I have just had the most amazing week ever. It has had the aura of ‘too good to be true!’.
I was lucky enough to be invited to a National Talent ID Road Time Trial camp in Melbourne!

We had the privelidge of coaching and advice from Matrin Barras and Warren MacDonald (both the current and previous womens national road coaches, respectively) as well as other excellent coaches Ben from SASI, Donna, Michel and David. If that wasn’t amazing enough, we also had the expertise of Tammie Ebert and Josh Sear from the NTID program on things ranging from the physiological to the logistical, as well as help from another coach, Darryl and aeronautics engineers whilst at Monash.

We underwent maximum power output tests, anthroprometrical measurements, wind tunnel testing and even some training and racing! We got to hang out with the AIS girls (Bridie O’Donnell, Peta Mullens, Carlee Taylor and Amber Halliday) as well as meet Anna Wilson and hear of their individual experiences. What more could you possibly ask for in a week of cycling?

I had an absolutely amazing time despite being sick in the last couple days of the trip, and still can’t get over just how much was invested in us in that short space of time. I am anxiously awaiting results from the testing to find out if I will be invited to take that next step, or if I need to make it happen another way. Exciting times!

Team Cardno was scheduled to roll out for the first portion of the ride until the usual initial ‘pit-stop’. Unfortunately, the distance to the pit stop was not as advertised and the wind was sufficiently up that an impromptu step-in of the ‘V8s’ was required to save their legs. I say unfortunately because I wasn’t feeling great yet I was in exactly the right position to step in to assist. So I did. Turns out that there is always someone that is feeling worse, as both times the person I was paired with called an end to our turn before I was ready to give in.

Today was supposed to involve a police escort for this leg of the ride, but due to budget cuts we were on our own. We arrived at the Fremantle PCYC to a very kindly provided spread of tea, coffee, biscuits and a sausage sizzle. However our available time there was short so Brett gave a few hurried words and we were quickly on our way to the finish proper, in King’s Square Fremantle. On our way out of the PCYC lo and behold we were joined by two unmarked police cars! Yay

Rolling into the finish felt great. There were heaps of people there to cheer us home. We presented the cheque for $469,000 to Youth Focus and enjoyed a moment or two of satisfaction in that. Afterwards there was a celebratory lunch together with family, with more presentations and then final goodbyes.

This whole experience has been eye-opening. From my involvement in the RFY committee which has revealed the enormous amount of planning that goes into this kind of event, to the training, learning to fundraise, riding the ride and providing the message to the schools, it has been a special experience. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to those that donated money to my effort on the ride - I appreciate your faith in me to complete this undertaking, and also your support for what is a truly worthwhile cause within our community. I look forward to continuing my role in the RFY by acting as an ambassador for Youth Focus in my everyday life.

Things were fairly uneventful for the first part of the ride until we encountered some seriously shoddy roads - think cyclocross-style gravel and loose dirt/dust, but minus the mud this time. This required some serious concentration to get through, and I think I nearly shouted myself hoarse with calls of “HOLE!”, as is the convention in the RFY peloton when one spots even an inkling of an indent in the road.

The ‘V8s’ were increased today to be ‘V10s’, and Brett and I did our fair share at the pointy end of the peloton. It was good to get out the midst of the bunch as it helped to break up the rather plain flat sections heading towards Bunbury. We had two school stops today (and goodness knows how many ‘pit-stops’) along the way. These were at MacKillop College in Busselton and Grace Christian School in Bunbury. The students at both schools were very well behaved and interested, asking us many questions. Brett did well under pressure when he spoke at the latter in Bunbury, although he may have been a bit glib.

Upon leaving Grace Christian, it was truly starting to warm up and even I was beginning to feel the sting in the sun. At the end of the day even I had something approaching a little sunburn. Luckily the wind wasn’t too bad for the most part, although I was a little worried as we crossed the Mandurah traffic bridge that some of our lighter riders might need some protection to avoid being blown away.

When we finally arrived in Mandurah I was pretty happy to get into the shower and eventually get some food in me. Sleep was also high on my list, however the nights essential fines proceedings took precendence. I was not fined for long socks for a change, however I can’t for the life of me remember what I was fined for. I’m fairly certain I was fined for something Brett did(?!). When all the fining was over and we had been thoroughly kicked out of the pool/bbq area by the hotel management, I made a quick exit - I was way over-tired and grumpy at that.

