Hey everyone,

Apologies for not blogging for a while. Silly internet issues.

Anyway last time I wrote I was preparing for the Nationals. Overall training went really well and I felt I was ready to have a good race.

The first thing I notice when I arrived in Ballarat was the tempreture!!! It was stinking hot. In a way I was alright with that because of all the training I had done in the heat back home in Brisbane.

Come race day the heat was really on and the wind had died down. Our race was scheduled to start at 11am which meant we would be racing in the hottest part of the day.

I got myself a good starting position and we were off. Legs felt good, positioned well. About 1km into the race I peared over the riders in front of me. I noticed a group going off the front and also noticed that the peleton wasn't going to react. Well I did.

Holy cow did I have to shovel to get to the break. I held something like 430watts for about 6 minutes which is massive for me. This break was really moving. The 1st lap my NP was about 353watts (current FTP 340). The 2nd lap the climbs again were hit with gusto. Not as much as the 1st lap but still enough to pump out 390 watts. I was getting worried as I know I don't have that kind of fire power to maintain that pace. I backed off on the 2nd climb, got dropped however I calmly tempo'd back on.

The peleton felt that this break wouldn't last so they were happy to tap around. Well that cost them as by lap 4 we had a 7 minute lead!!! A 7 minute lead in that heat with 10 guys in the break, well it started to look like the break would have it. Speaking of heat, the on road tempreture recorded was 47 degrees!!! The tar was even melting!! Oh how good where the cold water bidons and the panty hose with ice in them. Such a treat!!!!

Unfortunately for me on lap 7 my legs just failed me. I hadn't had that sensation in a while where they just felt dead. I was so dissappointed as by that stage the pace of the break was easy. It was just like I trained back home, a good tempo that I knew I could hold.

In the end the break did stay away and filled the 1st 5 positions. The peleton reacted too late and there was not enough horsepower in there to bring the break back. Who would have thought that a break that went in km 1 of a 170km road race on a course like that and in that heat would survive.

I felt I made the right decision but who would have predicted the insane pace of those 1st 2 laps. It was ridiculous!!

So now I have taken the approach that I have some good training under my belt which has set me up well for this year. Which reminds me I will have to blog to fill you in on what is happening this year. Hopefully I can do this in the next couple of weeks as the final preps for the team are being completed at the moment.

Cheers.