And to cap it all off…

February 28th, 2010

Hi again.  David here for the last post of the NZ tour – and what a shocker it was!

The race finished off with an hour long criterium in Wellington.  The riders were placed on the line according to their GC positions – sort of – so Vicki was back in the field.  This is a major handicap on a technical course as it is very difficult to pass riders through the corners.  And then they had a “neutral” lap.  I never understand why people insist on having neutral laps before a criterium.  Everyone has looked at the course during the warm up so there is no gain to be had and it is never really neutral with everyone jockeying for position right from the get go.  A rider is not supposed to move up during the lap but if they don’t then they get passed by everyone else and worse, gaps open up before the flag has even dropped.

Vicki got stuck behind some riders who allowed a gap to open and there was the race over before it even began.  With the course not much more than a kilometre long and a field of 75 riders it means there doesn’t have to be much of a gap at the back for the last riders to be lapped.  Once lapped the riders have to be pulled from the race for safety’s sake.  The first rider was pulled after only a couple of laps!?  The group Vicki got stuck in was pulled 18 laps from the end (after about 40 minutes of racing).  Only 20 riders finished the last stage.

Usually when a criterium is included in a stage race, especially on such a technical course as this, there is a formula worked out to add time to a rider’s GC result depending on how many laps they missed.  To add insult to injury the race organisers didn’t do this.  Rather anyone who didn’t finish the criterium didn’t get a GC result.  A whole 20 people finished the Women’s Tour of New Zealand.  Kind of sucks really.  Certainly doesn’t encourage people to outlay the time and money to make the trip to NZ next year.

So in summary this race was pretty much a disaster for Vicki.  She went with hopes of a good GC result but was taken out in the first stage by a rider losing it right in front of her.  She showed some real grit just getting to the finish line only to be fined and docked time for doing something that is accepted practice after a crash.  Vicki survived the second stage and managed to finish in the front bunch.  She worked hard in the third stage for her sprinter but the break juststayed away.  She got 10th in the time trial and is left wondering what could have been if she hadn’t been carrying the injuries from the crash.  She was in a 60 kilometre break in Stage 5 only to be caught 300 metres from the line.  And finally she was pulled from the criterium and given no final result for the GC.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – cycling is a stupid sport!

I’ll try to encourage Vicki to blog soon.  Don’t know how successful I’ll be – she leaves for Europe in a week so will be busy getting things sorted for that.

No doubt you’ll be hearing from me during another tour later in the year.  Until then God bless,
David

So close!

February 27th, 2010

Good evening all.  David here.

First let’s start with an update of yesterday’s blog:  Vicki was 10th in the time trial which moved her up to 24th on GC.  Not too bad given what’s been happening this week.

I’d just like to say that I was right with my prediction that today’s race from Palmerston North to Masterton (112km) would finish in a bunch sprint.  The break of four riders was caught just 300 metres from the line.  Pity I can’t glory in my ability to read how a race will pan out - because Vicki was in the break!

After looking at the profile and with the benefit of the local knowledge of the Lotto guest director ‘Grease Monkey’ Vicki figured the rolling roads after the major climb of the day would suit her to a tee.  After a couple of attacks softened the reduced bunch Vicki followed the attack of one of  the Chinese girls and found herself in the break that stuck.

In the end a group of 4 formed - Vicki and three New Zealanders (the Chinese rider fell off the pace and returned to the bunch early on).  They were never given much freedom with the AIS team doing a lot of chasing along with the US team.  It didn’t help that some of the members of the break weren’t giving their all.

After 60 kilometres of being out the front it was touch and go as to whether the bunch would time the catch better than yesterday.  With two kilometres to go the two girls from the NZ team started to attack the break.  Bit silly really.  With only about 20 seconds back to the bunch there was no way they would survive without working together.  Sure enough the break was swamped 300 metres from the line.  Vicki rolled to the finish with the front bunch whilst Shelley Evans took her third stage of the tour.

That’s the life of a break artist – you’re very fortunate if even one out of ten works.  Still, Vicki gave it a pretty good shake – especially given that she is still pretty sore.