Stats for the day:
07:40:46 ride time
236.2kms (ave 30.76km/hr)
ave HR 130bpm (max 173bpm)
negligeble ascending.

Once we turned towards MR I did a stint in the ‘V8s’ paired together with one of the other girls Tanya. She seemed a bit nervous about working at the front, so I did my best to talk her through it all. We kept ourselves strictly to 5 minute stints and whatever speed she felt comfortable at.

The weather warmed up as the day went on and by the time we finally stopped at the servo at something-dale (forgive me, I forget the exact name of the place), I was keen for some real food and succumbed to the ol’ Mrs Macs pie and a coke zero. Best. Pie. Ever.

We finally arrived in MR after a reasonably fast finish thanks to the leadership of team Cardno (pity it couldn’t have been faster… poo poo to the soft c**x that were calling ‘ease up’!). We were welcomed into Margaret River high school for a feed and the usual show-n-tell to the kids.

The support crew again went all-out today to keep us in high spirits, with shenanigans that included inflated condoms strung above the road, signs written on the road, a “GO TEAM” brown-eye (visualise that, if you dare), as well as mad mechanical skillz changing tyres/tubes etc for those that experienced mechanicals. Those guys really work hard for us.

Tonight’s fines for me were: long socks (no surprises there) but then so did team GCS as well as Tania - they had embraced their inner long-sockedness today in my honour. I was also done for supposedly being related to the strict German teacher at MRSHS, and a couple other minor misdemeanours that I have already managed to forget (and I only just got back from dinner!)

On a surprising note, I managed to get rid of my ‘L’ plates! It turns out that there has been a wolf in the midst who has kept quiet the fact that he is in fact younger than me. Ha ha Anthony - you got sprung tonight

Imitation being the highest form of flattery and all that, I was flattered that team GCS rode as ‘The Kauff’ (as I am becoming known) all day, in their best Target knee-high socks, with “KAUFFMANN” signs pinned to their backs, and even photos of me gaffa-taped to the back of their helmets. Those guys have been 10/10 for all their outfits so far - restecp boyz!

We are now over half-way in our journey. Tomorrow is the almighty 235km to Mandurah. Bring. It. On.

Stats for the day:
Distance: 137.9km
4:21:44 ride time (ave speed 31.61km/hr)
Ave HR 134bpm (max 173bpm)
1270m ascending

Along the way there were several items of road kill - all quite ‘on-the-nose’, as well as the now ‘usual’ encouraging distractions of brown-eyes from the support crew, and many photo opportunities for the Ride for Youth Facebook page.

Each day one team is scheduled to roll out at the start of the ride, and another at the finish. Throughout the day, groups of 8 (known as the “V8s”) roll around at the front in order to protect those that need it in the peloton. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to indulge in ‘protected’ status. Today however we were on task to roll in the V8s in the second half of the route and my team (Team Mirvac) was to bring everyone home up the hills to Pemberton High School.

Unfortunately there were a couple incidents whilst on our ‘watch’ on the front. At one point some truck was antsy to overtake us and we got the signal from the support van in front to pull over quickly when we weren’t really expecting it. The sudden stopping resulted in a couple riders coming off and losing some bark. The second incident involved a pot-hole that we missed which caught a rider mid-peloton whilst they were drinking down a descent. Thankfully that was the extent of the issues today, and after all that we arrived safely in Pemberton.

Sadly, due to some constant mist/rain today, I found it neccessary to clean my bike again today before dinner. Tonight I got fined again for the car-training incident and long socks, riding my bike in a bikini yesterday (merely a quick test-ride after I cleaned it!) and having fancy rain-resistant sunglasses (oakley radars).

Stats for the day:
Distance: 129.8kms
4:34:11 tide time (ave of 28.41km/hr)
1700m of climbing
Ave HR of 138bpm (max 176bpm)

Again, please check out the Ride for Youth Facebook pages for photos and stuff!

