Survival

I have survived the weekend- 4 races in three days with this morning's 40 km road race being the worst (read most difficult) of the lot. It was a handicap race and we were 2 minutes off "Go". There were 4 of us and as we headed off down the road, I had a bad feeling- not ominous or foreboding- just not comfortable on the bike.

The wind was straight in our face, gusting to 35 or so and I managed to hang on for about 14 km but the respiratory infection of three weeks ago and subsequent lack of good training did me in. As it turned out, the winner was from the group ahead of us and the remainder of my grouping all picked up places (and money!!!) "D'oh!!"

Anyway it was all good fun and I did manage to lend a hand to some of my fellow cyclists. A couple of other blokes had managed to bridge to me after the turn and were looking for a break. I said I'd do what I could and gave them the better part of a km @ 40+ so they were able to refresh and go. They were effusive in their thanks when I crossed the line

While I didn't finish "stone motherless last" as my good mate Mr S Donaldson would say, I did finish by myself and in a world of hurt. Ahh racing is such fun. I can't wait for the Charters Towers to Townsville race in August- 125 km of the same road we raced today.

Training starts on Wednesday (I am taking tomorrow as a day off the bike) and if I can stay healthy, I'm going to give it a shot....

Cheers- Ride safe

BoaB

p.s. Totals for the year:

June 209 km

 2009 4284 km