So the weather forecast wasn’t great, it was wet, windy and
freezing cold. Well I guess it was perfect winter conditions. The actual race
itself I was excited about, as I enjoyed this race last time I did it. There
were only two hills, I told myself. Which there were only two big hills, but
lots of littler rollers too. I was in the scratch bunch, which I wasn’t
entirely thrilled about as the last time I raced I was in the limit bunch. We
lined up ready to go, and all of a sudden I looked down and I realised that I’d
forgotten to put my transponder on my bike, oh well, no time left now!!
We were off and straight into rolling turns, it was hard and
fast. 20km in and I could hear many of the girls puffing as we passed each
other, I was pretty stuffed too. We climbed Break of Day and the bunch started
to fall apart. Suddenly we were all single file with gaps opening up
everywhere!!
I grouped together with three other girls and we continued
to roll hard turns for the next little while. Before we rode back into Strath
Creek one of the masters bunches caught us and we were able to have some
shelter from the wind for a short time. With some encouraging words to the men,
they left us behind on the final climb up Murchison’s Gap. I rode up and had a
chat with the girls around me as the limit bunch was already finished so there
was no need to race up.
Luckily my dad had driven to the top of the climb so I
didn’t have to descend in the wet conditions. I think it took me about 3 hours
to thaw out!! I really enjoyed the race and will definitely be back next year!! Hopefully I can
convince the rest of my team to do it too!! Although I’d prefer no rain or hail
next year
