We went down on Friday to suss out the course. Arriving at 12.15pm, the course was only open until 4pm, so it was a bit of a rush to try and find our accomodation, build our bikes, cram in some much needed lunch and then head to the track.
The course itself was...well, taxing. The two practice laps I did on Friday really didn't indicate just how hard five laps of the climbing-heavy course could be. I felt okay, for once feeling confident with the course, though knowing the loose descent wasn't my strong point.
Race day came and I wanted to avoid having a long warm up. I am usually pretty good to go from the gun, and my reasoning is that get too fatigued with a long warm up.
Unfortunately I mixed up the start time, thinking it was 9m, when it was 8.30am. So I begin to roll around at 8.00, and at 8.20 I go up to the hub to have a wee and they're calling up riders! Eep!
I did a mini sprint and I was on the start line.
I got a good start back, probably fifth wheel, and held that for half a lap when I (stupidly) dabbed on a corner and some girls came around me.
From there on I managed to hold that position. I was pretty happy with my lap times for the first hour, but they got a little longer (dammit!) in the second. I knew they were because I had this empty feeling in my legs—no matter how hard you tried, they would just go the same speed. Ah the curse of the second hour!
Having only double-caffeinated Gu's probably didn't help either!
But it was a good experience. It was a course where there were bound to be gaps, due to the hard climbing.
Anyway, beers were a definite priority that evening. Aido and I both came ninth. I wasn't unhappy about it but Aido was out to seek vengeance in the short track the next day, and then we raced to the airport to come home, and I started work at 6.30am the next day.
Aidoo(courtesy of Tim Rowe)I still have a biiig sleep debt I am trying to pay off!
In other news, I got accepted into university for degree #2, very exciting!