A new bike for Christmas

Everyone loves getting a new bike and that’s just what I have been lucky enough to get.  It is my early Christmas present and it gets treated with lots of TLC. In fact, Bob jokes with everyone that I am the only one allowed to touch it and I get really protective if anyone so much as even looks at it.

The experts at the AIS, who have all my details from previous national road camps, helped determine my frame size and the decision was made to build me a BT Blade, rather than the Stealth. It is clear carbon black with silver decal – very slick looking and amazing to ride. Steve Sansonetti (from BT Australia) was fantastic at speeding up the process and had my new bike built and ready to go within 2 weeks.

So for those of you who haven’t heard, I’ve swapped from roadie to trackie. I am focusing on track endurance so I hope that rules me out from getting tree trunk size legs.   I have been doing 3 gym sessions a week though as soon as my clavicle was repaired to build more strength.  So far I have only added 1cm to the diameter of my quads so my legs are definitely not elephant size – not yet anyway!!

The track training is a refreshing change from what I’ve done since I started road cycling.  As a roadie, my focus was all about preparing for multi day stage races and the job of domestic within my pro team.  My off season was targeted around putting lots of km’s in the legs to get a big enough base to race from January though to the end of September.

I had a few nervous sessions on the boards as I familiarised myself with a fixed wheel again but now it seems like second nature to jump on track.  I rode Bob’s Colnago track bike until my Blade was ready which looked quite comical as it was a size or two, too small for me.  I felt like I had arms and legs everywhere and major toe overlap when I turned the front wheel too much.

Developing leg speed has been a challenge for me. I always thought as a roadie that I used to spin quite well, but I was just kidding myself.  The first time I did 5min high cadence ergo efforts, I realised how hard it can be.

I am really looking forward to racing.  My BT was finished just a few days before the Oceania Champs and I decided it was a bit too soon to compete after only 1 ride on the BT and 4 track sessions on Bob’s bike.  I needed time to get familiar with the bike, the TT position, with starts, pacing, etc. I am targeting State Titles in late December and Nationals in Feb, so that gives me a bit of time to convert my road strength to the track.

Well, thanks for reading and I wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas,
Happy tail winds (and it can rain only when we’re not out training!!!)
Helen.