We walk back to the car, and I realise we actually aren’t at the start of the race, I say I’ll ride, as it appears all the other girls are riding. By the time I have my bike ready and kit on they have all disappeared, so I head off in the direction they left in. Theo and Leonie in the car behind me and after 5 min we can not see the race anywhere. We go back to entry’s and ask someone, it is 3km away and 18 min to start time, quickly back in the car and we drive to the start. Theo reminds me along the way I have to put my transponder on, I say, “don’t u have it, I put it on the roof of the car” and Theo says no I didn’t see it, we quickly park, me in tears of laughter at how much of a disaster this feels and Theo is about to drive back and try to find it when I find it under my clothes…phew, hopefully that was a sign of things to come lol.
I was number 95 in the race, so it was a big field, a 1.6km circuit with 10 corners, strong head wind into the finish which was 200m from the final corner, 38 laps (60km for those of u not good at maths). I didn’t get to ride a lap before the race, I just rode straight to the start line and made sure I was at the front. My heart rate was at 100 bpm anyway so I was ready hehehe. The race started and I stayed up the front, and within 1.5laps a group of 10 riders had gotten away, just as I had dropped back to 20th wheel or so. I thought that’s a big group and I want to be in it. I jumped to cross the gap with one other girl and we bridged the 100m gap in half a lap, 12 of us off the front and that’s the way it stayed for the rest of the race…the gap anywhere between 18 seconds and 1 minute. It wasn’t until the second last prime (sprint for money) that I realised they were paying to 7th place, so I went a bit harder for the next 2 primes and got 1st and 2nd. Throughout the race, I never really felt comfortable, and then with 5 laps to go the attacks started coming, I knew I needed to save myself as much as possible as I had no jump in my legs, so tried to do as little chasing as possible, but there were 2 teams of 3 girls there so I still did some work. With 1 lap to go we were all together, and I ended up on the front, this did not bother me, as I just rode slowly anyway and thought when someone jumps for the sprint I go then anyway. But a girl launched a move at 800m to go and instead of me waiting for someone else to chase, I did the chasing, this ruined my legs for the finish and I ended 10th out of the 12 of us. Still a top ten for my first European race for the year isn’t bad and some money from 5 pf the primes as well so can’t complain. It’s always good to have a decent race when your legs are feeling bad as u know that means u can only get better.
When I got home to look at my data, the 40km/hr average speed and average HR of 177 (92% of Max) kind of explained why I didn’t feel the best…good hard race and keen to move forward fom now, just need to get this frog out of my throat.
Amstel weekend
So I was meant to have a race on Sunday at Gelderland in Holland, a 1.1 Classic, however the team pulled out, so instead Theo, Leonie, and I took the camper with the hoonches (dogs) and went and stayed near Volkenberg, where on Saturday I rode 180km of the 270km Amstel Gold course, along with 30000 other people and then Sunday had a smaller hilly ride and watched the race……. It was perfect weather, 22-25 degrees 
I know none of you would ever think I would say this, but I loved riding the little burgs If you have a look at my 
typical training around Meijel it is very flat, and can become monotonous…although you do get your kms up a bit quicker. So off we went in the camper and discovered a nice caravan park right at the bottom of the Keutenberg (the 2nd last hill in Amstel Gold race) which reaches 22%….We couldn’t manage to get Theo’s scooter up it although we tried on numerous occasions.
So the ride on Saturday was thoroughly enjoyed, I rode most of it on my own passing many people, and just following the signs, only tagging onto the back of people for maybe 30km of the whole ride as quite often when I did something would happen amongst the groups and they would stop so I just kept going.
On Saturday afternoon we continued to watch riders finish their ride, there were people going until about 5pm…
Sunday was a great atmosphere, we watched most of the race on T.v but it was great to see them fly past at one stage strung out in single file doing maybe 65km/hr
It has made me more excited than ever for my first race this Saturday, Omloop Van Borsele, 5 laps of a 22km flat circuit, a UCI 1.2 race that will be fast and furious I think….
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