Written by: Dutchie
2/17/2012 8:59 AM 

Race report Toowoomba Two Day - February 11 and 12

Glenvale Sport and Recreation Reserve
Toowoomba Showgrounds, Harvey Road, Toowoomba, QLD

Saturday 11th February 2012

It's not often I get to sleep in anymore. Most of my days start at 4am with the occasional sleep-in until 4:30am.

Last weekend was a little different. I signed up to race the TLD Toowoomba Open (formerly the Oakey Two Day), my first race after Nationals and also my first race as an A-grader. The Toowoomba Two Day exists of two races held over two days, day one being a criterium and day two a kermesse. The race venue was the recently opened Toowoomba Criterium Circuit, a purpose built cycling track, lauded as one of the best in the country. 

Elite Women A/B Grade were to race with Elite Men C Grade and a starting time of 2:20pm, leaving me with plenty of time to sleep in, pack my bike and toothbrush, drive to Toowoomba and warm-up. Easy.

I left Brisbane at 11am to embark on my solo adventure to Toowoomba, hence forth to be referred to as T-bar (just be happy I'm not calling it 'the womb', ok?). The 111km drive promised to be fairly uneventful which was fine by me. I arrived in T-bar around 12:30 and tried to find my way to the Showgrounds, where the track is located. I am one of the 1.25% of the population who doesn't own a sat nav and I was sure regretting that fact by the time I had driven past the same park for the third time in 10 minutes. With the help of my trusty iPhone I finally managed to find the venue, albeit a little late… ahem.

I quickly managed to find a park, register and unpack my bike and windtrainer. In order to properly prepare your body for a criterium race you need at least an hour to warm up. I had about 40 minutes until the start of the race at 2:20pm … oh well, I thought, not to panic… 40 minutes is still ok. About 15 minutes into my warm-up routine the skies opened up and treated us to an almighty downpour! Drops so large I initially thought a flock of birds decided to poop en-mass! I quickly put my bike in the back of the car and waited out the storm. All the while the Elite A Men's race was still underway and by the looks of it, they weren't too happy about it!

Dun dun DUUUN! *May not be photo of actual storm. 

The boys were still happy here. Photo credit: I stole these photos from the Team Down Under TDU Facebook page. 

The storm passed relatively quickly but my warm-up was cut tragically short. At 2:15pm the Elite C boys and Elite A/B Women were lined up at the start. The sun had come out and the winds had subsided. Because of the storm I hadn't been able to ride around the track and so I had no idea what to expect. The commissaires did warn us part of the track was a bit wet, which turned out to be a bit of an understatement. On top of this I forgot to let a little bit of air out of my tyres to allow for extra traction in the wet. Awesome. 

3,2,1 Have a safe race! 

The commissaires didn't lie. The road was completely soaked on one side of the track and bone dry on the other. Storms at T-bar must be very localised. The wet side of the track featured a sharp corner. This freaked me out a little (ok, a lot) and as a result I slowed to a crawl to prevent sliding out. The bend was followed by an immediate uphill and so my lack of speed through the corner meant I had to put in a lot of effort to not get dropped. Combined with the lack of a proper warm up this really started hurting after a few laps. My lungs felt they had little stretch left and my heart rate went through the roof every time the bunch decided to pick up the pace a little. The track itself was a joy to ride; fast sweeping corners, challenging uphill sections and smooth bitumen (no potholes yay!) The wet conditions did almost cause a crash right in front of me when one of the boys lost traction and smashed into another rider but both managed to keep the rubber side down. 

After about 20 minutes of hanging on for dear life (some people might call it racing), the track had started to dry out and I was getting a little more confident. Unfortunately the bunch felt the same way and a few attacks were launched, but none of them really stuck. I must say I don't really know what happened near the front but I did realise a few of the other girls had dropped off and it was now just me and Amy Schramm left in the race. Amy looked super strong and I knew straight away she was going to be tough to beat. 

The only photo I could find with yours truly. Photo credit: I stole this photo from the Towoomba Cycling Club Facebook page. 

I was pretty relieved when the bell lap came around. I was still with the bunch but didn't feel strong anymore. Half way through the last lap a bunch of riders went off the front and so did powerhouse Amy. I managed to grab a wheel but lost it again in the final corner. My heart rate was now at 105% and it hurt! I got up out of the saddle one last time and dragged myself over the line to claim second Elite Women A, after Amy Schramm.

The Elite C Mens race was won by Mark Pierce (Fierce!), Trent West placed 2nd and James Orchard 3rd. Fellow BoomTime athletes and all-round awesome guys George Southgate and Ben McLean placed fifth and sixth. Well done! 

Presentations were held soon after and they even had an actual podium, cool! Unfortunately I didn't have anyone to take photos so you guys will just have to take my word for it.

Please stay tuned for Day Numero Dos!

xo Dutchie 

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Tags: racing , BoomTime , Toowoomba Open , Criterium , Storms

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Location: Blogs Dutchie Loves Cycling

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