Over the last 3 days I’ve spent roughly 8hrs in the commissaires car watching Women’s A grade with Robyn Sprouster (com) and Kim Howard (coach extraordinaire) at the Canberra Tour.
My decision to do this came when I rode around the infamous Cotter-Uriarra about 3 weeks back. I was scrambling for a smaller gear (unfortunately you don’t get much smaller than a 27th) and when I’d reached the last gear in my cassette, my SRAM gearing would jump to a harder gear whenever I tried finding something smaller than my 27th. I’m pretty sure that is just my bike’s way of telling me to harden the f*%$ up, Carlos Sastre won the 2008 Tour on this bike so i’m pretty sure it is more than equipped to be ridden up the 3 sisters!! Anyway, it made me realise that I was barely strong enough to ride up the 3 sisters, let alone race up them!
Watching the race from the commissaires car, I was able to get a feel of what it is like being on the other side of the bike race. Although I would have much rather have been racing than sitting in a car, it proved to be a valuable learning experience. Over the past 3 days I learnt that being a commissaire and running a bike race brings a great deal of responsibility which a lot of riders don’t realise. Believe it or not, the coms actually care about your safety. If they fine you or give you warnings, it’s not because they are evil power crazy officials, but because they actually value your life and that of the other competitors and don’t want you to DIE! When you’re racing you bike, you get so pumped on adrenalin that you don’t realise what risks you open yourself up to, believe me, I do it all the time! Crossing double white lines on a blind corner on open roads to improve your position may seem like a great idea when you’re racing, but when you’re watching the race from behind, you could swear you had a death wish. So lesson no. 1: Coms are there to protect us and make sure that you have a safe environment to compete in! They are friend, not foe.
Apart from learning the ins-and-outs of commissairing a race, I also learnt maybe why some coaches get so frustrated and women’s racing gets a bit of a bad rep. OK, to be fair it is easy for me to criticise the race from the comfort of a car but this is what it looks like to everyone from spectators to selectors. Compared to the men’s races (we were getting commentary from every grade through the race) the women’s race wasn’t very aggressive. We kept hearing about repeated attacks from the men’s grades and time gaps and bunches getting caught over and over again. Meanwhile our race mainly stayed intact until the closing stages of the race until it became a race of attrition and only the strongest riders survived the final climbs. Fair enough, I understand we don’t have as many people in our races or really many teams but it still doesn’t mean that we have to sit in the bunch and play survival. This was a hilly tour, yet recognised non-climbers were sitting in just praying they’d get over the final climb, where in my opinion they should be making the climbers work leading up to the climb and if you get a break, sweet! You’ve just given yourself a head start on the climb...makes sense right? But that’s just my opinion. In addition, the scribe in the com car (in this case me) takes notes of every rider who gets a significant break and at what distance into the race. Sure you may not win the stage but at least you would have had a go if you attack, you wouldn’t have just been a spectator...and people actually do take notice. So lesson 2: don’t be afraid to have a go. Better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all! And you know what? Sometimes you do get lucky. Don’t just hang around and wait for something to happen, have a crack...whatcha got to lose?
So that’s just a little of what I learnt over the course of the weekend. Hats off to all the girls who rode, it is definitely one of the hardest women’s Tour around at the moment. Well done to Jo Hogan who won the tour overall and also to all the Canberra girls who rode, it was great to see so many of you in there and racing as a team! And to all the volunteers, race organisers, commissaires and the CCC, congrats on yet another very successful Tour!!!!
Probably the questions I was asked most over the weekend were ‘and why aren’t you riding? ’ as well as ‘do you wish you were racing??’ I never like answering that first question because truth of the matter is I don’t really know how to respond. I’m not riding because I’m sick. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, in fact no one has a concrete answer and it’s frustrating to say the least. I can only string a couple of solid days on the bike together before I fall in an unexplainable heap. But you know what? I may not be better now, but I’m closer than I was yesterday. Don’t give up on me just yet, the fire is still burning and I’ll be back stronger than ever...I may just need a little bit.
And yes. I do wish I was racing. That’s the reason I ride bikes, why I train... so I can race. I love the thrill of it, the adrenalin pumping through you and the way you make your body to things you never thought imaginable...all to win a race.
Not much has been happening apart from the Canberra Tour, I went to the Lorna Jane VIP Event at the Canberra Centre on Friday which was great fun! I have to admit, I spent most of the time ‘ooo’ing and ‘ahhhhh’ing over their new winter collection – gorgeous!!!! I can’t wait until I can pimp myself out in all of it!
Until next time, take care xx
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