Ok, before you all go and get excited thinking that I’ve suddenly qualified for the Olympic team, let me assure you that’s not the case. Awwwww
However my “road to Beijing” comes in the form of a 10km climb that has an uncanny resemblance to the 11km climb that the cyclists will encounter in just under a fortnight in China. That is, of course, if the road race is not delayed due to the smog in that city. :P
After quite a bit of searching in our local region, Oenone and our wonderful sport scientist, Laura have located the climb that will provide several training sessions worth of fun and simulation of what the legs and hearts will go through. It hasn’t been an easy task to locate such a climb given the uniqueness of the one in Beijing. Based on a reconnaissance of the course by the Aussies last year, we now have detailed information of the course profile. The thing about the climb is that it is has an extremely inconsistent gradient which will make things quite interesting. It will be difficult to get into a rhythm and may mean that the ‘pure climbers’ of the peleton have harder time of ripping it up. This is good news for our girls who prefer the shorter ‘power’ type of bergs (ie. they all weigh more than 50kg!).
We rode it twice, taking about 33 minutes each time. Well, I took quite a little longer as I mashed through some big gears and a painfully low cadence to achieve that strength endurance session that cyclists so fondly talk about. This method of training worked ok on the lower slopes of the climb however with approximately 2km to go the climb became severely steep and there was no way I was going to stay in the saddle then! Whilst I didn’t have an accurate gradient data, at a guess, I’d say around 20%. Though that could just be me loving to exaggerate.
There were many other cyclists tackling the climb this particular day which can always be frustrating as those adorable Italian wheel suckers I talked about in a previous blog are still enjoying the ‘wheel sucking’ game. I certainly felt for Sara and Oenone who when putting in their surges on the climb would soon find another cyclist jump on their wheel, thrilled by the ‘race’ to the top. I suppose it gives them good practice for Beijing when other riders will do the same but in this training session, well, I’d prefer a bit of peace and quiet myself.
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| Fresh before starting the climb | Sara and Vicki |
After a speedy motor pacing session back around the lake and this lovely part of the world, it was time for lunch at Bar Cavour. Rochelle has taken a particular liking to the lunch time salads and has one there every day. It’s just the company that may vary.
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| The salad at Bar Cavour |
After 4 hours on my road bike, it was time to hop on our little pink towny bike to get to the bar (pictured below). What do you think of my new race bike? Might have to work a little on the aerodynamics but it could work?
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| A new race bike? |
As if we hadn’t been out enough that day, it was then into dinner in Varese. Breaking the habit of our usual pizzeria, Zac showed us another nice and secret restaurant in a lane way. When we arrived at 7pm, we were the only diners. ( Way too early in Italy for dinner). However when we left, it was packed out.
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| Sara, Vicki, Laura and Beth | Johnny, Vicki and Jack |
As I write this I’m into another solid block of training. After two big tours behind me, I feel my hardiness for this level of riding has certainly improved. We have a race in Germany this weekend- a criterium on Saturday and short 87km road race on Sunday. There will be some heavy driving time: approximately 10 hours to Germany on Friday and then another 10 hours back to Italy on Sunday directly after the race. Then we turn around 5 days later and head back to Holland for the following weekend. Let’s just hope we don’t end up with heavy travel legs so we can come out firing for the racing.
That’s all the latest. Whilst I’m still sizzling in the Italian summer I’m not missing Winter in Australia one bit. I heard it was -3 deg this morning in Canberra. Some how I don’t think Dave went out for a ride.
I’ll blog again after the weekend with all the news from Germany.
Ciao