SueP
12-04-2010, 05:26 PM
Vikings had a strong contingent racing on the sunshine coast on the weekend in the paracycling national road champs.
Saturday was the ITT on a quick but short 4.5km circuit. The route saw us racing on a brand new hotmix surface in an, as yet, undeveloped industrial estate. The closed road starting at a roundabout, down a 1km divided two lane road, right hander around another big roundabout, straight for a few hundred metres, then a loop of right handers before a couple of left handers and then back up the straight to the start/finish roundabout, all the way around then do it again.... numerous times. The right and left handers were all fast but a bit of speed came off for the roundabouts.
Jing, Milto and I on single bikes, Kerry (CCC) and Brandie on the tandem and everyone did a great job with some fast ave. speeds recorded. The tandem girls broke 40km/hr for gold. All that work on our tough ITT course paid dividend for me going fastest female (single bike) at with a 38km/hr average. Milto and Jing also raced well with Jing recording a massive PB averaging over 30km/hr.
The road race on Sunday was over an undulating 13.5km circuit with pretty good roads (by our standards). The main difficulty on the day came from the weather rather than the course, with the temperature hitting 35+ and high humidity making for a hot day. With different divisions doing different distances, and some competition for national selection up for graps, the commissaires put us off in divisions under strict instructions for no mixing of 'bunches'. So it was a long, lonely TT for many, but some good racing for some of the divisions.
Milto had a good tussle in a small bunch, unfortunately dropping his chain at a crucial moment on the last lap. He came back strongly though, surprising everyone by powering back to claim a silver medal. I enjoyed a couple of laps with Hannah, an ex-swimmer recently turned cyclist who will keep me honest in the years to come I'm sure, but sitting behind Milto's group got the better of me and I couldn't resist overtaking them and finishing the last two laps solo for a nice solid ride.
The tandem girls were against the clock, riding 6 laps of the course (81km) and were unlucky to puncture in the first lap but still finished in good time despite the long hold up to fix the wheel (no spares would fit). The girls have done something to anger the puncture gods because they have had dozens fo the bloody things. Jing also had a great race, riding side by side with Jayme Paris (different divisions so they couldn't draft off each other) and only just getting piped in the sprint.
Huge thanks to Glenn (ACTAS) who drove up with the trailer and all our bikes, ergo's and other assorted gear and looked after us all very well, and to Steve who tired himself out as the 'assistant' coach and doing a similarly fantastic job (even when he was supposed to be out training for the Masters track nationals this weekend). The organisation of the weekend was fantastic and the local bike club were out in force for the road race, stationed along the course with water sprayers to keep us cool.
Full results: http://www.cycling.org.au/?ID=36558
Saturday was the ITT on a quick but short 4.5km circuit. The route saw us racing on a brand new hotmix surface in an, as yet, undeveloped industrial estate. The closed road starting at a roundabout, down a 1km divided two lane road, right hander around another big roundabout, straight for a few hundred metres, then a loop of right handers before a couple of left handers and then back up the straight to the start/finish roundabout, all the way around then do it again.... numerous times. The right and left handers were all fast but a bit of speed came off for the roundabouts.
Jing, Milto and I on single bikes, Kerry (CCC) and Brandie on the tandem and everyone did a great job with some fast ave. speeds recorded. The tandem girls broke 40km/hr for gold. All that work on our tough ITT course paid dividend for me going fastest female (single bike) at with a 38km/hr average. Milto and Jing also raced well with Jing recording a massive PB averaging over 30km/hr.
The road race on Sunday was over an undulating 13.5km circuit with pretty good roads (by our standards). The main difficulty on the day came from the weather rather than the course, with the temperature hitting 35+ and high humidity making for a hot day. With different divisions doing different distances, and some competition for national selection up for graps, the commissaires put us off in divisions under strict instructions for no mixing of 'bunches'. So it was a long, lonely TT for many, but some good racing for some of the divisions.
Milto had a good tussle in a small bunch, unfortunately dropping his chain at a crucial moment on the last lap. He came back strongly though, surprising everyone by powering back to claim a silver medal. I enjoyed a couple of laps with Hannah, an ex-swimmer recently turned cyclist who will keep me honest in the years to come I'm sure, but sitting behind Milto's group got the better of me and I couldn't resist overtaking them and finishing the last two laps solo for a nice solid ride.
The tandem girls were against the clock, riding 6 laps of the course (81km) and were unlucky to puncture in the first lap but still finished in good time despite the long hold up to fix the wheel (no spares would fit). The girls have done something to anger the puncture gods because they have had dozens fo the bloody things. Jing also had a great race, riding side by side with Jayme Paris (different divisions so they couldn't draft off each other) and only just getting piped in the sprint.
Huge thanks to Glenn (ACTAS) who drove up with the trailer and all our bikes, ergo's and other assorted gear and looked after us all very well, and to Steve who tired himself out as the 'assistant' coach and doing a similarly fantastic job (even when he was supposed to be out training for the Masters track nationals this weekend). The organisation of the weekend was fantastic and the local bike club were out in force for the road race, stationed along the course with water sprayers to keep us cool.
Full results: http://www.cycling.org.au/?ID=36558