Gutsy performance secures three gold medals

As some of you may remember I live on the Victorian coast so to say I'm riding regularly in inclement weather would be a safe statement. So when I say that I've not ridden in weather like we had at this year's Australian Master's Road Race Championships should be a good indication of what the conditions were like! From all reports Sydney, where the championships were held, had 16 wet days in a row. Coming from Victoria, which is in the grip of drought, it was a pleasant change to see green grass, but the rain was just a joke.

My schedule prior to the meet was hectic. I finished work Friday April 11, boarded the airport bus Sunday for a flight to Adelaide to met my partner who had been studying in South Australia. I then drove us back to Geelong on the Monday and left by myself for Sydney on Thursday morning. I had a lovely ride Friday morning from Yass along the Wee Jasper Rd (just love the place names in NSW) then arrived Sydney in the pouring rain on Friday. The first race was on Monday so I squeezed in a recovery ride Saturday morning to check out the time trial course and a rest on Sunday. I thought that the rain just had to stop soon.

The time trial was held at Somersby. I have a picture of me warming up for the race in the pouring rain. I was on the mag trainer with an umbrella being held over me to keep dry. To make matters worse the rain was getting heavier and I heard thunder claps as I was on the starting ramp. It was cold and, as the race was being held on a public road, had me wishing I had a taillight on the TT bike. Water flowed across the road and the potholes filled with water so I avoided as many puddles as possible. The finish line position on the course map was a bit sketchy so I was a bit surprised when I arrived at the line, as I had passed the two riders who started in front of me. I was expecting a good result, but was very surprised to learn that I had the second fastest women's time for the overall and first in my age group, securing me my first gold medal. The presentations were delayed until the next day because of the wet conditions.

The criterium was scheduled to be run the next day at Dunc Gray Velodrome Criterium Circuit but as it had been raining for most of the night was postponed for safety reasons. On Wednesday it was still raining but as the road race was being held on Thursday the organisers had no choice but to race in the very damp conditions. While the track was still quite wet it had actually stopped raining at the start of my race and after a few nervous laps it started pouring again. I made the decision that the safest position was on the front and not having any luck finding a breakaway partner put my head down and concentrated on my somewhat conservative lines lapping most of the field and finished in what seemed like a torrential downpour. A picture of the finishing presentations looks more like we had just finished a swimming race! But that was gold medal number two.

The road race, which was being held at Eastern Creek Raceway, Western Sydney International Dragway. I have never raced on a motor racing circuit before so was looking forward to some super smooth hot mix. The course also used some access roads and some car park space and all in all it was a very technical and challenging circuit. But at least it was dry. For the first lap I had planned to just have a look at my competitors and the course but by the half way point of the first lap I found myself with a bit of a gap on the field that no one was trying to bridge. I decided to extend my gap and see if I could maintain it as we still had five laps to go. I had read in the program that Eastern Creek was flat, but for a bike rider it's not! I had sorted out some good lines and I had my gaps around the circuit marked. It took a lot of effort but even though the gap was smaller at the finish I still had the finishing straight to myself at the end. This race was the last on the program and most of the spectators had left and the organisers were in a bit of a rush to go home as a very black cloud was fast approaching. By the time we had the bike loaded it was raining yet again. This race was by far the hardest of the championships but the most rewarding for me. All of the hard training had paid off. I had gold medal number three but best of all the 2008 Australian Master's Road Race Championship jersey.

I believe the event was very well run and quite well attended, with the weather being the only dampener (pardon the pun). There was excellent racing in all grades with competitor numbers: TT 26, Criterium 21 and RR 51.Two of the venues will be used for the 2009 Sydney World Master's Games.

Finally a great big thank you to all those who supported, raced with, helped and prodded me this season and especially: Fran, Gen, Madam Lash, Liz, SheSpoke, SKCC.

Cya,

Pip