Preparing for the worlds, 2006

Training in Koflach, Austria in preparation for the World Champs 2006.

So now that I am back in good health, I have found time to tell you about my “2006 worlds experience”.

Preparation for making the Australian Team

With a sensational aussie team contribution to Oneone’s bronze medal in the 2005 World Champs, making the worlds team for a second year in a row was my main goal for 2006. My coach, John Beasley (Beasa) gave me a break from racing in July and I spent this time climbing mountains in Austria. This gave me a mental break from racing but more importantly, I had an uninterrupted month to do a strength endurance block of training.

In early August, I did a couple of races in Sweden and Holland and then joined Oenone in Spain for another 12 day training block. I was really happy with my form and felt so strong. I raced the Trophee d’or in France and stayed upright until the very last day, when 2 girls crashed their bikes in front of me on a descent. I fell heavily on my left side but rejoined the race and finished. It was this crash that was the beginning of troubled times as the doctors now think this crash and subsequent car travel caused me to develop a blood clot.

Photo @ CJ Farquharson, WomensCycling.net

Our team drove 10 hours across France and I raced the Plouay World Cup, located in Britany. I felt very sore and bruised from my crash and knew I wasn’t healed properly to successfully race a hilly world cup. I attacked early and got away alone, but with a lot of pain from my crash, I was forced to withdraw from the race. Then, it was back in the team car for another 12 hour drive – this time to the Netherlands.

I love racing in Holland and I used the 6 day Holland Ladies Tour as worlds preparation. Beasa told me to stay safe and ride near the front, so I sat top 10 and avoided the dozens of crashes due to the rain, wind and narrow roads. The day following the Holland tour was another world cup, Rotterdam. The winds were gusting at 70km/hr and the rain started as we lined up. Unfortunately, I crashed at the 25km mark, in a spectacular domino style crash, with 10 other cyclists, all of us sliding in the grass and mud on the edge the road in a big tangled mess. I finished the race looking more like I had just played a football game. My husband, Bob had arrived to spend a month with me in Europe so my crash was forgotton and we travelled to the Salzburg in anticipation of good news about the worlds team.

Training for the worlds

A few days later I received a call from the National coach, confirming that I had successfully made the worlds team. Yippee! The official team included Oenone Wood, Nat Bates, Liv Gollan, Em Rickards, Kate Bates and myself. I completed in another world cup, in Germany (the last race with my trade team, Elk Haus) and then headed to my base in the south of Austria, to recover and do my final preparation for worlds.

Bob trained with me in the mornings and then we relaxed on the couch in the afternoons and watched the Vuelta (Men’s Tour of Spain). We also made a short stroll to a local cafe every afternoon, and ordered coffees in our very good German!

About 12 days before the race, I commented to Bob that I my left calf felt sore. I thought I must have tweaked it during a high cadence interval. I stretched it well but it continued to feel tight and ached constantly. We knew of a good Osteopath so I saw him and he noticed I was quite twisted and misaligned from my recent crashes. After his treatment, I felt better but the following day, the ache returned. I decided a good massage when I arrived in Salzburg would fix things – it was probably a tight muscle.

Bob and I drove from the south of Austria up to Salzburg on Monday to join the aussie team at a large traditional style Austrian hotel, reserved exclusively for the Australian camp. It is always exciting to reunite with the aussies, catch up on everyone’s season and receive our aussie uniforms. This years kit looked great and fitted well.

I had a massage each day with treatment on the niggle in my left leg. It was a strange injury as it didn’t ache at all on the bike but felt uncomfortable during dinner when I was sitting still. This is why I thought it was a muscle strain that once warmed up, worked ok. And when I lay down, the pain seamed to lessen. So I spent the last 5 days either training or lying on my bed – watching TV or chatting to my room mate, Oenone.

Our team trained on the worlds course several times until we knew every twist and turn. In the final few days we discussed our race thoughts, our planned tactics and tried to predict the strategies of the dominant countries, namely Germany, Italy and Switzerland, as well as many other prominant riders that we needed to consider.

I recall how great my legs felt during my final pre race training session with Oenone. Wazza (National coach) motorpaced us behind a car for about 1.5 hours and I felt strong and my heart rate increased and recovered easily. I was looking forward to the race and was ready to turn myself inside out to get Oenone on the podium again.

So what happened in the race? Click here to find out. World Championships – Salzburg, Austria.