2012, the year of the London Olympics!
It’s finally 2012, the year of the London Olympics!
I’m very happy to finally start a new year. The start to 2012 was very aggressive with hard racing from January 1st in 45 degree heat! Welcome to Australia in January!
My doctors didn’t predict I’d be in racing form by January – post surgery mid November. What can I say? I must have had a great surgeon! I had a surgical ITB release mid November and was racing 6 weeks later. I’d completed 3 weeks training and managed 3 top 5 finishes (from 4 races) at the Bay Criterium series, Jan 1st -4th.
In general, all 5 of the BikeExchange.com.au Dream Team riders were a little under prepared on January 1st for various reasons. So, we’re very motivated and determined to get back into winning form for next January’s Bay Criterium Series. We can make it a small priority to be super fit in January as we wont need to worry about a massive peak at the end of July for a slightly more important event!
As much as I love winning the Bay Crit Series in January I needed to keep reminding myself why I elected to go under a general aneasthetic when my fellow Australian competitors were toughing out mega sessions at training camp! The reason is simple, I didn’t want to have any niggles between now and the games, I didn’t want to put off fixing something that had the potential to minimize my power during training or races in the lead-up to London.
The surgery seems to have been a success. I’ve not had any indication of ITB friction since going under the knife. In addition, I have been completely injury and niggle free since! It feels so nice to finally be training and racing without any restrictions or discomfort on the bike, or afterwards.
During my 10 year career as a professional cyclist I’ve taken being injury free for granted. After spending 6 months on and off the bike post accident with a number of issues I now appreciate my bodie’s amazing resilience & ability to heal! Luckily, I’ve only ever had injuries caused by crashes which only involved a little lost skin and broken bones which never saw me off the bike longer than a couple of weeks!
Ah, ok, I think everyone has heard enough on the topic of my horrific accident and injuries. We can now hope to hear nothing but race reports and updates!
As far as 2012 goes, there’s not too much more to report. I’m in Sydney skipping the hype and races at Tour Down Under in order to catch up on base kilometres (4-5hr rides) that I was unable to do in November/December.
I have a recovery day scheduled for next Monday so I could pop down to Adelaide Sunday afternoon to catch up with some of my international sponsors! I’ll then need to be in Melbourne on Monday for some meetings before getting back to business in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon.
The women’s Tour of Qatar will be my next race, starting on February 1st.