Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished but by what you should accomplish with your ability - John Wooden
Despite the lack of summery weather the season is well under way, in fact well on its way towards being finished for another year. Having been caught up in trying to organise #PathtoPerth and all its various and ever changing logistics I suddenly realised that I haven't mentioned what has actually been happening in the here and now!
I set myself some clear challenges and goals for this season; mostly focussed around being more disciplined - in terms of structured training and picking 'sensible' races and bringing my PBs down. Despite an early (almost pre-season) race in Perth at the start of March, I actually ended up almost being late to the party due to a change of bike. That is probably worthy of a post in itself, so for now I'll just say that 'Lucy' is retiring and we welcomed 'Percy' to the racing stable for 2016! Does anyone else name their bikes or am I alone in this?!
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| Lucy is sadly up for sale (a beautiful bike for someone) |
Racing kicked off at Castle Combe Circuit in Wiltshire on April 20th with the first of a five series closed circuit TT series run by DB Max events and Kinetic One. Having really enjoyed the end of season TT at Thruxton circuit last year I actively sought out some other closed circuit events and came across this. Having ridden a couple of sighting laps before racing started I'd figured it was almost a course of two halves; divided nicely by the two chicanes. It really was fly through the first, carry your speed around the bottom bend and... straight into a pot of treacle for a fight with your front wheel for the back straight and incline! Nevertheless it was superb fun and I was really pleased to finish 1st female and get the series off to a great start - not bad for my first race with Percy!
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| Feeling fast through the chicane! |
My campaign at the Midland Women's Series (MWTTS) was due to start at round 2 with the Diana Cooke Memorial TT on April 30th on K41/10 (Wolvey) but unbelievably it ended up being delayed then finally postponed as it rained, hailed and then rained some more and the course flooded. It was one of those bittersweet decisions as although keen to race most of us were drenched and cold having continued to warm up in the hope of the weather clearing. This theme continued as the same happened for round 2 of Castle Combe! The forecast was questionable but you never can tell and racing was still on as the journey south commenced, despite driving through some heavy showers it was looking vaguely hopeful, well until I saw what could only be described as a river running through Castle Combe village!
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| Track under water, anyone for a triathlon? |
Round 2 was re-scheduled for the following week and thankfully the weather behaved. I felt more in tune with Percy and rode a better, more confident race. This culminated in another win, a further increase on my series lead and a top 10 (7th) place overall.
This was followed up by more weather-dictated racing that weekend with the Stone Wheeler's 'Spring 25' also being thwarted by heavy rain. The women's field were mostly set off near the start so our race was able to complete - with the exception of the final 2 - 3 miles being pretty horrendous but the men's race had to be abandoned for safety. I was yet to ride a 25 to power so this was somewhat of an experiment! I was boxed in by traffic at the first roundabout and ended up stopped and unclipped with time to make up. I'm not sure I recommend going through 10 miles in a PB and then realising that it's mostly uphill on the return leg!! It was starting to feel pretty hard and then the rain came down, my visor started to steam up and soon I was frantically trying to keep the white line in sight. My right arm was inexplicably throbbing and I couldn't see the Garmin (or anything really) to gauge where the finish line might be - was I even close?! Then the chequered board and timekeeper's car was on my inside - that must be it, oh well, so much for a sprint finish! Thankfully I did dip under the hour in 59:29 for 2nd but it wasn't the most pleasant experience or the best executed race plan!
The following weekend saw a return to MWTTS and the round that is practically on my doorstep; although I've somehow avoided riding it until this year! The weather was much warmer, I nearly found myself saying too warm... Given this is my local course I felt under some pressure to do well, which is daft really, having not ridden it in race conditions before. I went out hard but perhaps it was a good job I did as once again I got caught on the roundabout at the turn - a rather too decisive lorry pulled straight out in front of me - I certainly wasn't going to argue with him! I once again found myself with time to make up on tired legs. I managed to hang in there for 2nd female and another good time on what I thought was a tough course.
The season marches on... June onwards to be continued...
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