Last weekend, I headed out to Lakes Entrance to participate in the Tour of East Gippsland. Lead Out-ers Sue and Michael had also signed up to race in the three-stage event so it was nice to see some familiar faces around and have a chat with them. The first stage, a time trial, was held on the Saturday morning. At the end of last year, I bought a power meter and have been getting used to using this in my training. So in helping me prepare for this race, Lead Out coach Mick had given me an average power to aim for during my time trial. With the time trial course a bit hilly, it was tricky to judge my power; heading up a climb requires some higher numbers, while descending down the other side means it’s tough to keep pressure through the pedals. Overall, I found using the power meter a great way to keep the whole effort relatively consistent, and I beat my time last year by 13 seconds! The following two stages, both road races, were a good challenge. After participating in lots of criteriums recently, I’d almost forgotten that road races require a different approach, but it all came flooding back and I finished the weekend in 6th place overall – a result I’m really happy with.
Lots of cycling clubs around Melbourne host criterium (crit) races on a weekly basis. Recently, I’ve joined a group of girls that often race together at the popular Wednesday evening crit run by Hawthorn Cycling Club and a Saturday morning crit run by St Kilda Cycling Club. My favourite race happened only a couple of weeks ago at St Kilda’s Port Melbourne crit, when we each took turns to breakaway off the front; I went first, then as soon as I got caught by the bunch, another one of my teammates sprinted away. It was so much fun and it felt like our team was really in control of the race. Now that I have a good base of fitness, it’s great to be able to have a think about the race and what’s going on rather than spend all of my energy trying to hang on. And Lead Out often use the Hawthorn crit circuit to train on, so it’s handy being familiar with the course and learning specific skills to give me an advantage.
This month’s training block had it all: fast laps of The Teardrop (Hawthorn Cycling Club’s crit course) near Kew Boulevard, (Lead Out) lead-outs at Richmond Boulevard and then a fun ride out in the Dandenongs on Saturday mornings. One of the things I love about Lead Out is that the coaches lead the way on our training rides; I could get lost pretty easily riding on my own in the Dandenongs but with Lead Out I never have to worry about planning a route or pulling out my phone to navigate because the coaches always have this sorted and they’re always close by.
All those Dandenong climbs will put us in good stead for the first ride in Lead Out’s Cyclo-Sportive series this weekend. I’m looking forward to getting out to Yarra Glen and riding what is promising to be a great course with my Lead Out buddies!
In 2013 Bridget won a competition to be our ‘Zero-to-Euro’ Sponsored rider. During the 12 months Bridge trained with us barely missing a session. She accepted any challenge that came her way and by the years end with thousands of k’s in the legs and numerous races and events she was truly ‘Euro’! Bridge joined as a member in 2014 and continues her monthly blog. Enjoy