Race Report - My comeback Tour

In brief the Gippsland Tour was four stages in three days

Day 1 - Mainly flat with one fast (super fast) stretch and one nasty pinchy hill two laps of a 30km circuit - Total 60km (36miles)

Day 2 - ITT Mainly flat course 17km, followed by a major undulating 56km road circuit in the arvo

Day three - 60km course, one long slow climb with headwinds and a pinchy hill

So how did my race go?????

Day one - we started fast and at the hill (28km mark) rumour has it that our average speed had been 40kph (I was racing C grade out of three grades on offer), I had been struggling with the pace for about 8km and at the hill I dropped off a bit and ended up catching Nige, Dave W and a couple of Warragul guys and we rode the second lap together, we had a go at chasing the bunch for a while, but given that the whole thing in C grade is points for sprints and hill climbs we all decided that we might as well just have a good ride back. At the end on the hill Nige and I broke away and had a race to the end, which he won Dammit, we were about 2minutes down on the main bunch, but that didn't matter anyway in C grade

Day Two - I got out the ammunition, the new Scott Plasma and it was fantastic, the course was a bit breezy and I was disappointed during my race that I could barely get to 40kph, but at the end on checking the results found that I had placed third in the ITT in C gradeof about 25 riders and I had even beaten quite a few B graders and rode a great time - I think it was 26:32 for 17km which is just over 38kph - VERY HAPPY and I beat Nige by a minute

Day Two Stage Two - This was a killer stage it was extremely undulating and I got dropped at about the 13km mark, but I draughted the follow car a bit and then got back on the bunch where I did the elastic band thing for the next 10 or more kms (you know off the back a bit then back on then off then on......it was undulating and the little climbs were hurting a lot)...then at the 28km mark we did a U-turn and I was just off the back and when the leaders dug it in they left a stream of riders and I was off the back again, I rode with about four others for a while then on the last section which is where I train, I really worked hard to see if I could make any inroads on the bunch and I did see one rider Dave (who rides with my club) and I was catching him until he looked around and saw me coming so he thought "No way I am not letting her catch me" and he made sure he found the last few "petrol tickets" in his legs to beat me to the finish

Day Three (Today) - It was a 60km ride and I thought it might be a lot easier as everyone would have tired legs - what was I thinking????!!!! seriously we took off very fast from the gun and at the 10km mark our average was about 37.9kph (This was C grade right???) then there was the pinchy climb and after that there was five of us chasing the main field and my "elastic band snapped" I suddenly found I was one length off the back, then two and ended up riding about 45km on my own.....I did catch one young guy about 7km from the finish and he was buggered and I towed him to the line for about 7km which made it more interesting. It was definitely a Plan B ride - the training thing - it was hard work as half the course was very windy.

So the wash-up - I have some fitness but it runs out - I lasted about half a race on Day One and Two and today was a shocker - probably my worst ever race today....but I was very happy about my time trial - very happy and so all was not lost and given that we only got points on sprints stage finishes and hill climbs - Third in the ITT gave me six points. Seriously I cant complain considering I broke my colalrbone and two ribs only 8 weeks ago and I had four weeks off the bike, one week easy windtrainer, one week harder windtrainer and two weeks on the road, but no intervals or hills on the road just riding.

Credit - pics to Jamar Images - Thanks Jimmy