When they announced a SR where one of the stages and the TTT started 15 minutes from my house I have to say I was pretty pumped. It was to be my second "A" race for the year but...things have a way of not playing out the way they're supposed to.
Day 1
The First race was a circuit race on the same course we hold our weekly World Championships. It's a flat, windy 8km circuit with a mix of good road and some chopped up bits I'm quite fond of. There's even a technical 120 deg corner in there that I like to use to put the hurt on the kids.
Our race was Saturday afternoon in the blistering sun which was good because Saturday morning was also the first soccer practice for my 4 1/2 yr old son. To be honest I don't know who was more excited about soccer, him or me.
I got up at 5:30 to take care of some email, woke my son up at 7:00 to get him dressed, packed the cooler, got him fed and picked up another coffee for daddy. We took the scooter to the soccer pitch where I watched him run around and wonder what the coach meant by 'out of bounds", I mean there was plenty of grass and he had the ball so why shouldn't he just keep going with it while the other kids chased him?
With soccer out of the way we went home, played with lego and I loaded the team car for the quick drive to the race.
During the team meeting I laid out the game plan. The goal was to do nothing until the first break went and stuck and then to put Gavin in the second serious move. The secondary plan was to set me up for the sprint with one of my team mates acting as a lead out. The ultimate goal was to get as many points as possible towards the series overall.
I spent the race mostly fighting for position and leading one chase and making one bridge attempt to mark another rider but mostly I spent the laps calculating exactly where I would have to be over the last 3km due to the fact that the wind changed direction 3 times. Each lap I ran through it and confirmed my plan.
Coming into the last last I got into position and started looking for my lead-out. He was no-where to be seen. Everything had gone right; I had used positioning to easily move up and was sitting where I needed to be 250m out but without a wheel to follow to get me on top of the gear.
The next mistake was mine. I hesitated. As I waited I got shoved to the right and the sprint got away from me. Now I was mostly out of position but I still had the wind and a clean line to the finish. I eventually wound it up but had to settle for 5th.
Not happy.
We had 50 minutes and then the TTT.
I though I had planned my day to get the most done in the least amount of time. I thought I was oh, so cleaver. One thing I didn't do was get the food right. Total fundamental rookie error.
During the TTT I lost all power and even got dizzy near the end. It was a total write off for us.
Day 2.
This was a hilly course and we were racing in the heat even though we had a 7am start.
I got up a 4am after not sleeping due to a VERY LOUD temple celebration that featured a band and fireworks that never seemed to end and seemed to be right under my window. The last time I looked at my watch it was 11:30.
We lined up and bang we're off.
Based on how I felt the day before, my lack of sleep and the fact that this course featured never ending punchy 1km, 2km and 3km climbs I figured I was going to get shelled mighty early. I even took the keys to the van so I could take a short-cut back to the van if it was very early in the race.
Our big plan had been for Gavin to do well but he flated about half way and that pretty much ended our day. There was no real Plan B.
Much to my surprise I was still in the bunch after many riders had been dropped as we hit the major climb for the day. It wasn't a huge climb. It only gained a few hundred meters in elevation but it had a steep section near the top and then several more steps until the decent. Then there was another popper and one more 2km climb before the final 10km flat to the finish.
I came off just as we hit the steep section and I chased over the popper and the next grinder all the way to the flat section with 4 other guys. Then it was just 3 of us and I was done. One of the other guys pretty much pulled us to the line so I let him drift 20m or so out in front of us so he could come across alone. Not that it mattered anyway.
At the end of the day we walked with nothing.
For the weekend we got a 3rd, a 5th and Team 5th overall. We managed to pick up some good points towards the season overall.
I went home, lay on the sofa and although exhausted, couldn't muster much more than a dose.
I had been doing a serious rethink about 2012 and this weekend may have been all I needed to convince myself that changes are needed.
I may shut down the team and ride for a club next year. All the work and time that goes into setting up a team, running it, dealing with sponsors, washing water bottles, packing the team car, unpacking the team car and on and on eats into not only my training time but also my life.
Throttling it back a bit may actually produce better results and I may even have more fun. Not to mention I need to make time to help my son understand soccer.
