Kew Boulie..the first race for baby Baum road as a TT bike

Like all good tales this is a story rich with ups and downs (pun intended):

 as you can see for this 21.7km race I took ~50 mins although the moving time was ~42 mins  (note 4 years ago my PB was ~39 mins , the course record is ~29 mins.

What happened was this...after ~2.5kms my saddle fell off!  Not shifted, not moved...fell off,  100% fell off onto the ground, landing with a clatter some way behind me as I "shot" uphill, standing on the pedals, working hard. And yes, it's the second time for this particular drama and when I had a really really good look I'm wondering how on earth I managed to successfully use this seat post for 2 years without anything happening as the top part of the clamp is not quite wide enough to grip the rails properly.  Of course if the truth be told, it's only recently that I've been coached into standing up on the pedals alot so maybe it was due to  compression/release or maybe I knock it when I stand.  Whatever..... it'll remain a mystery 'cos now it's one binned seat post...this time I'm only sporting bruises, last time there was a bit of a gouge.

On any other course that would have been it.  Good night Louise...walk back home.  However this was on the Boulie...1 of quite a few training meccas dotted around Melbourne and consequently not only were there racing cyclists on the road, there were also people training or "just riding".  So with me dropping more than a few F bombs, a guy raced up to me with my saddle and other seat post bits and, refusing to let me off the hook, sorted me out and sent me on my way!!!  What a  Good Samaritan.

At the finish I was pretty quickly over to the officials requesting my time not be posted as I really didn't want  a 50 mins finishing time down on record for all to see and thankfully they agreed.

Other race comments:
This sort of course is not really to my liking and I'd have to say I was a bit peeved to be overtaken on the uphill by guys out training, although I got my own back on the downhill sections.

The set up was good although since then I've changed a few things...firstly and naturally the seat post is in the bin and secondly I've changed from a 90mm stem to a 100mm Extralite stem that is part of the RR set up.  If it works out to be ok, it'll mean less work when I effect a change over from road race to TT set up, 'cos all that will change will be the bars and cables.  I'm also thinking hard about whether to have 2 saddle/seat post set ups or just change the saddle over, leaving the post in situ.

Next weekend I'm off to the north/northeast of the state to ride a TT at Wangaratta on Saturday and then another one near Shepparton on Sunday. I've ridden both courses before which will give me a bit of a guide on the current set up.