Another win for tenacity

I've recently returned from the Victorian Masters Road Race and Time Trial Championships held this year in and around Newstead, which is between Castlemaine and Maryborough in central Victoria. This was a new area for me to race in but an area that I really love, having done some training up this way a few years ago. How could you not fall in love with a place called Muckleford; it is not the biggest place around with just a few houses and a converted church but that name! The roads don't have much traffic, although they are a smidgin on the rough side but as the say you can't have everything.

As mentioned I've been having some injury problems so I was not confident of a good result but decided that come what may I would give it my best shot. My friend Genevieve was competing in her first state championship and quite nervous at the prospect, so the first thing we did when we arrived was head to DIG café (which I'm sure wasn't there the last time I was) and by the end of the weekend we knew the staff on first name basis. It is nice when you enter a café and they know your preference for coffee! If nothing else we were set to have lots of really good coffee, some typical country hospitality and great weather for the weekend.

A week ago I splashed out and I'm now the proud owner of a real time trial helmet. My mum always says 'at least look the part' and a good dose of retail therapy is always helpful. Number were down on past year's events (where were you all?) and in total we had eight entries for the time trial (TT) and seven for the road race.

Saturday saw the TT start on an out and back 20km course through a town called Strangways. The course was basically flat with a few bumps just to keep things interesting. As I was the second oldest I had the honour of starting second woman one minute behind. I think it must be in my character but when you feel like you are catching the person in front (even if your not) I tend to try that little bit harder. My leg wasn't screaming too much and I finished with a win in division two.

Sunday was fine and sunny, albeit a bit on the cool side, and our race did not start until the early afternoon. After another visit to DIG cafe we were ready to race and I even rode with bare arms and no headband, which felt really strange after being rugged up in winter gear for so long. Unfortunately one entrant pulled out due to illness so our race consisted of six. There was a bit if friendly banter on the start line to settle nerves. Even after years of racing I still look at my competitors on the start line and start to make mental notes about the strengths of my fellow riders. Nine out of ten times I'm totally wrong!

Genevieve was a little less nervous than yesterday but still a jumpy, so we spent some time beforehand going through how to ride the race and how to put on your race face. No not putting on your makeup, putting on your race face is a term used in motor racing that I've used for years and it really works, helps to get focused and one of these days it'll stop me from stressing about the other competitors.

The two 30km loops of the circuit included some hills and some flat sections, all mostly on quite country roads with the corners very well marshalled by members of Castlemaine Cycling Club. Our bunch, comprising of division one and two, stayed together for the first 20km's including some motor passing behind farmer Joe's tractor on the first rolling hill with double lines. All of us were just sitting behind until we could all safely pass on the down hill section leading into a sort of 'S' bend with a railway crossing thrown in just to make things interesting. This was followed by a very fast descent leading onto the highway and a left had turn into Guildford, then a shortish section along the highway followed by a left turn. While we didn't have that much traffic I was looking forward to getting back onto some quite roads. That is until I saw the first hill. My first thought is unprintable and my second was that I was glad I changed the race cluster the previous night. The first time over this section was ok but on the next lap my poor old untrained legs were screaming for coffee.

By the end of the first lap my two breakaway partners and I had a good gap on the others so we put our heads down and headed for the next lap and home. I left the two girls not in my division head off to the finish. I was happy with two gold medals for the weekends work. I raced with my head and retained my state titles for 2008/09.

A very special thank you to the organisers for a well-run event. As far as I'm aware all other competitors were of the same opinion. It was a great two days of racing, and rumour has it that this is going to be the location of the next Australian Masters Road Championships. If you are contemplating racing I would suggest that this would be an excellent event in some superb country. With localities called Muckleford and Strangways how could you resist?

Cya

Pip