We arrived at NASHS and were welcomed by the students who were going to join us for the official start by rolling out of the school together with us, as well as a friend who has also come out to meet us.

The students, teachers, and officials gave us a great welcome. There were some official speeches, which included a traditional welcome / blessing from the local Noongar representative and some words from Mark Waite from Youth Focus on the services YF provides to young people identified as at risk of suicide, depression and self-harm.

After this, Bill Marchbank and I were scheduled to say a few words from a rider’s perspective. By way of introduction, Mark kindly presented me with some ‘L’ plates for being the youngest rider on the ride. I’m looking forward to switching them over to the ‘P’ side once we reach the finish in Perth Luckily for me, Bill had agreed to do the hard yards by speaking first, and he did very well at this. Afterwards, I said my piece, which to be frank I can’t remember much of because my brain was a bit shut down being nervous whilst I was saying it. Apparently it was fairly well-said and everyone was kind enough to congratulate me afterwards.

(slight exaggeration there: I spoke about personally getting stronger from the training for the ride, not being particularly sporty as a youngster, and also encouraging the students to think about their dreams and set some goals to get them on their way to achieving these. But the bit about being nervous is true!)

*Then* the ride was finally under way with an enthusiastic send-off from everyone at NASHS. The students rolled with us for about 5km after which they pulled off (and a good thing too because our first ‘nature-stop’ of the day (one of many) was scheduled fairly soon afterwards and they wouldn’t have wanted to see that!)

Within the first 30kms or so tragedy struck! We went through a patch of road works on some exposed red clay type dirt, which had just been kindly watered down by the road workers for us, resulting in thick, horrible, red mud - all over us and our newly serviced and cleaned bikes (and my spanky new white shoes!). I must admit to feeling slightly off-balance for the rest of the day due to being covered in muck.

The kms passed quickly at first, but then became increasingly slow due to the rising heat. The Support Crew for the Ride put in a stellar effort to assist with keeping our spirits up by providing mucho supplies of water/gatorade/food at each refuel stop, and also some on-the-go fun with guest appearances from an unnamed streaker as well as Superman!

After stopping at Denmark High School along the way also and then doing a few more kms in the pesky heat, we were finally at Walpole. The massage roster was announced, and I got busy with refueling and cleaning my bike before a quick dip in the pool, and then dinner! Just what I needed to set me straight. Dinner was a fun-filled event where we were introduced to the ‘fine’ system: I was fined for my mad bike-cleaning skillz (they’re all just jealous hey), wearing long socks, a certain embarrassing episode in training where I rode in front of a fast-moving car (fair call that one - I was colossally stupid there) and Brett got fined for my efforts reeling him in when we first started dating - funny!

Stats for the day:
Distance: 123.5km
3:58:26 ride time (ave of 31.08km/hr)
1000m of climbing
Ave HR 140bpm (max 179bpm)

FYI an excellent photo account of our travels is online (better than I could ever attempt using the camera on my iPhone!). See these links: Day zero, Monday Evening and Day one) are up with more to come. Also, we got some local media from GWN!

After a quick ride to shake out the legs and an excellent dinner at Rustler’s steakhouse, I’m keen for the ride to start tomorrow.

Hopefully I will be a little as inspiring as our keynote spreaker Gus Irdie was tonight, when I speak at North Albany Senior High School tomorrow.

If you are a fellow human being, and have not yet donated to my ride for this worthy cause, now is the time to step up and contribute - please click here to donate (and please select my name from the list on the right!).

I was feeling good about this race. Despite having only done one solid hills ride recently, I have done a lot of strength and endurance work lately and feel strong as a result. The terrain today suited me, so I was keen to make the most of it. The starting field was about the same as yesterday, with one or two additions and subtractions and my plan was fairly similar too (kind of boring, I know). The weather wasn’t quite the same though with some ominous looking clouds in the distance and slight morning chill to the air, but I paid no attention to that minor detail, to start with.

