So I get back from Dalby and the next day head down to A&E cause my wrist is killing me. Three hours later and I'm in a cast after being told I have a broken scaphoid bone and I'll be out of action for at least 6 weeks - damn! Actually it wasnt so bad, two weeks later and I'm told it is infact another less slower to heal bone and am sent off for three weeks in a fibre glass cast and confined to the turbo once my knee gets moving again. The time off the bike wasn't a bad thing, I got my PT wheel serviced and concentrated on the tonne of work I had let build up. After 5 weeks I was let out of the cast and into a re-movable splint. That weekend I decided to give a local XC race a shot - Dunmore "Mountain" - part of the Ulster XC league. Legs were fresh, wrist not too sore. The course wasn't disimilar to the WC in terms of consisting largely of two killer climbs interspersed with smaller gradients, although not nearly as technical. Mel Spath made the trip up from Dublin for the day so would be interesting to see how I faired. The climbs were indeed a killer, I put most of my effort into steady climbing and feeding and was pretty wasted by the end - but not too exhausted. Finished 5mins down on Mel, not too bad considering the lack of consistent training I thought.
The next day I thought I'd give the Ulster Road Race champs a go since it was less than 10mins from my house. About 10 women turned up including ex National Champ Heather Wilson. From the start it was clear that my legs weren't gonna let me do much in terms of big efforts after the previous day, but what the hey just keep trucking! Heather kicked off middle of the 2nd lap so it was down to the rest of us to duke it out for 2nd/3rd spot. I upped the pace and broke the group into a smaller bunch of myself and 3 other riders. I worked hard for the rest of the race, a little too fast for the others to come through but not enough in the legs to break away! In the end it came down to a bunch sprint, which I never manage to get into.
The next weekend I heard of a race up north which included a mountain loop - interesting I thought. So off I headed to Ballymoney for the Ras Loughguile. Again about 10 girls showed up for 4 laps of a 10km course followed by a 30km loop around some lonely mountain in the middle of Co. Antrim. As usual I got impatient with the lack of pace coming from the group and I spent alot of time on the front and playing around with attacking on the 2km climb on the sort course. Come the kick up to the mountain loop and myself and Geraldine Gill kicked off the front. That road was steep! Whether it was the playing around on the earlier laps or poor gearing, Geraldine gave a little kick which gave her a gap of about 5 metres was we hit the first descent after which she pulled away as I struggled to keep my speed on the skinny tires. After that it was effectively a time trial back to the finish, every so often I would make up some ground only to be distanced again on a descent into a torturous head wind. I started to fade on the final 10km not bringing enough to eat as it was originally advertised as a 56km race! Second place again nonetheless.
The next day I thought I'd give the Ulster Road Race champs a go since it was less than 10mins from my house. About 10 women turned up including ex National Champ Heather Wilson. From the start it was clear that my legs weren't gonna let me do much in terms of big efforts after the previous day, but what the hey just keep trucking! Heather kicked off middle of the 2nd lap so it was down to the rest of us to duke it out for 2nd/3rd spot. I upped the pace and broke the group into a smaller bunch of myself and 3 other riders. I worked hard for the rest of the race, a little too fast for the others to come through but not enough in the legs to break away! In the end it came down to a bunch sprint, which I never manage to get into.
The next weekend I heard of a race up north which included a mountain loop - interesting I thought. So off I headed to Ballymoney for the Ras Loughguile. Again about 10 girls showed up for 4 laps of a 10km course followed by a 30km loop around some lonely mountain in the middle of Co. Antrim. As usual I got impatient with the lack of pace coming from the group and I spent alot of time on the front and playing around with attacking on the 2km climb on the sort course. Come the kick up to the mountain loop and myself and Geraldine Gill kicked off the front. That road was steep! Whether it was the playing around on the earlier laps or poor gearing, Geraldine gave a little kick which gave her a gap of about 5 metres was we hit the first descent after which she pulled away as I struggled to keep my speed on the skinny tires. After that it was effectively a time trial back to the finish, every so often I would make up some ground only to be distanced again on a descent into a torturous head wind. I started to fade on the final 10km not bringing enough to eat as it was originally advertised as a 56km race! Second place again nonetheless.
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