2013's first up racing goal done and dusted

From memory my New Year's resolutions included a couple of the usual:

• get fitter
• lose weight 

and a few more unusual ones:.

• ride rollers more confidently
• ride no hands more confidently 
• learn to track stand 

and so far all except the track stand are accomplished.

My racing goals were and still are all TT orientated and the first of these was to qualify to enter the UCI   Masters World Champs TT at Trento and this had to be done through the qualifier event on Rottnest Island a coupla days ago and I did it.  I have to say for my age group it was a no brainer...I was the only entry , however I was 15th out of 32 female starters and so am happy although not ecstatic as my ride was far from perfect.  My time was 33.24, I'd have liked a 32.

I was somewhat surprised to discover just how lumpy the course was.  This is what I expected:

and this is what I got, which only underlines that fact that profiles of a whole race only tell you a shadow of the truth:

the seemingly endless undulations  made the race a bit like riding a crit..fast, slower, fast, slower.

Here's a view I never get to see! (courtesy MG pix)

check out the calf muscles! 

Lessons learned from the weekend:

• Don't ...DO NOT ride the course the day before if you want fresh legs.  This time I had no option and I paid the price.
• Corners taken in training will be much more dangerous when racing.  3 times during the race I over cooked corners to the point where I was a poompteenth of a millimetre away from being in the gravel.  2 were downhill  corners on the southern loopy bit of the course when I was waaaay faster than in training and the 3rd was the final right hand corner where I don't quite know what happened..clearly too fast for my cornering skill level!  3 other racers were not quite so fortunate; the paramedics had a fair amount of work to do.

Overall it was a great week in sunny Perth, thanks in no small part to great accommodation, great weather and great company.

WRT to the organisation of the race...hmmm. Sadly our race suffered from the Tour of Perth being alongside, which meant we were the poor cousins resulting in, I'm sure, an over commitment by the organisors which manifested itself in poor/delayed communication.

And what about this:  in early March  the UCI proudly reported all winners of qualifying events would be given jerseys instead of trophies see following from their twitter account

UCI WorldCyclingTour ‏@UCI_WCT 7 Mar

Jersey for age group winners in the qualifier events replaces trophy pic.twitter.com/B0SjowlTFP

waiting, waiting. Or does this only apply to the road race???  If so, why?

Side notes:
1.  Quokkas rock!

2.  1 race shoe can easily hide in a bike case.  I thought I'd lost a shoe so at $ 300-400 a pop I was immensely grateful to find it  hiding in the wheel section of the case.

3. On arriving home I asked Alex if we were ok for food or did I need to shop.   The reply was  that we're fine...somewhat later I got round to looking in the fridge and this is what I found:

• 1 half loaf of white el cheapo Coles brand fairy type "bread"
• limp salad and veggies on the TOP shelf
• 1 mouldy tomato

doh!