Days 17 to 20

Annaliisa here reporting every few days.........

DAY 17 – Monday
Well, what can I say………….it can only get better………….The weather has really turned to C--P, raining cats and dogs and blowing rather nicely. Boy it can rain here……..Anyway, Jayne, Neelu and myself decided to stay here at the hotel for lunch, Gabi was heading for the track for lunch then was going to come back and get ready, we had plenty of time. Gabs was suppose to be picked up at 11:30 – 12 to go and have something to eat then be back in time for getting ready……..1pm she got picked up so decided to stay down at the track. That’s okay. We eventually went and got lunch. We were to be picked up at 2:45pm – the driver didn’t get to us until 3:20pm…………after another 5-10 minutes we were on our way………………..TRAFFIC!!!!!!!!!! Instead of it taking us 20 minutes to get to the Velodrome it took us about 45 minutes at least!!!!!! Time is ticking. Didn’t have the warm up that we needed but hey you make the most of a bad situation. Time to get ready and get up to the track. Neelu was as calm as anything and my heart was doing a million miles an hour……….Away we go, the start was okay but slower than what we expected but the rest of the ride was okay. We did do a PB by about a 10th of a second BUT it is still a PB and under the circumstances I was actually quite pleased, at least we didn’t do any worse. I think we ended up 12th and considering it’s not what we’re here for it wasn’t that bad. At least that gets the bugs out of the system and we’ve got the pursuit on Wednesday to rectify things. As you all know we will be giving it our best shot. Had a very late dinner but that’s nothing unusual either. So, until tomorrow (quiet day) I’ll say cheerio.
DAY 18 – Tuesday
The day has dawned wet wet wet but now is starting to turn out quite nice. There is a good wind blowing and it is considerably cooler than it has been. Bit of a shame but that’s life. Today we are going to have a quiet ride on the wind trainer as I don’t want either of us to catch a chill, then once we’ve showered we will be going to the Velodrome for lunch and enjoy a bit of racing. We are looking forward to that. Just to get out of the hotel will be good. You start getting a bit of cabin fever. Will report back later.
Well, we did what I said we would……it was a good quiet ride on the trainer. The food was very nice at the Velodrome and the racing was good. It was the men’s LC1, LC2, LC3 and LC4 racing today. I think maybe the CP category was racing as well but not 100% sure on that. The LC categories are people with missing limbs/hands/feet. It is really amazing with the leg amputees as to how many different types of prosthetics (artificial limbs) there are. Well, almost time for dinner – again…….I love food……..
DAY 19 – Wednesday
Had a good sleep last night. We got our gear ready to head down to the track. We were on time today if not early which was wonderful. Feeling quite happy, confident of a good time (PB at least). We got set up, had a look around, had a chat to a few people and generally relaxed which was more than what happened two days ago. Started our warm up, that was going well then I got told by one of the Aussie girls that we were more than likely going to be started out of the starting gates…….oh dear, have never done that on a tandem…….didn’t really like the sounds of it. Brian went and queried it and yes we would be starting out of the gates. At least the organizers could have let everyone know way prior to the Champs then at least we could have been practicing it………never mind, they let us all have a go first before our event started. I must say that Neelu and I were nervous – I don’t really like the gates even on a single bike – but once we were in them and they counted down verbally it was fine and we have a good start out of them. That put our minds to rest. Gabs and Jayne were happy too. We then had to recommence our warm up. Time to line up. Our start wasn’t the greatest but it’s a 50/50 with starting at times. We went onto the blue for a split second but that was okay, it didn’t faze me. We completed the first lap, into the second – 18.2 – oh, a little bit fast, 2nd lap 18.1, okay, maybe we can hold this for awhile and come out of it alright – in a word……no. The last four/five laps were not good. We lost way too much time. Ended up with a 3:56:762ish. Very disappointing. I know were are better than that and it was disappointing. The girls were up and they ended up with a 3:56:607ish. So, not a very good day on the track at all. Paula did get Silver for the pursuit and Fiona ended up 4th in her pursuit final. So at least there was some success on the track. Back to the hotel after the medal ceremony, dinner, cupper green tea and to bed in the time out room.
DAY 20 – Thursday
Had an excellent sleep last night. Woke and went to breakfast. We had arranged with the Gabs and Jayne that we’d ride out to the road course, do a lap then ride back home. Before we got going it started to rain…….I hate going out in the rain………I don’t mind too much if I get caught in it on the way home on a ride but to go out in the rain it really narks me. I must say though, once we got going it was actually quite warm so it wasn’t too bad after all. Feet got extremely wet – hate that. Back for a shower then down to the velodrome for lunch. It was very nice but noisy. Back to the hotel and now we are resting till dinner time. It gets a bit monotonous all this resting, especially when you are used to working and training almost every day. It will be good to get the Road T/T done then get our teeth into the road race. With any luck it won’t be raining on the day as the course will be pretty darn nasty. Well, I’m going to go and have a leg massage then to dinner it is. I swear all we are doing is eating. That’s what it feels like……Caio