Tomorrow is the last day.  The tour finishes with a criterium in the centre of Wellington.  It’s quite a technical course so if a committed group gets away they might just make it stick.  (Still, if you’re betting put your money on a bunch sprint.)

Until tomorrow,
Dave

Another day at the office

February 26th, 2010

Well, stages 3 and 4 have been run and won.  That’s about all I can tell you as there is a dearth of information tonight.

Stage 3 had a break of four riders get away and stay away… just!  The bunch caught them on the line but not soon enough to take the victory.  Vicki spent the race working for Rochelle, the team sprinter.  She was a bit frustrated to do a good lead out but have the bunch miss the timing.

Stage 4 was a time trial.  The very brief comment I have from Vicki is that she had pain in her arm every time she got out of the saddle (that’ll happen if you whack it on the ground!) but “all things considered it was ok – I guess”.  Didn’t provide me with anything interesting… like her actual result.  The stage was won by Vicki’s good friend Amber Neben who I really hope will have a good year after all the injury set backs she faced last year.

Stage 5 sees the girls repeat the course of Stage 2 but in reverse.  The major climb will come very early in the race with almost 100km of (relatively) flat roads to cover before the finish.  If I were a betting man I’d say a fairly big bunch sprint but I always live in hope that a break succeeds.

God bless,
Dave

Keeping the rubber side down

February 25th, 2010

Well today was a better day.  Stage 2 of the Women’s Tour of New Zealand consisted of a 114km jaunt between Masterton and Palmerston North.  General consensus is that it’s the toughest stage in this year’s tour – not what you want to face less than 24 hours after hitting the deck.  Being the masochist she is, Vicki hit the start line hoping for a better day than yesterday.

The weather wasn’t conducive to feeling safe with a light rain that made the roads greasy but didn’t manage to wash the oil off.  There were plenty of crashes in the bunch on the wet roads and hairy descents, including one that took out the defending champion Amber Halliday.  Vicki managed to avoid all of them and finish with the front bunch.  Despite feeling stiff and sore off the bike Vicki was able to sit in ok and even try being a bit active.  Her good form is still there even if it’s been blunted by the crash. One of these days the ducks are going to line up in a row… surely!?

Vicki is still sitting 40th on GC – pretty much out of the running.

Tomorrow is a double header with a flat 87km stage in the morning followed by an 11km time trial in the evening.  It’ll be a bit of a strange TT as no time trial equipment is allowed – standard road bikes only.  This is done to save the international teams from having to lug TT bikes half way around the world and often leads to some unexpected results.

I have to admit that at this point I’ll be happy just as long as Vicki keeps the rubber side down.

Until tomorrow,
Dave

Cycling is a stupid sport

February 24th, 2010

Hello.

David here again.  Vicki started her international season today with the Women’s Tour of New Zealand.  She started the same way she finished last season off… with a crash.

Before I go on I’d better say that this blog will be filled with my embittered views which aren’t necessarily shared by Vicki.  Blame me not her if you don’t agree with them.

This first stage covered 98 kilometres from Martinborough to Masterton with one major climb about 60 km in.  Vicki was feeling good and crested the climb with a small group that was only just down on the leaders Ruth Corset, Amber Neben and Catherine Cheatley.  It all came apart on the descent when one of the girls from the US National Team touched wheels on a straight and dropped her bike right on front of Vicki.  With nowhere to go Vicki went down as did one of her new Lotto team mates.

Vicki is pretty busted up with deep cuts to her elbow and hip (which would have been stitched except it was too difficult?!?), a hammered arm and bruised ribs.  Her team mate Ashleigh Moolman broke her collar bone.  Ouch!

This year radios have been banned by the UCI in the lower level races.  There are lots of arguments for and against the decision but one down side is that when an incident happens on the road the girls can’t let their team car know they need assistance.  It becomes really important that race radio makes sure everyone is aware of what’s happening.  Didn’t happen this time so the team car was blissfully unaware that there was a problem until they happened to spot Vicki standing at the side of the road holding a bike with wheels wouldn’t turn.  More time lost.

