Sunday morning and again it was cold. Put my SPR Accessories order in Saturday afternoon but Peter hasn’t delivered my gloves yet :). Walking out the door I thought it’s not as bad as yesterday I’ll be right. I think I was about 2km down Guildford Rd and then the cold started to set in and make my fingers go numb. I was actually looking at my fingers fumbling to change gears. What a pleasant start to the morning.
Took me about 25 minutes or so to get from Bayswater to the Speed Dome. Rolled through the car park and didn’t really notice anyone I knew. The only team member I knew was Darryl as he normally rides in Main 2 with us. The others I wasn’t sure on. Jordan appeared and headed inside and upon coming out said everyone was inside so instead of looking like a tool outside I went inside but was no warmer. Almost missed the briefing outside but there was nothing to miss they read out what was on the website. Back inside to see if everyone had yet showed up. At this stage we had four people, three short. However it was already after 8:30am and we could wait no more.
So together we rolled out of the speed dome and following the directions in the Garmin headed up for the transit ride to the Primary School. The ride out seemed to pass by very quickly and we arrived at the school. Our only female team mate Katie turned out to be at the primary school waiting for us. So this brought our number up to five. We only had minutes before we were meant to start and my phone buzzed someone now wants to sms me. Turned out to be Morrison. He is in the car park back at the Speed Dome. After a quick reply to say sorry couldn’t wait anymore we quickly jumped the queue and got to the start line. Two teams in front of us were no where to be seen so a bit of a gap existed between us and the next team.
9:04am and the announcer gave us the all clear to go. The five of us rolled out from the start and right onto the course. Not knowing where to actually go set the Garmin to the map and we were doing the first kilometre of 80. Sun was coming up and fingers were no longer numb. Darryl lead out and we soon went single file. The call was made to do short 30 ~ 40 second stints on the front. However myself included were doing more like five minute stints on the front. I think a habit we have become use to. The first lap seemed to fly by. Second lap and we knew where to go. Tried to keep the same pace but still we were not rolling through as cleanly as maybe we could have. I think about half way through the second lap I started feeling it a little in my legs and couldn’t find the rhythm I was looking for. When a gap opened I pushed to close it. I think at some stage throughout the event everyone hit the wall for a period of time. Towards the end of the second lap I think our two missing team mates found us and jumped on. They took over the lead and were doing long turns on the front. After a couple of laps on our own personally it was a little bit of relief.
On the third lap Michael passed me a power Gel. Hadn’t had one of these before so wasn’t to sure about it but did as I was told and consumed it. Was a little wary if this would make a difference but I think for the next lap and a half it did help and I did feel stronger to push it that bit more into the wind. Will have to pick some of these up for the future I think. On the fourth lap Katie dropped a water bottle so we pulled over while she collected it. Was only a short stop but I took the chance to get my wind jacket of and stuffed into my back pocket. By now it was getting to warm for it. I saw the rest of the team go round the next turn and figured this was going to hurt to get back on. However was much better not wearing a wind sock. Two team mates hung back waiting for me and aided in catching back up onto the rest of the team.
End of the fourth lap and start of the fifth. White Flag lap. Every meter was counting down to the line. By now I was getting close or past the 80km mark for myself and the power gel was wearing off. But it was closer to home. On the home straight we picked up the pace and I yelled out as we closed down to the finish. Had to get right fast as an ambo was in the left lane and people were banking up. However we were at speed now around the 35km/h mark. Placed myself just at the back so crossing the line there would be no issues. However Shaw let me know today that we only had four laps recorded. With a time of 2:25mins. Our average speed was 32.7km/h. Get better timing equipment becuase Garmin shows we did five laps. No short cuts. http://connect.garmin.com/player/38291106
Was a good ride I thoughy and an event most of us had not been in before. No flats and no crashes made it an extra good day. Katie parked at the school so she turned back while the rest of us continued to roll on and cruise back to the speed dome.
