So recently,
"The Cycling NSW Women’s Commission is urging women who haven’t raced before or who are new to racing, to sign up for its new Come and Try Race Series.
The series, being held for the first time, will comprise of four criterium (short closed circuit) events in November and February - three in Sydney and one in Newcastle."
Full details from Cycling NSW here.
Yesterday was the Sydney University Velo Club (SUVelo) session:
It was fun.
I like participating in these activities because it's a safe environment and you can learn heaps.
Also, it's great to support activities that provide opportunities for women, to encourage more of these opportunities.
I woke up early as usual in the morning.
As I live pretty close to the venue, I had decided to do a 30 minute roll earlier, to get a bit of a warm up, and also eat my Clif Bar for breakfast. (I find it hard to eat breakfast at home so soon after waking up, so for me, eating on the bike is easier).
By the time I got to the park, I didn't feel warmed up, I felt sort of tired and weary.
My friends were laughing at my face - which was probably a cross between cold race face and nervous face.
I sort of go into lock down because I'm afraid if I express any emotion - positive or negative - the nerves may take over!
Anyway, the SUVelo girls took us around the track to show us the path.
Then we started.
They split us up into 2 groups (about 10 in each group) and we started riding around the track.
We rode in 2 lines and the SUVelo girls surrounded us, giving us tips and checking if the pace was ok.
After 1 lap (I think), the group started a rolling pace line.
This was my first time in doing a rolling pace line.
So that was cool.
The race was 20 minutes + 2 laps.
The SUVelo girls ramped up the speed slowly.
I was struggling to stay on - it became difficult for me to roll around the front, I had trouble speeding up enough to get around the front.
I didn't know what to do, so I just pushed harder to get there.
(My husband later on suggested that I could have rolled off the group towards the right - rather than the left, but I didn't know what at the time and I was worried about and didn't want to cause unnecessary danger to other riders by doing something weird.)
So by the time the whistle blew for the 2 race laps, I was pretty tired.
Apparently my husband saw my face on one of the middle laps and thought "ooh, she's going to crack soon".
During the first race lap, as the group accelerated to race pace, I struggled to stay on.
One of the SUVelo girls tried to keep me on her wheel.
I was really struggling and was starting to wheeze / hyperventilate slightly.
I tried to calm myself and slow my breathing down but it wasn't really happening.
I also made the mistake of not drinking, so my mouth was very very dry by this point.
(I will need to work on taking a drink in between strong pedals - I tend to soft pedal / stop pedalling when I grab the water bottle, so something to work on).
On the tricky uphill bit (where most people attack on this course), she shouted "stay on my wheel!"
Inside my head, I said "I can't" and dropped off the group completely.
I tried to keep pedalling but I was still struggling to slow my breathing down.
I was quite disappointed in myself (and started to cry) as I knew it was a little bit mental weakness that I had succumbed to the "I can't" dialog in my head.
As I was pretty far off the group now, I slow pedalled to the finish line (where everyone was).
I was still wheezing and chose to pull off the course (1 lap early).
(Once you've lost the group in a crit race, there can be not much point doing another lap by yourself.)
My friendly supporters were encouraging me to keep going but I just had nothing left.
I hid behind a bush and cried for a little bit whilst I tried to get my breathing back to normal.
Despite being probably a not as strong / experienced rider than most of the others, and being upset at myself at that point, I was really proud that I had pushed as hard as I could - I could feel that I had nothing left.
It was a really great feeling to have pushed my body harder than I thought was possible.
I should be easier on myself. By the time I said "I can't", I had probably pushed further than I should have, so it wasn't like I necessarily had much more energy left.
There can be a lot of fear around crit racing - the speed and closeness of the bunch riders - means that there can be some quite ugly crashes. But it felt very safe and encouraging as a Come & Try experience.
It was a great opportunity and I was thankful to Cycling NSW and SUVelo for organising the session and supporting women's cycling, and am very happy to have done it.
I'm probably not going to make crit racing a regular priority for myself, but it will be a good activity for me to do to mix things up and be pushed a little further than I would push myself.
A few of my friends got on the podium, so that was an awesome bonus!
