Really happy after being promoted to B Grade and looking forward to my first race the Tuesday after the Easter long weekend.  I rode heaps over the long break (increased the hill training a lot) to get a lot of kms in before my first race.  Unfortunately on the Easter Sunday, 6 kms from home I managed to crash in probably the most gumby accident I’ve had.  It was kind of a series of events that led to it… my rear derailleur shifter cable snapped, throwing me into the 11 cog about 10kms from home, at the 6km mark I asked my friend who I was riding with if he could lead up a slight incline to give me a wind break because my legs (after 82kms of hill climbing) were a bit sore.  He did, I was so keen for any advantage at that stage I was following too closely and when he got out of the saddle to get up the hill, I rubbed his rear tyre and… bang.  I hit my hip hard, elbow and shoulder and my hip is still swollen now – a week later.  I missed the race Tuesday, which despite the pain I was still a bit keen to go on, but my bike was in no shape and was still at the shop getting fixed.  

Back on the bike Friday and Saturday a bit, only 60kms between the two days and raced B Grade Sunday… needless to say I got thumped.  When they say ‘go’ in B – they GO… average speed ended up being a bit over 41km/h and unlike C Grade, when they say 3 laps to go, they don’t settle back and recover for the sprint, they ramp it up 110% and I nearly died.  Finished about 20th and just happy to finish the race with the bunch and not come last…  I don’t know if it’s my hip or if B Grade really is that much faster. 

I marshalled in C grade afterwards for extra training… I was so tired from the B Grade race I got dropped as a marshal at 3 to go!  Pretty bad – but good training all the same. 

Off to the final race at Sandown for the season tonight… Will be interesting to see how hard B grade is around the track I find toughest.