On the 20^th April I caught a flight from the Gold Coast to compete in my second attempt

at the Masters Nationals Championships.  These were held in Sydney and the racing consisted of an Individual Time Trial, Criterium & Road Race. 

The first race was the Individual Time Trial held at Somersby.  The course was an undulating course from Somersby to Calga – distance 22klms.  The day before we drove the course but I elected to stay in the car and remain dry as it was raining (just the start of the rainy week).  

My race started at 10.18am and it was pouring rain with thunder & lightning thrown in for good measure.  I had done a pre warm up at 6am in the gym and then did a warm up before my start time.  I had participated in the Sydney to Surfers Charity Ride two weeks earlier so I was well accustomed to the rain and decided to take full advantage of the down hill sections and stomp on the pedals in my biggest gear.  I went past the girl who was one minute in front of me at the 5 klm mark so I knew I was traveling well.  With the rain beating down so hard it was impossible to see with glasses on so they were shoved to the end of my nose. The end result was a fourth place just missing out on the Bronze Medal by one second.  As useless as it is I went over in my head a few times how I could have made up one second.

The next day I rocked up to the Criterium circuit at Dunc Grey Velodrome..Surprise, surprise it’s pouring.  After an hour or so the officials cancelled all the racing till 11am and rescheduled our races for the following day which was to be a rest day.  Next day arrive at Dunc Grey and yes it’s raining – actually raining heavier than the previous day but they have no choice but to start our race as there is no other available time to run the races.  The course was excellent – a little tight in sections but if you were at the front you could take your line nice and clean without any worries.  I learnt from last year that a small circuit like this required one to be at the front coming into the final bend as the finish line was not 100 meters’ away.  A great day at the office and I took second place in the sprint my first National medal – Silver!!!

The final race was the Road and the course was an obstacle course, turn right, turn left, go under this tunnel, go through this car park etc, etc. It was a maze to say the least.  The girl who beat me by one second in the time trail was attacking early as did I and another rider Terry Moore. However, it was Patti who attacked making the decisive move and when Terry & I didn’t chase the other girls didn’t bother to either.  In retrospect this is not a surprise as they hadn’t chased down one attack.  This was to be my first mistake!  Terry was yelling at the girls to roll through and we could catch Patti but these girls would not work together effectively.  I attacked again as I felt no one was going to work except Terry and myself , when Terry caught up she told me not to attack just work together so I did as I was told – second big mistake !! As Mark Brady told me this is exactly when you do keep attacking.  Two girls told me after the race they were nearly dropped three times and were relived when I stopped attacking the group. The race came down to a bunch sprint, I got boxed in and had to change direction (that’s racing), and I came third which gave me a fourth place.  Close but no cigar!

I found out that had I beaten Patti in the time trial I would have had the points and taken out the overall championship for my division and got myself the jersey - that just goes to show you how important a time trial can be.  Next year!! 

The past two years have been a great learning curve and I have taken on board my mistakes each time and been able to use the lessons learnt in the next races. 

I would like to extend a huge thank you to the club coach Mark Brady who has helped me immensely with my training in the past two years.  His advise and experience has been invaluable and certainly the main factor in improving my ability on the bike no end. 

Also, a big thank you to Gary Parkin who helped me every week with my time trialing.  To have someone of Gary’s ability train with you is fantastic as he would push me to new limits each week. 

And last but not least my husband Steve Drew who encourages & supports me in everything that I do.

I hope that this report will encourage more members to participate at Nationals - just give it a go.  

Good riding, stay safe and train hard.

Lisa Drew.