Now if this had been me, I would have just called it a day and hopped in the car.  Not Vicki.  She got her bike fixed and then proceeded to chase.  Nutter!!  With blood dripping down her arm and leg, Vicki caught and stayed with a bunch that rolled in 1 minute 40 down on the lead bunch of 24 riders – which included the girls she was with when she crashed.  Oh what might have been!

To cap the day off, the commissaires decided to give Vicki an ‘encouragement award’ and penalise her 20 seconds (like she hadn’t lost enough time already) and fine her for getting mechanical assistance from a moving team car.  Nice!  I won’t bring up the number of times you see people on TV coverage getting motorpaced back after crashes and mechanicals with no consequences… No, really I won’t.

At the end of it all Vicki sits in 40th place, 2 minutes 10 down on the tour leader Shelley Evans.  Her GC hopes are long gone.

After three hours in the hospital getting patched up, Vicki is in for a rough night tonight.  She will decide tomorrow morning whether she takes the start for the toughest stage of the tour (nice timing!) from Masterton to Palmerston North via the Pahiatua Track.  Again if it was me I’d be looking for the next flight home but Vicki is such a machine it won’t surprise me if she toughs it out.

To quote a good friend of mine, “cycling is a stupid sport”.

God bless,
Dave

Moving right along…….

January 23rd, 2010

It’s been a while since my last post. The motivation has been low since Nationals and  it’s always easier to report about the good results and strong performances rather than the lacklustre ones. Unlike 2009 Nationals, this time around didn’t involve a bout of bad luck, instead a case of bad legs. Well, bad legs for the time trial and poor racing tactics for the road race.

I was suffering a low-level virus but nothing really to worry about going into time trial day.  I had ensured a good warm up to face the first climb and all equipment was running smoothly. Dave took pole position in the car behind but given there were no radios for the first time this year, the only real assistance was going to be a wheel or bike change. Fingers crossed – not this time.

However within 2 minutes of commencing, we knew I was in for a bad day. I was all over the place on the bike on the first climb. I couldn’t find a rhythm – in the saddle, out of the saddle, in, out. It just wasn’t clicking. I was attempting to get over the gears and the legs felt like lead. I didn’t dare glance at my cadence – it felt like it was in the 70rpm range. Ridiculous. The bigger gears that I’d attempted in the lead up training to the event just weren’t working for me on the day – instead I was becoming more and more bogged down. There was just no spark and try as I might throughout the race, I couldn’t muster it. I had to keep my mind switched on despite the heaviness in the legs and when riders started passing me – a situation that I had rather not imagined, I just had to keep it together all the way to the line. I finished a disappointing 4th and coped mentally by looking forward to Saturday’s road race.

I had a good game plan for this race and with the support of the ACT girls and Lotto team mates, Rochelle and Josie, I was quietly confident. However when race day dawned and the hot, oppressive conditions that were forecast were realised, we decided to can our original plan, settling with the idea that it was going to be a race of attrition. In doing so, I had transitioned from being aggressive and on the offense to passive and defensive. I kick myself now and have analysed a number of missed opportunities throughout. Gees, I can be a really slow learner. Right, time to move on… learn from the mistakes and train my body and mind for the coming season. I’m over the consistency and ready to embrace inconsistency if this means some great results on the horizon. Goal setting has begun and I’m going to transform my racing this year.

Next up on the calender is the Womens’ tour of New Zealand commencing on February 24th in Wellington. It will be exciting to race with my new team, Lotto.  Qatar will be the first test for Lotto and a good chance to see how Rochelle’s sprint is coming along. I will miss this race in favour of a tour more suited to me in New Zealand.

I’m off to Adelaide next week with Dave for some training in the hills. I have fond memories of my first Nationals in the Adelaide hills and it will be great to ride in this beautiful place amongst the vineyards again.

Ciao,
Vicki

Count down to the new year

December 30th, 2009

It’s been 3 weeks since my last post and given it’s been packed with training, I’ve had little time or energy to put fingers to keyboard.

