Our Team – Nicole, Jill and I

Getting the car sorted on Saturday night, bag of clothes, wind trainer and bike in the car……. snuggling down on the sofa for a chilled out evening….9.15pm f*+k not got my aerobars on the bike….9.45pm (had to find the things!) all good and back on the couch! 

After a brief stop to pick some wheels up for Davina we were on the road, sun was shining and the clouds were around but there was still the hope that the weather forcast was wrong and that the clouds would stay away…

On arrival in Pinjarra it wasnt long before a) the heavens opened and b) SPR crew started to arrive.  Preparation time over it was time to get on the start line.

9.03am – we’re off.  Our aim was to hold the Plan B ladies off until the 5km mark (they were the next group off and I knew they were wanting to hunt everyone down!!)  we started off strong and hit the 5km mark….no Plan B – YAY-  I managed in between breathes to get out a “excellent work ladies – no Plan B” before tucking in again.  Between 6-7km all you could hear from behind was wooosh wooosh woooosh – the sound of multiple disc wheels…they had caught us – Davina yelled out some words of encouragement as she went past knowing that our little goal was the 5km mark and as they rode off it was time to get back in our rythm.  30 sec turns were working really well our communication was fantastic.  As we turned on the first right which was a short hill I knew from there that any type of incline was not going to be in my favour – Jill was looking strong on the hills and dragged me up.  With a full training week in me my legs were definitley being challenged today. 

We eventually hit the turn around and I always get a little nervy when they are tight but we got there and excellerated out well.  This then started what I like to call an inconvenient incline in the road – not steep but just enough to make you push extra hard to maintain your speed… there was another incline that was a little greater and my legs just started screaming at me – at this point I was in the middle with Nicole in front and Jill behind – Jill yelled out something which resembled “suck it up princess” which I did and kept in the mix. 

When we got back onto the home straight there was a head wind – Nicole had been pretty solid through out – Jill great on the inclines and me – the head wind was my baby and of course the thought that there was about 8-10k’s to go also helped!!  Over the railway tracks and the roll throughs just started getting more frequent and productive the speed had increased again  – the 1km mark came and we stuck our heads down and dug deep.

All in all a really good ride by all – we all had different strengths and I felt we utilised them well, communication was great and to get 3rd was awesome.

 Lisa  😉