In 2018, I was reminded of a few things that I had started to forget. Namely, that increased performance does not always equal results, cycling is a frustrating game and sometimes, well laid plans do not work out. I shouldn't have forgotten any of those, but after a 2017 where I felt like nearly everything went right, it was wishful thinking to expect 2018 to be the same. I honestly feel like I was a better bike rider this year; lighter and more powerful across most durations...but the wins just didn't want to happen as much as they should. I will break up this year's review into three sections; highlights, lowlights and all of those second places.
Highlights
This was a tough one but I have managed to come up with three:
Queensland Individual Time Trial Series - 5th
5th place overall in A grade was a result that any 45 year old should be happy with. I wrote an extensive blog post about the series HERE.
Masters Queensland Road Teams Series - 9th
I thoroughly enjoyed the series competing as a guest rider with the Wray Organic Trademark Racing Team. The field was 30+ years in age so many guys well and truly ten years and more my junior were in the mix. I ended up 9th on GC for the series and 3rd (Elimbah TTT), 4th (Warwick ITT), 5th (Warwick Road Race) and 5th (Gympie Road Race) on stages. I had good, consistent form across the three weekends.
Charles Coin Memorial Road Race - 7th
7th place in Elite A in an extremely tough version of this prominent Queensland road event. As was the case with the Queensland Individual Time Trial Series, being 45 years of age, I had to be happy with that finish. Blog post is HERE.
Lowlights
These were pretty easy to come up with!
That sinus infection... It had been over three years since my dreaded sinuses had flared up that badly. Extract from my blog post about this:
They say things are not meant to be easy and on this occasion 'they' were right! If you know me, you know that I have struggled with sinus issues most of my life. I have had surgery previously to address some of these issues. Having said that, over the past few years I have been managing things quite well and have escaped with relatively few problems. So, a little less than three weeks from race day, I started to get a cold. No big deal, minor cold, let's see how it plays out. A few days later it becomes worse and (after having been here so many times before) I know I have two challenges in front of me. Firstly, to not have this cold go to my chest and secondly, to not end up with a sinus infection. Either of those could result in a huge problem for me and my ability to drop watts on a time trial bike. The good news is, the cold stayed off my chest (phew - no coughing). The bad news is, I woke up one morning at 3.30 am with the familiar pain in my face and teeth and knew I had an infection. Off to the GP I go for a course of antibiotics and with ten days until race day, I cross my fingers and hope for the best.
Race day comes and it’s a routine I have been through scores of times previously. Unfortunately, I did not have a good day at all. I felt quite strong uphill but struggled to find any decent rhythm otherwise. You could see plain as day in my power numbers and heart rate that all was not right. I finished in second place with a 29 min 17 sec, a scant 3 seconds off the win. I was angry, frustrated and gutted... The last couple of months I had literally been in the time trialling form of my life and now a state title had slipped through my fingers because of a stupid bloody cold. Not happy...
Australian Masters Points Race Championships - 2nd
Another blog extract:
This would end up being an extremely frustrating experience for me. Apparently, there has been a rule change in masters points races, where the final sprint no longer carries double points. Unfortunately the program had not been updated to reflect that. Also unfortunately, riders who entered the track from the side of the track where Queensland were sitting, were not privy to the pre-race briefing which advised of this rule change. So I headed off thinking the final sprint was double points. Can you see where this is going? The event turned into a two horse race very quickly, those horses being Stuart Grieve from NSW and myself. Stuart held the lead the whole way, but I chipped away at the points and stayed close. I won the second last sprint and then checked the points and saw that If I won the last sprint (assuming double points) I would be Australian Champion. I dutifully put myself in the twilight zone for the last sprint, won it...and then was advised it was normal points only and I had in fact won...the Silver medal. Gutted..
Queensland Masters Road Race Championships - DNF
On current form on the day, I had every right to consider myself a good chance for a medal. Regrettably, you can't medal when you are laying on the bitumen. One third of the way through the race, my front wheel was taken out and it was all over.
All of those Second Places
It was the year of being on the second step of the podium:
- 2nd: Australian Championships - Individual Pursuit (MMAS4, 45-49)
- 2nd: Australian Championships - Points Race (MMAS4, 45-49)
- 2nd: Australian Championships - Team Pursuit (Open Masters)
- 2nd: Queensland Championships - Individual Time Trial (MMAS4, 45-49)
- 2nd: Tour de Valley - Individual Time Trial - 72km - (MMAS, 40-49)
It wasn't all doom and gloom though, with a couple of unexpected wins:
- 1st: Queensland Championships - Team Time Trial (Elite)
- 1st: Queensland Championships - Madison (MMAS)
So there you have it, a year that was at times frustrating and disappointing but also with some success and plenty of positives to take away. Bring on 2019!
