the worlds …….. and home
Anyway for the worlds my focus was definitely the Time Trail as that was the race I felt I would go best in. No one is taken to worlds just for the TT, so I had to race the road race also. That was why my road race was so bad. I had the legs for 80km and that was it. Hence the DNF (did not finish) So having the TT as my focus it will be the race I will tell you about, even though the disappointment from that doesn’t really warrant me being excited to tell you.
For the 4 weeks lading up to worlds my training was all TT specific as looking at the world profile it was probably a coarse that suited me. The week before the worlds we had a TT in the north of France and that was basically a race for Jacques (NZ road coach) to see if we will be competitive at worlds. With all the training I done before that and only being a week out from worlds I was hoping to do well, but it obviously wasn’t meant to be. I started, and with a last name starting with ‘A’ was first off. My heart rate went up but at 180bpm all my lunch came back up. I slowed, recovered and settled back down. 172 bpm I was fine, but 175 and it all was coming back up again. It was like this for the first 15km, I don’t know why or how as everything I did leading up to the race was what I normally do. The last 15km was good though as I was on pace for that. it was just the start.
Jacques started me at worlds regardless of my result at this race as I felt I had the form, just that shit start held me back. For the Worlds TT I didn’t want another start like the one I had the week before so instead of a half hour warm up I went for an hour warm up. Remember how I said, I make it my focus because the profile showed as a course that would suit me? Well the 14km false flat climbing that it showed at the start was a 14km climb. Not false flat! Anyway I was hoping the the form I had for the tt was going to make it so that was going to be too much of a factor. I started like I normally start but when I go t to the bottom of the climb I realised this is where I am going to loose time so I put the hammer down as almost a max effort.
By the top and the TT position my calf started to get that feeling that 1 wrong move and its going to cramp. But I thought stuff it, I know I lost time on he climb I have to make it up in the last half. I tried to pick up the pace cause I knew I still had more left. This triggered my calf to cramp. It was painful but I didn’t want to have 2 crap years in a row so I just gritted my teeth and dug deeper. I was moving and nothing was getting in my way. I was 41st in the end so not good enough for the amount of effort I put into it.
Later I looked at the split times and I lost all my time in the climb. The last half of the tt I was on pace for definitely a top 10 if only the first half could be the same. The conclusion I have come up with for the race is I definitely need to work on my climbing and after seeing those splits Im not quite so disappointed because I knew without a clock telling me I wasn’t fast enough on the climb, I guess I was hoping I didn’t loose too much time. Well that’s how my world went this year and I definitely know what I have to do next year!
I am back home on Friday so hopefully I will get to catch up with some of you
Till then Clinton