The first week involved a 5 day time trialling camp in Geelong with the national team.  From Day 1 until Day 5 intensity was the major ingredient of every session.  My favourite had to be the ergo session that simulated the 2010 World time trial course. We were required to give our all for a gut busting 23km, wearing an aero helmet and a rectal probe (for the gold standard of core body temperature measurement).  Whilst pretty reluctant for this procedure, realising it was in the name of science and was going to provide some valuable info for the Aussie team’s preparation, I gave it a go. It was uncomfortable to begin with and I was very aware of it in warm up as it was constantly being tugged by small movements. However once the testing had begun, there were greater distractions to contend with and the probe was rarely noticed again.

Following this introduction, there were various efforts out on the course. Given the traffic around central Geelong, this was quite tricky at times to map out a smooth uninterrupted run. The course consists of one huge loop that includes the major sights of Geelong. The first half is dominated by 3 nasty climbs that will be sure to deaden the legs for the second (undulating) half of the race. There are some very rough roads as you wind through the Botanic gardens, accompanied by speed bumps and some tight corners. Whilst there are clear indications of speed bump removal, there are currently no plans to resurface the road?!@#

The plan for the last day was an easy 4 hour roll and given the heat, we left early at 7am. We headed out to the Great Ocean Rd, a very beautiful part of the world that I’d love to explore further when the racing days are over and I can do it at a more leisurely pace.  I was riding my brand new Pinarello Montello time trial bike which had been built up by the wonderful guys at DeGrandi Cycle and Sport in Geelong. 

At the camp, we had worked on achieving a mean aero position.  I have elevated the bars slightly compared to the Focus bike and moved the saddle forwards. I am feeling so much happier in this position and am hoping that it translates to some fast time trials. (Just have to train the legs now!) The top tube of my new bike suits me better in length than the Cervelo or the Focus and it means that I can now ride with a more normal head stem length, like a 100mm rather than the ridiculously short and downward sloping stems I’d been using previously.

4 hours on the new bike was a big ask however and my bum took several days to recover! Back in Canberra with 2 new bikes (much to Dave’s delight) means that we now have a grand total of 10 bikes in the garage. He complains that they are breeding and won’t let me go away any more fearing I will come home with yet another. Forget about parking the car in our garage. There are bikes EVERYWHERE, including our fantastic motorbike. Dave has been having some great fun on it, particularly when it comes to turning up the throttle when he motorpaces me. He has plenty of mirrors on it to check my grimaces and will accelerate gleefully when I’m barely hanging on. We plan to put a steel roller on the back for safety purposes. I don’t think it will be that pretty if I slam into his rear wheel when travelling at 80km/hr. In the meantime, the ‘P’ plate is getting plenty of black tyre marks as I use that as a bit of a buffer.
I have also been spending some time on the motorbike and will hopefully attempt to pass my ‘P’ test in February before heading overseas. I love the feeling of riding a motorised bike – not having to pedal is a wonderful thing. I’m gradually gaining my confidence for leaning as I corner and all I need to do now is remember to turn the fuel tank key to ‘on’ so I don’t find myself chugging to a halt on a major road on my way home.  ;)

The sad news since my last post is the death of our gorgeous little dachshund, Fritz. For the last month, he had been living in Wagga with my parents-in-law as Dave and I had been doing so much travelling. He always did have a real ‘oral’ fixation and as a puppy we had a difficult time closing his mouth when he played with us. Not only did he chew things, he tended to ingest them. We thought it only a matter of time that he would require a stomach pumping for ingesting yet another mouthful of woodchips from the garden. Well this time, it seems that he found his way to some lead paint in the garden and well, lead and little 5kg dogs don’t really mix. He came down incredibly sick, with half of his body paralysed from the neural toxicity. He suffered one too many seizures and that was it. Although I’d spent only a year in total of his 2 year life with the little terror, I’d grown pretty fond of him and this last week has been tough as I have all this memories of his crazy antics.

