So today was the TT. Had an earlyish start, was at breakfast by 7am. Another buffet... god definitley not going to starve here! they had everything you could imagine...blueberry pancakes, waffles... shame i'm racing! had to settle for toast and cereal ha ha..things we sacrifice for what we love :P!
After chowing down yet another massive meal, we headed off the the TT course because our first rider (Brodie) was off at 10:09. Lara was off at 10:12 Mickey at 10:18 and me at 10:20. I was seeded just outside of the top ten out of a total of 71 riders which wasn't too shabby! Our preperation mind you wasn't without drama. Brodie, Lara and I had our numbers in our bags which were getting driven over by Audrey. With about 10min until Brodie was off, we still had no numbers... everyone was starting to stress because we were not going to be able to ride with no numbers but as it turns out, just as Brodie is about to head to the line and beg to be able to ride, Audrey shows up with our numbers...yes, there is a god. Lesson lernt: always carry your number with you.
Warm up went according to plan, meaning I rolled around for about 45min and tried to do a few efforts to try and rescue my legs which were feeling less than average to say the least. Rocked up to the start and the 2 girls infront of me didn't show up, so i was chasing a girl who was 1min30 in front of me. Dammit... I always go better if I have someone to chase! Anyway, the start itself was pretty cool, they used a ramp like they do in the TDF which made us feel special ha ha.. wish they did that back home!
So started the TT, had it in the big ring and got about 1km from the start when my legs started to hurt... was going to be a long 10km TT. It was a straight out course and the road was shocking! like seriously... there were potholes left right and center and it made it impossible to get into a rythm.. ended up sitting on the double yellow lines in the middle of the road because that was where it was smoothest. This TT felt horrible.. I was slugging it in the bg ring the whole way, then my gears started messing up and I was getting distracted... all in all it was probably the worst TT i've ever ridden. As I crossed the line, felt dissapointed in myself to say the least. We all cruised down to the bottom and hung around waiting for Rick to come back with our times... turns out i finished 5th out of 71 riders with a 20:58, 50sec off the pace and Brodie did a high 21, Michela a low 22 and Lara a 24. So I was the best place Aussie and now our official GC rider... pressures on.
The boys did well also, think Thommo was best placed with 7th and Mitch also got top 10 (I think). Pat had the ride of the day completing the 10km TT in 43min... he had a mechanical and had to get his bike fixed and they wouldn't give him a restart but he needed to finish to be able to start tomorrow so he just road up it... unlucky.
for the full results, check out http://www.longsjo.com/Results_files/Download_Stage_One_Results.pdf
After the TTs, we hit up the recovery and another buffet lunch.. was a massive meal! still can't get over how good the food is...
We then hit the road to check out tomorrow's road course... the finishing hill is so steep it actually scares me (to give you an idea, it finishes at the top of a ski slope)... as Rick put it, 'tomorrow, there will be blood'
Tomorrow, there will be blood...
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