Qualifying race for UCI World Masters Cycling Tour – Rottnest Island, Perth WA - Race report by Jennifer Sammons

Written by Jennifer Sammons

A few months ago, UCI announced the World Masters Cycling Tour for amateurs. I could not believe it when Perth succeeded in getting a qualifying race to be held on Rottnest Island, a 30 minute ferry ride from our mainland -no cars, just quokkas (cute little marsupial that likes humans), snakes and lots of pedestrians and people on bikes.

There we all were at the ferry with our bikes, some in hard cases, and various variations on a theme of mummified TT bikes – bubble plastic, blankets you name it!  As I got off the ferry the drawstring bag containing my aero helmet decided to let loose of my bag and was on the gang plank headed for the drink, when a lovely lady (non-cyclist) grabbed it saying that was close. Mmmm, not a good start. That would have cost me 30 seconds for sure!

The course: 18km technical course with corners, curves, the one nasty S bend, a turn with a camber that could deceive, and fantastic coastal view to distract! The roads were devoid of vehicles but just two scheduled buses, and recreational cyclists holidaying on the island.

The race:  field of 5 women in my age group (55-59 years), including Julia Emblin from Queensland, and our own local talent Deb Visentin from Bunbury. The reigning world champ in our age group, Lorraine Schutz, was not available to race that day due to other commitments.

The start line miraculously got set up 10 minutes before the race. I never did get to see the finish line prior to the race. It was somewhere up the road. I took off from the start line, giggling having sat on Henk Vogels Junior’s hands for about 15seconds, as I did not want to use up any Quads at the start line J. I went off with a nice gear crunch (hence the smile on the photo) and settled down for business on my TT bars. MMM a bit of local traffic like pedestrians, kids on bikes but cool, they are staying left!

I got past the first V in the road, kept right, then a sick feeling came over me that I should have gone left! I knew NOT to turn around i.e. ignore the demons of the directionally challenged! (been there, done that before!). OK girl “stay calm, focus and ride like hell”. What is that power meter saying wattage wise? Oh that’s cool, I am destined to blow up at this wattage! Well, to qualify for Belgium I need to win this race and so it is just going to have to be guts on the road today! Nothing to lose, everything to gain! I practised trying to blow up the last two races of this distance and failed so let’s go!

Here comes the dreaded S bend, let’s get off the bars and play it safe. I later found out the guy I had warned about this bend went off the road there.  Luckily, he was grossly intact but his front fork snapped on impact and that was the end of his race).

So, is that a snake or a goanna on the road up ahead? Oh, just a goanna and he is headed for the bush like a good reptile should. OK the dreaded wide, right hand turn I previewed, is just ahead , but now there is an orange cone on the turn – I say to myself – OK, I am back in Aus, therefore stay to the left rather than the right as in the US. Either way, not a pretty turn, too wide but hey, I didn’t go off the road!

Over the back of the island, there were some nasty, short little hills. Time to suffer and attack each one like there was no tomorrow. OK, time to put on the after burners. 5 km to go and pretty flat now. So where is that finish line? Surely it must be soon!

Full throttle to the line, but oh dear, why is that official sticking her hand out down that little road on the left? Started at orange bollards, finish at them too? Which way should I go........on starting a turn to the left, the crowd started to yell and only then did it become clear that the big inflatable arch was there for a reason, so I aborted the turn got the bike straight and sailed under the arch. Oh, the cognitive challenges of a TTist at the end of a race!

The result: I never look at a board after a race. This one was written up in yellow fluoro pen on a whiteboard so I am glad that Pete looked for me!  I was first, with Deb in second place (-5secs) and Julia in third place (-9secs). Phew! I was the lucky girl on the day amongst some really talented ladies. Every second did count! There certainly were some challenges we had to endure in terms of the course, that were not under anyone’s control.

At the end of the day, only the top 10% qualify to go to Belgium, so I am on the list. Hopefully, this rule will get revised as we head towards the September championship and others may qualify too.

Thanks to David from Cycling-Inform for being such a great coach in terms of technique and mentoring. This result was beyond my wildest dreams!

Jenny