Message #1756

[Gai M]

Now that I have packed the car, driven to Neath, unpacked the car and before I mount the ergo, I will take a few minutes to reply to some comments.


dr-rob:

I always look forward to competing against my age group, but there are few women of my vintage.  How do you think I scored a rainbow shirt?  Few older women road race, even fewer do track and even less dare to sprint.  I am not quite the oldest woman trackie in NSW but am probably the slowest- despite my efforts, not just in races but training too. 
It was a great experience at DISC in Melbourne in the recent Aust Masters Track Champs, to see the efforts made to ensure my participation was appreciated.  The officials were willing to "bend the rules" and not pull me out if I got lapped in the scratch race.  Fortunately, I was only 50 metres behind the others at the finish.  Being lapped competing against W50+ or W45+ occurs too frequently for my liking.  Being lapped isn't the real problem, it is the fact that you have to pull out of the race completely.  This national scratch race comprised only one W65+, one W60+ and two of us W55+.  Only two of us contested the sprint the following day, against W50, W45 and W40.  Needless to say, we didn't get past the Flying 200,s

As for your struggling at training.  If I am not mistaken, were you seen recently  riding round the velodrome with a disc wheel?  And who was it who kept accelerating in the warm-up every time he was on the front last Tuesday.

Equipment:  When I picked Brian Radcliffe's track bike last year, I could not believe how much lighter it was than mine.  He is in the same age category as I am.

 And as far as I understand, the most important thing to invest in is rotating mass if one has any spare spending money.

Unfortunately, I generally have to compete in inappropriate age-groups because of the lack of women who will compete.  So last year I was outclassed on Wednesday nights, the Christmas carnival in Sydney, The CD champs- had to attempt to race two scratch races against elite men- and the NSW Masters champs where there are some world class W50 and W45.

And of course, I am not getting any younger at Broadmeadow.



Robbo:

I was quite satisfied with the last few training sessions in that  I was not pitched against riders well beyond my abilities. 

As for DB's training comments.  I clearly remember the quotes you cited.  Jack, of course, had it coming to him because he persisted in doing his own thing.  But DB actually liked him.  You probably didn't hear DB give me a lot of encouragement.  But he knew more than anyone else how much effort I put into training/racing.  He would from time to time quietly let me know that I had done well that night.  And when championships were looming , he would be quite enthusiastic getting me to do  numerous standing starts etc. 

As for financial contributions, I don't think anyone comes to training more frequently than I do, unless they have private sessions.  Of course those with multiple participants per family  will have paid more.  Or anyone wealthy enough to make donations.   

The comment about money was just an afterthought.  No big deal as long as I am not overlooked at training.