UCI Time Trial Rottnest Island 2012

Thursday, Mar 22, 2012 at 18:00

TriathlonOz - David

Wow, what a great day we had over at Rottnest today for the UCI Time Trial race. The weather was almost perfect (expect for the south easterly) and the event was much better organised this year and had a real professional feel to it.

To start our journey we got up 5:30am and had a quick bite and drove down to Fremantle to catch the 7:30 ferry. Well the day at this point was not shaping up real well as there was no ticket for Michelle and I nor about 5 others that had pre-paid and booked. So little hassle was averted by one the CIC Events staff who managed to get us on the Ferry and over to Rottnest on time.

I did not worry about covering up the bike frame and wrapping it up instead just handed it to the guys to load hoping that all would be well. Last year I wrapped a blanket around the bike and stuffed around trying to protect it, but in reality the guys looked after these bikes well and respected the value. So if you are doing this race in future just trust the guys to load and unload your gear and avoid having to lug blankets, tape and other stuff around.


We made it to the Island at around 8:10 and headed to the registration area via the toilets. When we arrived at the registration area we could see a start lane all fenced off, a start ramp, about 8 wind trainers provided and set-up for our use. Wow! This was impressive compared to last year. There were constant broadcasts and helicopters flying over head taking photos, it created a real professional feel.

After registration Michelle and I put on our TriathlonOz Trisuits and went out for a warm up ride. Michelle was not racing today, she was my most valued support crew and her being around made the whole day so much better (thanks love). The starts had been put back 10 mins so my start time was 10:8am. We headed out on the course making sure to keep out of the way of the racers coming through as the race had started. We headed out to the loop section of the course about 7kms and turned around and headed back into the wind. Bugga the wind was not so nice and was going to effect the race times, but it was the basically same for everyone.


When we got back to the start area the race was in full swing with almost all the wind trainers in use. I managed to get onto one as a racer headed to the start line. I did about 20 mins on the trainer until 10 mins before my allocated start time. This gave me time to pumped up the tyres one last time and the usual last minute things. But things went chaotic suddenly... my name was being called - bleep I still had over 5 mins by my watch. I started to head off towards the starting block no more than 30m away and saw another rider leave the blocks. Then I heard my name called again twice and then it was "David Martin, you've got 30 seconds or we go to the next rider". Oh, not fair... I picked up my bike and ran as fast as I could (that got the adrenalin and heart going for sure) and climbed up the stairs to the ramp holding my bike up, jumped on, held the side rails and tried to clip in, try to get computer ready, all a bit of a stress! When I was "almost" ready the started said "go!" Darn, my upper foot was in the wrong position and I could not push - it seemed to take ages to get moving (in reality about 2-3 secs) and Michelle later said it looked like I was about to ride off the ramp for a moment, but I got it together just in time and was away. Lucky I was not wearing a HRM as it may have shown a heart rate of 120% or something scary.

The first half of the course was with a tail wind. I was moving well for the first half with the computer giving me an average of around 46km/hr and max speed of 68km/hr. I passed a few other riders which always helps the ego. There was one incident where I took a corner a little too fast and nearly had a drama but I managed to slow down and get around and just then the photographer took my photo damn. I wondered why he was there - it seem a spot where you would not look in top position on your bike, more likely trying to avoid a fall, (we found out later one of the ladies did fall her and it was an awesome action photo, and she still won the ladies race with a dislocated shoulder).

Once I moved into the second half of the race the wind and the undulations around the back of the island started to bring my speed down. I was tiring and about 3-4 kms from the end I started to cramp in my legs. I was then passed by a young guy flying along and decided to not lose him. I managed to stay within about 50m of him all the way to the end.
I crossed the line fairly stuffed in 29:03 an average of 40.5km.hr. I was a little disappointed at 29 as I really wanted to be in the late 27s to 28. But that is how it went, I gave it what I had on the day and am happy to have finished with this time.



For full race results see UCI Time Trial Results 2012.

After the race Michelle and I snuck off for a swim at the Basin before coming back just in time for the presentation lunch. The lunch was at the hotel and was a well set-up affair however the only real issue with the day was the food - the bbq food was not cooked and the salads and drinks service was slow. Mind you, the food went on for ages because it took that long to get it cooked. But apart from that a good day overall. We meet some nice people and enjoyed our day out of the office.
If it's not hurting your not tri'ing!
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David Martin
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