A candid narrative on how to fail to achieve objectives – by Nick.

 

 20km ITT at Champion Lakes, or as it seems to be known around here a bit, Chump-ion Lakes. 

 

 Declan and I withstood the taunts to fly the flag for SPR. With two hard core individuals out of 84 the circuit was awash with the green machines and big engines that are representative of SPR. Pity that flying the flag meant that it also almost blew away. Not the first time Seabreeze.com was ominously “on the money” with the forecast looking good for extreme kite-surfing conditions.

 

 So….5km of reliably wind blown bike path around a man-made lake for people in lycra rowing boats. How hard can it be for fellow lycra clad individuals to bash around on some bikes? (and not kite surf)

 

 Wheel selection played a key part of the day, discs and deep dish seemed to hold peril with 35km/h plus side gusts and a narrow path. My own selection of almost normal wheels seemed to pay dividends, a 50mm carbon tub on the back wheel pretending to help me.

 

 20km and the lure of cracking 40km/h again was the main motivating factor for the day but the slightly technical curves on the south-west leg, and gusts threatening to derail me heading north east were obstacles that everyone (except me) managed to overcome.

 

 This time I have the objective, and the tools to meet these except my legs. Motivating music on the head phones. A wind trainer to warm up. Next time I’ll do the wind trainer up so the bike doesn’t collapse under my weight.

 

 So with sweat on my brow, and 20 seconds to spare, the first of four laps felt great. At least until I had to steer on aero bars…..whoa. …slight wind gusts. And then up over and around again. As always the ability to think disappeared out the back end.

 

 So no crashes, unless you count the two people blown into the bushes, no punctures. Bit of cake at the end, and a cheap can of soft drink. And mindless reassessment of the time I could have done without the wind. 

 

Winners –  Luke Durbridge  25:31min 47km/h average, and missing the record by 2s            

Bella King –   30:05min 39.9km/h and new women’s record

Declan – 37:31min (32km/h ave)  PB (first try at this course actually)                                                   

Nick  –  30:36 min   (39.2km/h ave) PB (same excuse)