Tour Feminin - O cenu Ceskeho Svycarska, CZE, 2.2 - Stg 1 & 2

So here I am in the Czech Republic, racing for the Czech Army team - Dukla Praha - in my first ever UCI race.
Some said I was crazy for this adventure.. "You've only been racing bikes a few months, give it time" etc etc, but I'm all for throwing myself in the deep end, and considering I was planning on coming to Europe anyway, I figured why not??

First off, the team. 6 girls including me, all the others are normally on the team and have raced with each other before. Then there's the Mechanic, the Team Manager, and the swanny. Added are the Team Bus and the Team Car, and here I am racing with a full on Pro experience!

Day 1 - 116km, Start/Finish - Krasna Lipa

The day was planned out, and the schedule translated to me, Team Breakfast in the dining Hall, then team lunch, then we depart to get to the start in time for Team Presentations and sign on. It was a 1310 start time.

After Presentation, i went for a big of a warm up ride, then got a quick leg rub, before going to head out for a bit more of a ride only to find half the field already on the start line, and it was 20 minutes to race start! So for fear of having to start completely at the back, I jumped in too, and waited.. and waited.. HR was sitting around 130, I felt sick, it was hot, and I was bloody nervous!

Finally we got underway and it went like this - fast, slam brakes and yell WOAH, fast, slam on brakes and yell WOAH.. There was a silly stack only a couple of k in, and I really wanted to move up, but I started in the middle of the pack, and I never got even close to the front. 170 girls take up a lot of room on the road! The first big climb started about 15k in to the race and due to my lack of being able to get past about 100th wheel, I found myself off the front pack quickly with a bunch of about 15. Almost made it over, but the heart and lungs just gave out! I was still feeling like I was about to puke, and it was soooo hot!

That's pretty much how things stayed for the next 100k, we picked up a few other girls who'd been dropped along the way, and no one was really too keen to do too much to chase after about 50k, so the pace slowed and we just concentrated on getting to the finish. There wasn't much talk either, considering everyone speaks different languages! When they did speak, I had to wonder if they were doing a Bridget - "My bits hurt!!"

Had a quick glance of my average HR after an hour of racing, and it was 178!

Made it over the final killer climb and then we rolled through 17mins down on the leaders. Looking at the results it seems there was some serious action where the race was at!

I completely underestimated the climbing that there would be.. The Mocka didn't look too bad, but there are a fair few steep pinches around that sap the legs!

Finished the night with Team Dinner, then Massage, and then an earlier night to bed. Jet Lag really sucks and I'm struggling to sleep. Combined with sharing a room with 3 girls all gibbering away in czech non stop, I'm a little sleep deprived!


Day 2 - 110km - Start/Finish - Jirikov

Today was set to be brutal. 3 laps around Krasna Lipa which included yesterdays final climb, and then back to Jirikov for 3 more laps with a slightly less steep climb. Yesterday's 30 degrees was set to be topped, and it didn't dissapoint. The Garmin says we hit about 33/34 by the end of the stage.
Learning from yesterday's start line mistake, I headed out earlier for the warm up and managed to get 20 minutes.
Another 20 minute wait on the start line in the hot hot sun, and oops, I've forgotten sunscreen. Going to pay for that!
We got under way and it was similar to the previous day. HR was a little more under control though, a few less nerves, but still the pack was twitchy, and yet again getting past 100th wheel proved elusive to me! There are lots of train crossings in these races, and they're quite bumpy, so there's ofter a massive slow down to go over them. About 15k in we were stopped at one, but the pack was all together so no issue, then 20k in we hit another, and there was a stack taking out about 20 from both sides of the pack. I even saw one of the English girls climbing back up the embankment! I managed to get through unscathed, but a big gap opened up and we spent the next 5k chasing back on, which meant I was on the back for the 1st time up the infamous Vapenka climb. So I started the climb near the back, what's new? and as predicted didn't make it over with the front bunch. We chased back on though, and made it back at the same point, roads too narrow to attempt to move up! 2nd time didn't go well at all and was dropped pretty bad.
Spent the next lap with 2 other girls Who almost dropped me coz I was pretty fried!!
Up Vapenka one more time, another couple of bottles in the feed zone and then drama! The team bus came up to give me a coke and in the handover hit the edge of the road and fell in to the ditch!! OH MY GOD! I turned back to make sure they were ok. With limited english, they said - OK! RACE! so I headed back on my way and caught the other girl who I'd been with.
Yet another train stop and a group of 10 or so caught us. Yay, more workers!
With a little outside assistance, we managed to stay ahead of the charging Peloton and got on to our final 9k loop before they overtook us. Rolled over the line as a bunch except for yet again someone stupidly attacking and sprinting for no reason. Results aren't out yet, but I think we were about 17/18 minutes down again. Hopefully just enough to stay within timecut..
Yet another 1500m of climbing today, and I feel like I'm burnt to a crisp from the beating sun!

