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Tour of Geelong (or Why Riding A Tour Is Much Like Christmas)
Wait… I know what you’re thinking. Bear with me…
As an incentive to keep reading, here are some FACTS. Last weekend was the Tour of Geelong, the latest round of the National Road Series. Team VIS was reduced to 3 riders due to injury (Roy), overseas commitments (Jojo) and last-minute call ups to So You Think You Can Dance (others). The tour was taken out by Bec Wiesak who showed that living through a Canberra Winter is no obstacle to good form. Loren Rowney won the Stomper Jersey for 2 stage wins, although we are still awaiting confirmation from officials that there was no motor hidden in her bionic elbow. And VIS’s own Kendelle Hodges won the Top Chick award for coming 2nd on GC with a blistering TT on the new Apollo beasts.
Kendelle about to unleash the fury (don't let the smile fool you)
The Tour of Geelong was my first race since early May. Why? Because I missed the taste of my own blood in the back of my mouth, and racing 95km of hills around Anakie while fit sounded way too easy. There was also a hip injury involved, but mostly it was the blood in the back of my mouth thing. Since my year has been so disrupted by injury, racing has taken on a special form. It has happened so rarely that it reminded me of something else that happens only once a year. So here goes…
Why Tour Riding Is Like Christmas
The last-minute shopping
Regardless of how prepared you are, in the days leading up to a tour you will suddenly find a bazillion things you need. You can guarantee that this will be the time that batteries die and cables break. Luckily though, this not being Christmas Eve you can usually find a shop open and someone less stressed than you to help.* And the food shopping! Don’t forget the food shopping!
*Incidentally, thank you to Will and John at Bicycle Superstore Flemington for finding me a new TT saddle, measuring me up and glueing 2 new race tyres last week. Thank you also to Jared and Ben at Apollofor performing emergency surgery on my cable router and replacing my rear cassette bearings. And thanks to Ryan Moody, mechanic extraordinaire, for prepping everything else. You get the picture…
Everyone is excitable
Tour riding brings out a strange polarization of emotions reserved usually for occasional and intense family gatherings. You will laugh, you will cry, and someone will insist on not being photographed with their hair like that. And you’ll suddenly notice a jolly fat man appearing everywhere, at the start of every stage, making a list and checking it twice.
Getting excitable with 2 laps to go in the crit
You can’t sleep
Because SO MUCH IS HAPPENING TOMORROW! Then you wake up during the night and keep checking your alarm to see how much longer you have left to sleep. Then you wake up stupidly early and watch crappy morning talkshows or Video Hits just to distract you from the chaos that is about to unfold.
You forget what to do
Somehow, between Christmases, you forget all the hard work involved, how tiring it is and how many times in your head you want to give up and go live in a cave. It had been so long since I’d last raced that I was all out of practice and it took me about 3 hours to work out how many gels I needed. If I didn’t have a supercoach and mechanic running after me I probably would have forgotten my bike.
Luckily for me, Chloe hadn't forgotten what to do
You get to eat ridiculous amounts of food
Better yet, someone’s mum will cook up an awesome lasagne and feed you cupcakes and raspberry and white chocolate muffins.
You put your ‘special’ on
THIS is the time to crack out your favourite socks.
TTs are the perfect time to put your special on. Special bike, special wheels, special helmet... so much special I could barely contain myself
You get presents!
At the Tour Donna bought me a banana. I don’t know where she got the money but it was AMAZING. Like Christmas, I unwrapped it too quickly and in a second it was gone.
Thanks to Jarrod Partridge from JXP Photography and Jules from Team XOSize for the pics
"We have a very competitive team for the Tour de France, that will be able to challenge everyone in every situation," said Sports Director Wilfried Peeters. "We will try to race aggressively just like we did last year. The first week of the competition is very interesting. Some of the arrivals perfectly fit the characteristics of our riders. Generally speaking anyway the Tour, throughout the three weeks, always offers good chances to shine for riders who attack like Chavanel, Pineau, Devenyns and Terpstra. We will try to keep up with those who break away from the peloton, and we'll do everything we can to win a stage, this being our main goal for the race. We will also have riders like Boonen, Ciolek and Steegmans in our team, who will be able to try and win sprints should the occasion arise. They will also try different winning solutions in other circumstances. The team will support De Weert in any case in the most difficult stages, and whenever necessary. Engels will be the one to support De Weert mainly, being a rider with great experience. De Weert's main objective will be to try and further improve his placement compared to his last Tour de France. We have an expert and motivated team in general, with everyone being well-aware of their role and tasks. We start this Tour de France in the best possible conditions, both physically and mentally."
Stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia was taken out in exemplary style yesterday, with Mark Cavendish stomping home for the win – almost a bike length ahead of closest rival, Davide Apollonio from Team Sky. The 184km stage from Castelfirdado to Ravenna was hotly contested by an aggressive peloton, but HTC Highroad kept their cool for the entire stage, with the end result placing Cavendish over the line first.
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I get very attached to my bikes. We all do. Whether they are a prize-winning race pony, a ‘project’ bike that you tinker on, or your weekday commuting companion, every bike has a special meaning for its owner.
