National Club Individual Time Trial Championships – 5^th

Location: Coolum, Queensland

Conditions: really strong cross winds, 25C

Course: 30km – 2 x 15km flat, out and back course

The time trial attracted a field of 30 riders from all over Australia.  A number of us are strong at time trialling and with the combination of some overseas racing, I predicted about 8 of us would be strongly contesting the time trial.

The wind picked up throughout the morning and was quite strong by 11am when the first girl started.  We were started at 30 second intervals which was great from my perspective as it gave me more riders to chase, as I was one of the last 7 riders to depart.

I had a slight mishap on the start line which certainly kick started my adrenaline.  As soon as the rider in front of me had departed, I was called forward and held from the seatpost as I clipped into both pedals.  With 20 seconds to go I back pedalled to put my right foot forward and starred down in disbelief as my chain rolled off my big ring, dropping down onto the frame.  I quickly unclipped my right foot and clicked down a few gears and turned the crank, but the chain wouldn’t grab.  One of the officials grabbed the chain with his hand and pulled it back onto the big ring for me.  I clipped my right foot in and the starter told me I could go whenever I was ready.  I was now in a higher gear than usual and had to really stomp on the pedals to get going.  As I didn’t get the countdown from 5 seconds to go, I knew I had missed my start and found out afterwards I had missed it by 2 seconds.

It was a cross headwind on the way out, but after my chain incident, I was keen to make up for lost time and I cranked my bike up to 47km/hr from the gun.  I knew I couldn’t hold this speed for 30km and eventually backed it off to 42km/hr and concentrated on getting my breathing relaxed.  I set my sights on the rider in front and caught her by the 3km mark.  As soon as I passed her, I looked towards the next rider and drove the pedals down as I hard as I could.

By the half-way point, I had caught 5 riders and hoped I was amongst the leaders.  I was using new Zipp wheels that Cameron Brand from Links Cycles had recently purchased and they were so smooth and light.  I had a Zipp deep dish carbon front wheel and a Zipp carbon disk back wheel with Continental Competition 19mm singles on both wheels.  I soon got the feel of the disk, leaning into the wind on the way out, and driving hard on the return with a cross tailwind.

At the 20km mark, my legs went through a tough patch.  My speed dropped to 35km/hr and I was having a lot of trouble getting my speed back up to 40km/hr.  I stood up several times and tried to drive on the pedals to pick up my speed.  I knew this was costing me valuable seconds and fortunately after the final turn around, I picked up again and was flying home at 49km/hr.

I gave it everything during the final kilometres but ended up missing a podium place by about 17 seconds, crossing the line in 5^th place.  My goal had been to finish in the top three so I admit to feeling a little disappointed.  However, at the same time, I was happy that I had raced my hardest, but wished I had known how close it was and maybe I could have gone 24 seconds faster.  Oh well, that’s time trialling.

Results:

Place      Name                   Club/State                                              Time

1^st Natalie Bates        Paramatta cycling club, NSW                46.16.54
2^nd LouisaYaxley       City of Burnie cycling club, TAS          0.01.39 seconds behind
3^rd Amy Safe             Norwood cycling club, SA                    0.06.24
4^th Jenifer Finlay       Victor Cycles, QLD                               0.19.00
5^th Helen Kelly          Carnegie Caulfield cycling club, VIC    0.23.27
11^th Emma Rickards    Carnegie Caulfield cycling club, VIC    2.45.73
17^th Liz Williams         Carnegie Caulfield cycling club, VIC    5.13.31