Oh, and both days we've had little cobble sections! Only about 50m at a time, but YUCK!! And some stretches of road are so rough they're like cobbles..

The Mechanic has just set up my bike for the TT tomorrow morning.. Disc wheel and all! On the table now getting my 3rd massage in as many days... I could get used to this life!

On tap for tomorrow - 21k ITT, with no flat bits (surprise surprise!) and then a 104km Hilly Road Race in the afternoon.. And at least as hot as today.. Oh Gosh..

Tomorrow..

Tomorrow is the day of what I believe will be the hardest race of my life. After that will be 3 more days of the same.

Tomorrow I take to the start line of the Tour de Feminine - Krasna Lipa. UCI 2.2. 180 starters.
Of which every single one I've seen so far looks super skinny, super fit, and tanned!!

Oh and 98% of them don't speak English, so I've not got any idea whatsoever of what's being said. Could make for interesting racing!

Wish me luck...

The Czech List

2 hour easy roll through the country side – Czech
4 hour walking tour of Prague – Czech
Eat Pork, Sauerkrat & Dumpings – Czech
Drink ‘Black Beer’ – Czech

Let’s start with the ride:

Magnificent Scenery, only 10 minutes out of Prague and there’s wide open paddocks & reasonably quiet roads. I decided to head in one straight direction, in the hope it would be easy to make my way back. The sun was out, the birds were chirping, it was heaven! I had to make a turn at one of the towns as the road stopped, which I figured was fine, I’d be ok! Went out for about 30k, turned around and it starts drizzling.. As I’m going along, the wind picks up, massive crosswind, rain gets heavier until there are mini rivers on the roads, and then the lightening started. Oh Shit.

I get to the town I think I turned at, turn, nope, Prague the other way. Everything looks different in the rain compared to the sunshine.. I remembered I had a headwind almost the whole way out, so by this point I picked the road that had the tailwind and crossed my fingers. Going through towns I didn’t recognise, signs I couldn’t read, in the pouring rain with Lightening and Thunder clapping over head, I finally got to the end of this road which turns out was about 2k from where I was staying.. Massive smiles and I’m there! Phew.

The lady behind the desk just laughs and shakes her head at me when she sees me dripping wet on the doorstep..

Mental Note – Might be an idea to record the name of the town you turn at...

The rest:

The son of the Team Manager for Dukla Praha and his girlfriend picked me up at 2 for a 4 hour walking tour of Prague. Prague is an amazing city with so much history. Buildings dating back to the 15th Century, the 4th largest Cathedral in the world, and not to mention all the political issues of the past. Where did I go? Everywhere. There are so many things we saw, so many km’s we covered, and it was all amazing.

287 steps, all going round and round and round..

Ouch! But the view from the top was stunning.

We finished off the tour by going to a local brewery for dinner. Pork, Sauerkraut & Dumplings, a traditional Czech dinner, washed down by the local Black Beer. I could get used to this!

The weary traveller

My longest every flight, plus layover, plus another flight half that.. 27 hours of travel and I've arrived in Prague!!

From what I've seen so far (not much) it's a friendly city.. Shopping was interesting not knowing what I was getting, but I seem to have done ok.. Being back in Summer and daylight savings is weird! It's 8pm and it's still broad daylight! AND I'm in shorts!

I'm staying at the Dukla Praha team hotel/hostel, which is actually the Army Sporting facility. Simple, clean room, which is all I need! The guys who run it, Mirislov and Milan, are lovely guys, all too willing to help out.. Mirislov is probably even going to get up early and come for a ride with me at 10am tomorrow so I don't get horribly lost!
The only issue is, this team think I'm racing for them, however I"m supposed to be racing for Team Mix Serbia!

