DeBortoli Tour

Well this weekend was the DeBortoli Tour and I went thinking that I was just not ready for the hills. I mean my hill training has consisted of two Tuesday rides up Mt Tassie last week and the week before which hardly constitute serious hill training, anyway Shane and I rocked up on the Sat morning to the Start for a 17km ITT. I actually ended up 6th of 16 and rode a much better time than I expected. I was only 32 seconds behind Tess Downing and she is a good track rider. I was pretty happy. The afternoon was a tough 60km ride and I had a funny episode on the second lap and dropped off my bunch a bit and my legs were hurting I wasnt drinking enough and overall I finished 11 minutes behind the leader and probably about 5 minutes behind where I should have finished but I did ride hard and I had a masters rider to race with for a while which was fun. I went home feeling like crap, I had a headache and basically went to bed not sure how I would pull up for Sunday. I drank a lot and ate dinner though. On Sunday I felt ok and I raced well, I was 5th woman up Toolangai and next year will be aiming for some KOM poitns on this stage, my race fell apart a bit after that I am terrified of strong wind and so rode a shard as I could I ended up riding about 70km alone on a 100km stage so it was a tough day but I felt good about it at the end which was important as I have to make sure I ENJOY my racing and it doesnt beat me too much.....Overall I will be back next year and have written a letter to Blackburn about the event too.

SMILING HERE