A bit of a leap into the unknown after; xmas, less riding (dont tell carl...), and being 'captain Blackout' (yeah, goodwun Carl 🙄 ) for a few days...
Ride to the course. Its still hot. But the change is a-comin, so they say...
Signup and roll around. Hmmmm, maybe that lack of riding-thing wasnt such a good idea. Oh well, I'll work on 'Keeping position' as some wunderkind says 😄
Field of (maybe) 15-20? A few new faces. We start and "Hello!" the new faces havent been told this is a 'nice' ride for the firsat few laps.
They'll calm down me thinks...
Sur enough after 10 minutes the same faces are at the front, Im yo-yoing between about 4th and 10th, just making sure nobody pulls away over the top of the hill. Oh, I forgot to mention, the change DID arrive about 5min before the start and hit like a mini tornado, dropping the temp by about 5deg and the surrounding foliage/bark ALL over the course.
Nobody was doing a flyer down hte hill and the back straight due to that today...
Cgrade inevitably come up, lots of shouting. Dgrade hug left but we are gettin near that darn Hairpin AGAIN! So i jump up a few places to get in front with the other 3-4 riders before Cgrade swamp us ON the corner.
That makes life easier and we let them go slowly past.
About 3-4 C'ers get dropped and stick with us...
25min mark now and Im really suffering. Im still sticking to about 5-10th wheel but Im fighting the mind to hang on. "Keep position, Keep position..."
Then after 2-3 more laps (the brain's strugglin by now... "how many laps?" 😄 ) I hear a muffled "2 to go Dgrade!"
OK, work it Dutchy! Hang in there. Nobody is doing a flyer (aint Dgrade SO civilized? Well all except that older [censored] who thnks we're ridin for sheep stations and refuses to hold a line, cuts in on corners and then is always whingeing to the officialdom 🙄 ).
Hangin on... 1 lap to go as we crest the hill/finishline for the penultimate time...
"Get that wheel! you can feel tired afterwards". Not alot left in the legs, but Im still 10-11th!
Hey, Im in this! MAke it count now. Down the back straight and I move up one more. The strong goirl on the Scott is my wheel. The other 8ish are all with 5-10m ahead. She starts breaking approaching the corner!$@$@#!!!!
I swing to her left and totally screw the corner, going out wide and end up braking and in the gutter. Change up a couple. Im 8th.
Stomp... 7th. Hey, they're doing that 'going backwards' thing again.
The 2 leaders are out of reach but maybe, maybe...
Halfway up the hill... 6th, 5th...
One guy on my left I might be able to get and he's closin in on third,
50m to go, closer, closer, [censored]! One metre shy and about another 2 shy of third (and about 10m shy of 2nd & 1st).
Immediately pull over to side of raod and do some 'Dying Dog' yoga positioning 😄
Well! That wasnt too bad considering how far behind in form I was feeling.
Check the 'puter. Same ol' numbers... 33min, 36kph average
So... for this week's episode the 'If Onlys arrrrrrrre':
... i had ridden more over the break
... i was 4-5th wheel comin out of that last corner
... i hadnt screwed up that last corner
... i was... faster... 🙄