They arrive tomorrow evening, so everything should get sorted out then. Regardless, I'm racing in 3 days, and the way my legs feel after all the travel, neither of the teams will want me!!
Although, if I keep forgetting to look the opposite direction for oncoming traffic, it might not be an issue!

My job for the next couple of hours is to just try and stay awake. Almost no sleep in the whole time I travelled, plus being awake all day on the day I left means I'm starting to struggle big time! Lucky I have no Wifi where I"m staying so had to come out in the the beautiful evening to steal some from a neighbour   :)

No matter what country you're in, there's always one constant!!

Preston Mountain Classic

Arriving in Strath Creek for the Preston Mountain Classic, it was 2 degrees and 'Frosty' according to the Car! We drove in via the finish hill, and it I had thoughts of wanting to turn around and go home! Wow it looked steep.
Nevertheless, we kitted up, warmed up (as best as possible!) and headed for the start line.

The womens race was combined with the Mens Masters. A 69km Handicap from Strath Creek, through Yea, around a loop and then straight through Strath Creek finishing up the monster climb. The profile had it at 1800m @ 8.5%, but there were 13% sections and it didn't look fun at all..

The limit bunch rolled out 28 minutes in front of Scratch, with a few strong girls in the bunch, and that was the last we saw of them. We rolled out at 15 Minutes, with a good portion of the womens field in our bunch. We all worked well together rolling turns until the base of the first real climb, where we all started popping one by one. 3 or 4 guys from our bunch stayed away, and the rest of us regrouped and rolled turns until the 11 minute bunch came along. After that it was pretty much all over, rolled turns when I could, we copped some abuse from the old guys for not pulling enough turns, even though we were from the bunch in front... but it was clear we weren't going to catch the leaders and everyone was pretty stuffed.. Made it through town and headed to the final climb just to finish.. 8 minutes caught us just after the base with Jenny Mac powering on past, Scratch also caught not long after and went past us, but the race had been won 15 minutes earlier.
In the end, the last hill was no where near as scary as first though. It wasn't 'fun', but it wasn't the vicious beast we'd been worried about! Although I guess that might have been a bit different had we been really racing up it!

So a good, if disappointing, hit out for my last race in Aus for 3 months.. The last race I'll do before Krasna Lipa 2.2..

Wow! This time next week I'll be in Europe!!!!

Northern Combine - 3DT

Melbourne is turning on it's first real winter in a long time. It's freezing cold, often wet, and very windy. Not the kind of weather that's conducive to getting in the k's! I've taken the HTFU pill a few times and whilst I was glad I did, I was also thinking I was crazy when some of the bunches have had as few as 6 show up!


But when the race numbers go on, everyone just gets the job done.

For the first time ever, there was to be seperate Womens Grades. Both A & B. There were 13 registered for A, and 23 for B! An amazing turn out for B grade women.

11 started our race, so there weren't too many to do any work, and there was no where to hide!

Saturday was Freezing, it was wet, and yep, a bit windy. I just couldn't get going, rolled turns the first 20 or so k and started struggling a bit. The head was wondering WTF was going on, and the legs weren't being very helpful..

In the end, Jo and Jenny got away and stayed away.. Kendall and Nic were away, we brought them back.. I got away on Kendalls wheel but couldn't hold it and ended up back in the bunch so exhausted I couldn't even pull a turn.. Kendall stayed away solo, and the rest of us rolled in as a bunch, me at the back as promised after not being able to work the last 15k.

Went to the hotel to check in and rest, and ended up depressing myself thinking of how bad I went. I was ready to pack it in and head home. Thankfully Blair was at the same Motel and knocked on the door to tell me we were all going to the pub for dinner. Crappy TV movies followed, then putting the TT bars on the bike for the ITT in the morning.. Time to sleep and forget about the bad day!

Day 2 - double day. 8k ITT (Mostly uphill), again. legs felt shit, did a crap time, but was in a better headspace after a visit to the local bakery in Lancefield for a Pink Iced Jam Donut and an Apple Cake! Too much? probably.. But I think it's part of what saved me for the next day!