Starting lineup for the road race

The race started slightly uphill going out of town and everyone took it at a civilised pace, which was unusual (but I wasn’t complaining!). Mel made a little faux attack down the first descent and I stuck on her wheel for the practice of it, even though I could tell she was just having a bit of fun. Sally seemed strong and keen to do some work. But oddly I felt strong too, and capable of doing a more comfortable pace at the front than in the bunch. So when it came my turn to do some work I almost shirked it, but then with a call of ‘do your turn’ (or something) from behind me, I had a go and did. And what do you know? I could do it just fine.

That kind of became the way I rode the whole race. Sure, I rested within the bunch in places (hey, someone had to give, in order for Lorraine to show off her star mountain-goat legs!). And I tried to be judicious about where I did that - namely the descent on the highway leading back into town before the portion of the course that involved Pump Hill. But somehow I still had pretty good legs each time I went to do some work.

The field broke apart both times we did Pump Hill, with Mel and Sarah taking off like rabbits out of a gun, and with interesting results behind them. Both times I cracked a bit, although I recovered better from the first time by TT’ing Bec and myself back to the ‘chase group’ behind Mel and Sarah. The second time I didn’t quite manage to TT myself back on - I got within about 30 meters shortly before everyone kicked for the finish and was finally thwarted by the cars that had gotten in my way on the descent back to town on the back half of the course.  (I ended up crossing the finish line whilst overtaking three cars!).

Fleet managed to secure these puppies in my puny size (39!)

The race was made particularly interesting by the portion of driving rain that occurred - leaving us all soaked through, and also leaving little rivers of water and mud to negotiate in its wake. I wasn’t impressed, as my fancy new shoes got all muddy and wet, but I managed to talk myself into thinking that the rain was good for me and that I loved it - and I really genuinely did!  I would have liked to have been there for the final push to the finish… but not being there has taught me a valuable lesson, so that is worthwhile in its own way.

Overall I had a really enjoyable race, and one of those ‘I love this sport’ kinda days

Bec, Liz, Sally and Lorraine sprinting for 3rd

Final results:
1. Sarah-Jeanne Fraser (Eddy Hollands Bicycle Services/Energy HR)
2. Melissa Hoskins (Plan B)
3. Rebecca Halliday (Fleet Elite)
4. Sally Robbins (Plan B)
5. Liz Leydon (HubRacing)
6. Lorraine Hartland (South Perth Rouleurs)

Bottle of wine Bec gave me - from her 3rd placing!

This race was the last criterium of the season. The course was a challenging one, not due to technical corners, but due to the road surface conditions and the presence of a reasonable hill at the back end of the course leading to an incline towards the finish. The weather conditions were good, and the field numbered well with Sarah-Jeanne Fraser, Mel Hoskins,  Liz Leydon, Bella King, Jess Griffiths (new to WA, from NSW), Cherie Bonasera, Sue Johnson, Kelly Gray, the SPR girls - Lorraine Hartland, Lisa Wood, Jillian Scanlan, Danielle Longworth of Fleet Mandurah, and my Fleet Teammies Holly & Bec, plus perhaps one or two others that I don’t know. Sally Robbins was also scheduled to start, however was unable to due to an injury. Unfortunately her fans didn’t seem to know that - it was quite amusing hearing the loud cheers for her when she wasn’t on the course.

Lining up for the crit start.

I was feeling a bit unsure about this crit. I feel like I need more experience with tactics to ensure that I make the most of terrain that favours me, as this course did. My plan was to watch the others initially to sus out what was going on and then try to make some moves. I did this and made a move twice on the hill leading up to the corner before the finish, however ran out of puff with a lap and a half to go and didn’t catch a wheel when the bunch rolled over me.  I chased to the end, but ended up simply providing a windbreak for Bella. On de-brief after the race I learned that I was sort of doing the right thing, just going in the wrong spot. Oh well, that’s what learning is all about. I probably also shouldn’t have spent the whole race in the big chain ring too. That hill really hurt the last couple times I did it, probably mostly due to my poor choice of gear.

Leading up the hill in the crit.

Final results:

1. Melissa Hoskins (Plan B)
2. Jessica Griffiths (NSWIS)
3. Sarah-Jeanne Fraser (Eddy Hollands Bicycle Services/Energy HR)
4. Rebecca Halliday (Fleet Elite)
5. Liz Leydon (HubRacing)
6. Lorraine Hartland (South Perth Rouleurs)