I recently got the unexpected pleasure of being invited to ride with the Australian National team in a 6 week stint over in Europe competing in some of the biggest races on the Women’s calendar including the Giro Donne in Italy and the Tour of Limousin in France. This certainly did come as a surprise! Let me paint the scene for you. I’d just finished having coffee with my coach after discussing plans for the rest of the year, dreading the thought of having to endure the cold months where you ask yourself ‘what the hell am I doing in this sport?’, when 20min into my ride home I received a text message from my coach saying to ‘please ring, it’s urgent’. I quickly rung him back desperate to find out what was wrong when he said ‘Barras (Martin Barras the Australian Women’s Head Coach) wants to know if you want to ride the Giro.’ My initial reaction is probably not suitable to publish on the net but it was quickly followed by a ‘HELL YES!!’ and ever since then it’s been a snow ball effect of activity getting myself prepared for my first stint donning the Aussie green and gold against the best women racers the world has to offer!!
So it has been a while since I’ve blogged and what’s happened? Well life has full of ups and downs of course but that’s all part of the character building and what makes you tougher, I guess. Some of the prominent events have been my involvement in an Altitude Study at the AIS where I was locked up with 12 other girls for 6 weeks during which we underwent various testing and gruelling training sessions which were designed to ‘bring us back on our knees’ all whilst sleeping at altitude to determine if haemoglobin mass had any impact on performance. The study was a huge success and I would do it again in a heartbeat. We were luckily enough to undergo a training program set by Martin Barras and the whole study was organised by Laura Garvican who was assisted by sports science extraordinaire Dave ‘you animal!’ Martin and Torben our very own German doctor :P. I learnt a lot about myself both as a bike rider and as a person during that camp and started to prove to myself that I might actually have what it takes to make something out of this sport! I am also learning more about my body and how it adapts to certain training and most importantly, when it’s telling me that enough is enough and I need to recover. During the last few months I have also had the honour of becoming a of the ACT Academy of Sport and wear now my state’s colours with pride in competition. It was a bittersweet transition as it involved me leaving my old coach with whom I have a bond which could not compare to any other. But I’m not afraid to try new things and am a firm believer in change. My ultimate goal is to make it as a professional cyclist in an international team as well as compete for my country in the Olympic and Commonwealth games and being part of the State Institute seemed like the next logical step to achieving my goals. I am now coached by Glenn Doney and have enjoyed the challenge of the training and have formed a close bond with my big yellow ergo who I have nicknamed ‘Moose’ (I spend a lot of time on there, so it’s good to have a good relationship!!). I’m now doing some more time trial style training (shock horror :O) because to be a good tour rider you need to be able to climb hills fast and have a strong time trial in you. I’ve come to terms that in time trialling, pain is the key. You just have to swallow the hard cold fact that it is going to hurt, bad.
Canberra Tour has also been and gone and overall I was happy with my performances on the Saturday (getting 3rd in both stages) albeit a little disappointed with my efforts in the Sunday race. I was part of the decisive break on the road and at one point was virtual race leader but I got too preoccupied with the race and as a consequence my nutrition suffered and there is no worse feeling then seeing the race ride away from you 100m from the top of the last climb…I was left to ride the last 7km to the finish line with a big mushroom cloud over my head praying that I wasn’t going to get swallowed and spat out by the rapidly approaching pack. I managed to hold on and pick up 5th, making me 5th on GC. I learnt a lot from that tour and I think I’m a better rider having had experienced that. It has highlighted an issue that I have tried to overlook for too long and I am now more determined then ever to settle the issue once and for all. Unfortunately I didn’t have the legs but maybe with a bit more work I’ll get there and crack a podium finish!
Off the bike, I’ve been working up a storm at Aerofit gym owned by Commonwealth and Olympic Games representative in the 20km walk (now if that isn’t a tough sport…)Nick A’Hern and his wife Jen and have recently completed my Cert III in Fitness. I also started my degree of a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Laws at the University of Canberra but chose to defer it until next year when I am in a better mindset to give it 100%, even though it means I’ll still be at Uni when I’m old and wrinkly….
So that’s pretty much all that’s been happening in my bubble over the last few months since coming back from the Women’s Tour of New Zealand. I depart for the AIS base in Varese on Saturday the 20th June where I’m told I will be greeted with close to 30 degree weather and sunshine (thank goodness!!!) and I’ll be arriving on my Birthday, the 22nd June. Last year I arrived in the US on my 18th Birthday and this year I will be celebrating my 19th in Italy…Boy life’s tough :P
I’ll be racing the Giro with a relatively young team comprising of Shara Gillow, Carlee Taylor, Amber Halliday, Lauren Kitchen, Tiffany Cromwell and fellow Canberran Chloe Hosking who has definitely making a name for herself riding with the Dutch Moving Ladies team!!! It’ll be great to catch up and be able to share this experience with her! Under the watchful eye of Martin Barras and with the support of Beth Duryea and Dave McPartland it’s going to be a tremendous experience. I can’t believe that I’m one step closer to living the dream…I’m super motivated and can’t wait for it all to come about!
And so another chapter in my life as a cyclist is about to begin, and something tells me it’s going to be a long but invaluable one :)
Stay tuned
xx
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