The afternoon road race was cold again. It was 3 laps of the same course we'd done 2 times yesterday, so we knew it well..
I started with the deadest legs I think I've had since the week after Canberra. They just wouldn't wake up and I was skipping my fair share of turns which was getting some head shaking from the girls.. after about an hour they started to come alive a bit, but not enough, as yet again the attack on the KOM went over out front and this time due to some dubious team tactics, Kendall was off the front solo and stayed there. Jen and Jo were next to go, and the top 3 were sorted again.

Another pub dinner, this time a bag ass rissotto another crappy TV movie, and off to bed.

Day 3 - decided it was time to bring out the big guns, 4 x crumpets with PB&J.. Feeling rather full I packed up the car and melted the ice off the windscreen (it was 1!!!!! degree!!).. The temp dropped to -2 on the way to the race start, but it was a clear and sunny day which was a plus. I decided to overdo it on the clothes and be warmer and not risk being cold.

Jumped on the rollers for the last time this weekend for a quick warm up, and was surprised that I felt better on the bike than off it. The aches went away and my legs seemed to be turning in circles rather than squares!

Didn't want to get too excited, as it was likely as soon as the pace went up they'd die again.. but the whole first 60-70 minutes I didn't skip a turn and was feeling comfortable.

Jo punctured along the way, and Jen was having dilemas over being nice, and trying to race, in the end not doing too much to make it harder for Jo to get back on.

The first QOM sign came up with 1000m to go, and I knew this is where the move would happen. I tried to stay up the front on Jo and Kendalls wheels, and when they went I tried, but I just didn't quite have enough. Added to the fact my quad was violently letting me know it was about to cramp at any second

So it was the same 6 left again in the bunch, we all worked at getting to the finish as quickly and nicely as we could..

In the end, I had a miserable first 2 days, wanting to quit, not wanting to be there, and just generally questioning why I thought I was any good at this cycling thing, and the 3rd day turning that around and making me remember that it's going to take patience. I've only been doing this for a few months, compared to others being in the sport for years.


It'll just take some time.

Wow

How time flies! It's been 6 weeks since my first NRS and so much has happened..

First off, Canberra.

Beautiful weather, great hilly courses and some tough competition.

It was a great weekend of racing and learning and I had a fantastic time! I finished mid pack both the first 2 days, and then on the 3rd day I was managing to hang on to the pack until a dropped chain on the last QOM 15k from home ended my bunch finish dreams.

After Canberra I had a couple of lackluster weeks.. It took a bit longer to recover than I thought, and the whole first week after I could do barely anything. Raced the Saturday after down in Phillip Island, finishing 6th in the womens Kermesse and first female in the B Grade mens race.. But possibly should have just had the weekend off racing as the next week I was as flat as a tack again!

The next race I did resulted in my first ever REAL bike stack.. the Teschner/SKCC Crit at Albert Park.. I was having a fun race, it was lively, there were attacks, there were chases, there were girls off the front and we wanted them back! I managed to get a couple of metres gap heading out of one of the hot dog corners and got excited.. I hit the next corner hard and in a blonde moment I pedalled. BANG. Hit the deck hard. The Garmin reads 42 -> 0. The whole force was stopped by my poor little chin. A few stitches and I was good as new.. Sore jaw, still, but I finally have some battle scars  :)
So the next couple of weeks was pretty flat for me after that, and then headed to Creswick 133k Handicap! I managed to get a start in the Limit bunch, which meant I was in for a bit of an easier first lap warm up, and screamingly fast/hard lap once we were caught by those behind us, and then I got dropped up the climb on the 3rd lap. Managed to get half way through the last lap with a small bunch before Limit/6mins came through and picked us up for a nice ride back in to town in the freezing cold and pouring rain!!

I was the 2nd chick to finish, Jo Hogan stormed around in the 22min bunch and beat most of the guys to the line coming in 9th overall. Turns out no other girls finished the race either, so pretty pleased with my efforts.. Turns out that out of the initial Limit bunch I was 1 of only 2 to finish as well..

That leads us to the weekend just gone.. The Northern Combine 3 Day Tour, ran out of Newham/Lancefield up near Woodend. That's next!