I will miss such cuteness

I will miss such cuteness

It’s now a matter of days before 2010. The start of the year is a birthday for me, followed by Nationals, which seem to be occurring earlier with each year. This has meant a strict routine when it comes to festivities over Christmas and the new Year, with the objective of being in top racing form. We managed to get the preparation right for 2009 Nationals and I’m confident things will be similar this time around with a similar build up.

Till next time,

Vicki

Fresh start with new team

December 8th, 2009

The time is really flying by with 2010 season just around the corner.  2009 was not exactly a stellar year for me and I’m not sad to see the back of it.  However, scoring 2 tour wins on the domestic scene in recent weeks has been nice.

Tour of Bright is such a fantastic race.  The organisation runs smoothly making it easy for us riders to race.  The scenery is breathtaking including the view from the top of Mt Hotham.  There are challenging mountain climbs that resemble the monster climbs I have tackled in Europe.  And of course, winning the race is always fun.  :)  I look forward to next year’s edition as it provides a great time to race in the lead up to January when the road racing kicks off again.

2010 will hopefully be a great year for me.  Already it is coming together nicely - I have signed with the Belgian women’s team Lotto.  This is a strong and united team that has been steadily growing for several years now and I’m excited to be a part of it.  Joining fellow Aussies Rochelle Gilmore and Josie Tomic will be 4 South African riders including their current road race champion Lynette Burger, along with American Liz Hatch and a bunch of riders coming from Belgium.  One of the stars of the team is Grace Verbeke who finished of 2009 ranked 13th in the world.  Our race calender is beginning to take shape and it looks like a solid one.  I am happy to each year be increasing the amount of racing I do as I develop further as a road racer.

I travel to Geelong, Victoria at the end of this week for a National time trial camp and I will also be picking up my lovely new bikes supplied to Lotto by our sponsor Pinarello – an FP7 training bike and a Montello time trial bike.  Exciting times!  I will endeavour to keep you posted as more team developments unfold.

Vicki

Grand tour of Fjordland

November 26th, 2009

For the last 2 weeks, I’ve  enjoyed a long overdue holiday with Dave on the south island of New Zealand. After so much time and distance between us this past year, it has been important to be a married couple again.  :)  We’ve also brought along our friend Kat to keep the peace. Having travelled with us in New Zealand three years ago, Kat is a great travel companion as she loves to indulge in similar hiking adventures, following each day with a decent steak.  Deprive her of her daily steak and she starts to get the shakes.  She has had a good influence on me, reminding me to increase my red meat intake as I’ve been rather slack lately and wonder about those iron levels.

Oceania titles 2010 brought us to Invercargill last weekend.  I’d never cycled this far south.  I’ve competed in the womens tour for 2 years on the North island of NZ and experienced “windy Wellington” but I can now say that place doesn’t hold a candle to the weather conditions in Invercargill.  From the day we arrived until the day we left, the wind averaged 30km-50km/hr.  At night it kept us awake as it shook the windows of our hotel and during the day it often blew me off the road. I will NEVER complain about riding in the wind in Canberra again.

I struggled through both the time trial and road race.  Whilst all of the girls who’ve spent a solid time overseas this year were in the same boat regarding form and fitness, I seemed to come up the worst.  Oceanias at this time of the year was always going to be very tough after a 3 week break.  I finished 4th in a dead flat 25km time trial and was significantly off the pace of 3rd.  The road race was hillier but the wind just as brutal and given it was a rectangular shaped circuit completed 6 times, we were belted by the wind from all directions.  With a very small bunch of less than 20 riders there was no where to hide.  An attack by Bridie 30km in to the race was the right idea and this stuck as there was no coordinated chase from the bunch.  I finished 7th in the huge bunch sprint.  C’est la vie.  It’s now time to keep the base fitness kicking along as I look towards December with two cycling camps, the Tour of Bright and some solid local racing.

From Invercargill, it was time to holiday. We’ve spent time in Te Anau, Milford Sound and now Queenstown.  The highlight has definitely been a cruise on Milford Sound.  Given that it rains almost 200 days of the year in Milford, we lucked out in terms of weather – a glorious sunny day that revealed the colours in the waterfalls and rocks beautifully.  Every day has involved hiking – anywhere from a couple of hours up to 6.  Kat and I are true “peak baggers”, preferring to walk the trails that involve a summit and views.  Dave just sighs and follows along. The “Key Summit” trail along Milford Rd was another highlight, offering views along the Hollyford valley and of snow capped mountains 2000m high.

