AORC: INDIVIDUAL TIME TRIAL

I love 34 degree, disastrously windy, 28 kilometre Individual Time Trials (can you hear the sarcasm?), especially when the best in Australia show up and cane me =( Decked out on a Bianchi Time Trial bike, with Mavic rear disc, front Bora (thanks Spits), radio, and the likes of Liz Taylor and Anna Wilson following me in the car, not only did I have no excuses, but I started to wonder what I had done to deserve such treatment, especially for a time trial! My results may not have shown it, but I did actually try, and rode 4 minutes quicker than last year. It felt like my first ever time on a bike (pictured)! The heat didn’t bother me, nor did the fact that I haven’t done any time trial training, but my legs may have disagreed. I finished 20th overall, 5 minutes off the now current Australian Road Time Trial Champion in Bridie O’Donnell (VIS), and 5th in the U23 behind category leader Amanda Spratt. At first I was informed I was only 40 seconds off a podium, that was until Carlee Taylor was stripped of her bronze medal due to a fault in the results!

Here’s how it went... After 4hours in the car and an inadequate warm up, I can’t say I was looking forward to starting the TT up a hill. I think I can call it a burg, as it was a fair slug in the 21. The radio cut out at the top of the climb and from then on all I could hear was either Anna screaming out the car door, or a Delta Goodrem song that I had stuck on repeat in my head. I felt fit, but lactic, that was until the final 4km downhill stretch where my skinfolds of 69 assisted me in catching the girl I’d been chasing all day. Spirits weren’t low as you would usually expect, instead I’m simply glad it’s all over and I can now concentrate on Saturday’s road race. After a quick clean up, destruction of half the fernery beside our room, and the brutal assault on the VIS van side mirror, is what resulted when putting Anna’s driving skills to the test while she was slowly going hunger flat. Before the day came to an end, Anna and I joined the likes of Liv Gollan, Nat Bates and Amanda Spratt for dinner at the Gillett household to toast to Amy. With today being her 32nd birthday we celebrated with a drink...or two...and shared many laughs in her memory =)

Results: Australian Open Road Time Trial Championships, Buninyong, 28kms