race report by lisa
After lying awake for most of the night listening to the howling winds and rain I was hoping for a little text to say its cancelled….. no text came and up I got when my alarm called!!
We (I grabbed a lift with Jerry) arrived at the speed dome to see a congrigation of SPR crew already forming – Lorraine went and registered our team and the pre-race preparations began. I was good enough to get a flat prior to the race starting (basically Jerry’s pump ate my valve and it pinged off into oblivion!!) so tube was changed and then tyres pumped. Time was getting close and there were lots of calls from the officials to get a move on and get to the start so off we trotted.
With only a little wait at the start line it was not long until we were off… Mark meant business and got the tempo up straight away. The first lap we were rolling through nicely and getting used to the wind speed and direction (namely head and cross wind – I dont think we had a tail wind or if we did I didnt notice it!) As we were getting used to riding together and the wind direction the magic really started to happen – with Mark’s knowledge and encouragment a perfect echelon formation was formed and we (even if I do say so myself) looked good!!! (or so I am told I seemed to be towards the front 9/10 when we rode like this 🙂
The communication was great and people were not affraid to yell if they were dropping off round corners or just feeling tired – Brett got a little push from Mark and I got a well and truly appreciated HTFU push from Jason which sent me zooming back on the wheel that I was dropping off of and on we continued. Brett was struggling a little with cramp and on the last lap within the last couple of k’s it got a little too much and he had to get off and stretch – we were all a little concerned as he didnt look like a happy camper and I think the last couple of k’s were agony. As we approached the home straight Paul and Jason were at the front and stepped up the pace. Me being me and always getting a touch of white line fever decided it was time for the final sprint. After comfirmation from Paul that the line in fact was the finish I went – Loz knows what I am like and seen as she had the timing band on jumped on my wheel and we all cruised across the line – THANK F*%K we made it 😉
There was plenty of encouragement and great team work – if we could have taken our hands off the handle bars without being blown off I am sure there would have been alot of high fiving too 😉
Great write up Lisa- thanks for the great ride. We certainly worked well as a team- look forward to seeing any photos of us. Mark did well to have us in the right formation and his encouraging words where well worth it…
Cheers- look forward to riding with you all again..
Oh dont forget Paul’s little ride in the gravel… 😉
Well done again guys… and even though it wasn’t a race we came 16th out of 47 that did the 78kms… (thanks mark for the spreadsheet)
How do we get hold of the spreadsheet ?
I would say info taken from here..??
http://www.cyclosportif.com.au/results/2009/swanValley/SwanValley09.pdf
Ahh yes how dare I forget that – to add……
“during lap 1 we had just gone round a bend and everyone shot a look left….Paul was deciding that the road was not the surface of choice, rather the gravel would be better – we all thought it would be our first puncture for the day but no he was just looking round to check we were all there and went a little cross country in the process 😉 Good handling skills meant he stayed well and truly upright and jumped on the train and continued on!!!” Great effort Paul!
Well done SPR-D. Good fun and a good challenge. Look fwd to more cyclo-sportif events!!!!!! York anyone? Congrats to the raffle prize winner. Could he have been from SPR-D?
Ah yes the gravel. Interestingly I went into the gravel along the back stretch against the cross wind…and stayed upright! Great team effort guys. In these events you can gain a lot more by working together as we did and not killing each other. Looking forward to York.
Maaaate, great write up! A bit relieved not to have been in an SPR team for this one – as usual you’d have all cruicified me!! I think ours ended up a 30.5km ave – but having had a couple of slower ‘unknown’ individuals added to our bunch it was nice for me JUST FOR ONCE not to have felt like the weakest link!! White line fever is one fever I’m reasonably immune to – but after applying a bit of pressure I managed to get over our line in 3rd place so I was a bit chuffed with meself, tiz true ;0)