Lisa's Mum was honoured to have been asked to attend the AIS selection camp in Canberra (starting today). Lisa's Mum is no athlete but is hoping that the 'survivor' style camp will be like The Biggest Loser and she will return home with a makeover and a desire to become a personal trainer.
Good luck Mum.
Riding Happy in...
Ten points if you can guess where we're riding today. Hint: it's the RADDEST cycling city in Oz!
The Roadie Project #4: Survival
In a Bear Grylls-type way, I enjoy the idea of venturing bravely into tropical jungles, fighting off monkeys with one arm and changing a tyre with the other using only a jungle vine and a tub of freshly harvested tree sap. Actually, maybe I'm thinking of Bush Mechanic. Anyway, the key concept here is IDEA.
My imaginings of spending another week sitting happily at anaerobic threshold, heroically telling my legs to Shut Up in a sexy European accent, were quickly replaced by another memory of Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984, at the point in the book when he realises, as he is being tortured, that he won't be the brave soul he had imagined, but rather will do anything - ANYTHING - to make the pain stop.
When people ask me how I found the Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge (LIMBC) 2011 - the 5 day MTB stage race - the following thoughts appear in my head, and I try to choose whether to mention them in my response:
- 35-40 deg+
- Humidity OH THE HUMIDITY
- A world cup standard XCO stage (WHAT WAS I THINKING??)
- Some inopportune mechanicals, including as I was about to launch THE MOST DEVASTATING SPRINT FINISH EVER**
- Playing Russian roulette with the race meals
- More than slightly related to the above: Andy and the amazing technicolour gastro
I can't tell you exactly what effect the heat, fear and racing had on me, but sitting on the plane home, after 10 days of racing in 11 days, I found myself watching Justin Bieber's Never Say Never. Enough said.
A quick rewind...
LIMBC was intended to be a holiday. Andy was keen to race and had convinced me that we needed a romantic getaway together that did not involve him standing on the side of the road waving a bidon. The race was on a resort island. I quite like monkeys and aeroplane food. It was a good match.
Things started to go awry when the LIMBC race directors announced the start list. It was filled with Cape Epic winners, world cup winners, and some guy who came 2nd in a little race called the Vuelta. The women's contingent featured a host of national champions.* The racing would be Very Hard.
Sensing my fear, Apollo came to the rescue with their top of the line carbon dual-suspension bike, the Terra 30 (new for 2012), designed especially to make roadies like me look good. SCODY created some top-shelf Ride Happy custom kit featuring their special MTB-specific chamois (pure LUXURY after 10 days of racing). I crammed in as many MTB rides as I could with people who were much better than me. Then I crossed my fingers.
I discovered far too late that the old roadie trick of looking the part went only so far in floating me through technical single track. The organisers kindly included some bitumen in some of the stages so I didn't feel homesick, but there were enough techhy bits for me to really appreciate just how skilful the good girls are. A small blessing was the cancellation of the 7-hour enduro stage in favour of a shorter, 1.5hr XCO stage, which made me so excited that I almost drank the local tap water. The cancellation was on the grounds that the proposed enduro course went through too much raw sewerage and water buffalo mating ground for the UCI's liking (I kid you not).
The result? I'd like to claim the excuse that my legs were tired after Honda Tour, but Lachie Norris managed to race both the Herald Sun Tour and Langkawi and made it look easy. The truth is that mountain bike racing is hard, and, although I had flashes of fun out there, it was predominantly a humbling and frustrating experience. Humbling because I was creamed as soon as the course got technical, and frustrating because I made some rookie errors. I can't wait to do my next MTB stage race, but I'll make sure I choose one that is better suited to road-tards.
Stay tuned for video footage...
*I'm not sure what the proper collective noun is for a group of high-achieving cyclists, but let's call it a head-case.
**I can say this now because it never happened. But if my rear tyre hadn't blown out, it would have been MAD.
Shipwreck Coast Classic (or why cheese factories should be incorporated into more NRS races)
Today was the final of the national road series for 2011- the Shipwreck Coast Classic in Warrnambool, VIC.The NRS is a long and hard series for cyclists and to ensure that no one wants to do anymore, the last race is traditionally held during Victoria's wettest month in an area known for its windfarms. And Cheese World...
Team VIS were on a mission.
Chloe 'Ranga' McConville, the defending Shipwreck champ, wanted to make sure the 2011 title went to a worthy (and ideally Victorian-based) winner.
Katherine 'Where is the singletrack?' O'Shea, fresh from shaking up the Tour of Langkawi, was tricked into coming with the promise of a side trip to Forrest on the way home.
Kendelle 'Superstar' Hodges had taken a ride in a team car for Melbourne-Warny the day before and needed a lift home.
And I was there because I knew Donna would bring bananas. (Who said there was no money in women's cycling?)
Of course, this is all a lie. All of us except Kendelle were there because we wanted to visit Allansford Cheese World (like Disneyworld, but with more cheese and in Allansford). Kendelle was there because she had inadvertently spent all our prize money from Geelong Tour on shoes and needed some quick cash.
The race itself was decided by a 3-lady breakaway of Grace Sulzberger, Sinead Noonan and our very own Kendelle 'serial shopper' Hodges who got clear at around the 4km mark and stayed away for the remaining 112km. These ladies are 3 of Australia's best cyclists right now and rode an excellent race.
I don't know how much Kendelle spent on shoes but it must have been a lot because she won not only the race but the QOM as well. This is after winning stage 5 of the Honda Tour in a similarly epic breakaway. What a legend.
We also took out the teams' classification for the NRS and got to spray each other with champagne and cheese.
Our biggest disappointment all day was that we did not get to spray Supercoach Donna Rae-Szalinski and mechanic extraordinaire Ryan Moody at the presentations. They have put so much work into us and they should have copped a faceful for it.
A great way to end the NRS.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Gracie Elvin who conducted some helmet impact testing today. Gracie passed but the helmet did not.
Ride happy.
The Roadie Project happy snaps
You can tell this photo was taken before the fish curry had its revenge.
Let's call this next one 'AFTER'.
LIMBC 2011: Report coming soon
I'm still writing the race report for the Langkawi International MTB Challenge (LIMBC), a 5 day MTB stage race in Malaysia. I think it's best for everyone if I leave it another day while the pain subsides and the good memories get better. In the meantime, here is a quick photo. More to come, and some video footage too.
Ride Happy
Tour of Langkawi: the roadie project
Quick update from Malaysia. It is hot, humid and full of monkeys. The food is making everyone violently ill. It's a salmonella lottery - enough to make you not want to eat anything.
Yesterday's cross country stage traumatised me.
I have sweated more than a fat jockey on Melbourne Cup eve.
The jury is out on whether a roadie can survive this tour.
I am loving it.
More Honda Tour pics
Thanks to Jarrod Partridge from JXP Photography for providing the below images from the Honda Tour. I'm afraid they're mostly of me but this is so my Mum can see what I've been up to. If you go to the JXP website you can see (and buy) a heap of other prints. Jarrod was out on the moto for the whole Herald Sun Tour too so there are some awesome shots.
Tour pics
Some pics from the Tour...