All of this hiking had me truly spent at the end of each day. I chose to relax in a floatation tank at a day spa in central Queenstown.  When I first began my massage career I worked in a clinic Bondi, Sydney which combined massage with floatation tanks.  For those who haven’t experienced these sensational inventions, let me fill you in…  They are the shape of bread boxes with a sliding roof that once closed leaves you in darkness. The floating part is achieved by 50kg of Epsom salts thrown in which gives the water a silky feel and great buoyancy.  After you’ve stuck in some ear plugs, applied vaseline to any skin cuts (absolutely crucial unless you’re prepared for skin burning once inside the tank!) you step into your personal bread box and float away all your worries for an hour.  Bliss!

Glorious mountains

Lakes, mountains - what more could you ask for?

P1000146

Dave & I in the same country at the same time!

With scenes like these, I remained in a state of bliss for the next few days in NZ.  It was very hard to get back to reality in Canberra.  I worked a day in the clinic and am currently clocking up the kms on a training camp in Kiama with my state institute team.  This has been on my calender for 3 years now and I’ve found it’s been instrumental for building my fitness into the new season.  I’ve survived the first few days chasing the guys up the climbs and hope to hang in for the remaining 3.  I’ll let you know how that goes!

Loving home

October 31st, 2009

I’ve been home for over a month now and it’s been fantastic. Sure I love the life of a cyclist in Europe but gees, my quiet life back home in Australia is very nice. Spring in Canberra is a lovely season, if you escape the bombing magpies, viscious winds and the 6am morning rides. For the first three weeks back, I enjoyed frequent cafe time, unstructured exercise and generally just chilling out with friends and family I hadn’t seen for 7 months. I could sure get used to that. I headed back to work very part time as a soft tissue therapist and enjoyed working my brain cells again.

After this 3 week break, it was straight back into training. Well, I skipped the training part and threw myself into the Honda Hybrid Tour for Women. Quite a mouthful but a fantastic tour to get women’s racing really up and going in Australia. With 80-odd girls in this very first year, it will hopefully just continue to get bigger and better. Whilst the stages were very short, the pace was high and the competition strong and it was great to see the local girls riding aggressively and giving us a real challenge.  It certainly kick started my return to training and by the end of 3 days, I was no longer feeling very fresh in the legs.

The following weekend I headed to Sydney for a conference and Dave and I managed some training early in the mornings at the crack of dawn. We were woken every morning by the clip-clop of horses at the Randwick race course, so it made sense to get up and train. With Sydney’s traffic and road system, cycling  can be a real nightmare unless you travel as a group and with cyclists familiar with routes. Our friend Hamish took us to a quiet block at Doll Point for some sprints and intervals. To get there was fortunately off road via a maze of bike paths. Our return was via traffic and together with pushy motorists left me in a bad mood.

The next day we set out to find the 6.30am infamous Coluzzi bunch. Problem was we arrived at 6.29am and they’d already left! So Dave and I set out on a 2 hour negotation of the busiest roads and highways towards Cronulla. Again not an awesome day on the bike. Sunday did make up for it with a 4 hour round trip to Waterfall in the Royal National Park- a common location for Sydney cyclists on the weekends. It was a really pleasant escape from the traffic and had plenty of hills of various gradients.

This past week of training has seen a return to speed training with crit racing,motopacing and a local club road race today. I’m feeling like I’ve put in some solid training this week and there is no rest until Monday, with another long ride planned for Sunday. All this is in preparation for Oceania championships on November 13th-15th in New Zealand. It is going to be difficult to be in supreme condition this early- I can but do my best.  The day after the road race, I’m looking forward to a 10 day holiday on the South Island with Dave. A bit of R and R before training gains momentum for Nationals in January.

Bye,

Vicki