Marina Duvnjak

 

Geelong tour = 2 days, 3 stages! 180km total

 

Day 1 stage 1= 8 km time trial, standard bike. Out and back course, it was pretty windy this morning. Head wind out and tail/side wind back1 nothing major to report. Finished mid field

 

Day1 stage 2= 75km Road race, 3 laps of a pretty darn flat circuit. The wind was a major factor today! The plan was to help Serena move up to 3^rd in the U23 grade and give it a go for a stage win! Plan 1 achieved as Serena picked up 3 seconds through one of the sprints, and we tried to set up for a stage finish, but didn’t quite have the legs to finish it off. The last 8km was a massive tail wind and while the lead-out trains were going 60km/hr it was pretty hard to do anything major, and I finished in the bunch!

 

Day 2 last stage= 95km 6 laps of a 15km circuit. Again a pretty windy day, no major climbs. The last 5 km or so were up hill but with a massive tail wind we were still going over 55km/hr … Personally I felt like complete crap! My job was to start being aggressive after the 4^th lap, and I did give it a crack a couple of times but nothing that stuck! On the last lap I was starting to lose focus a bit and found myself stuck a little further back then I should have been, about 8km to go and of course it was strung out and there was a crash which I managed to be behind… anyway I finished just behind the bunch safe and in one piece!!

 

The team did ok considering not having radios this year which made communication a little harder, and thank god we all finished in one piece!! Last year we had a slight disaster where I think every member of the team crashed at least once if not twice in this tour!!

 

Saturday we had a day away from racing, which included a 1.5hr recovery ride going over the course for the Sunday World Cup. Then we had a chance to look around a couple of shops in town and I’m quite proud to say I only spent $20 …. Not bad for a girl!!

 

Sunday! World Cup day!! 115km 8 laps

Well the team goal was to get at least 2 of us in the top 20, as the UCI points go to 20^th spot. We were to look after ourselves till the last couple of laps, as that’s when the hammer goes down and it really counts! This year started off a little quicker then in the past, right on the first lap there were attacks and the pace was pretty high!! On the 2^nd lap there was a split in the bunch and a group of 9 or so got away, pretty much every team was represented, and I was in there too! There were only about 7 6 of us that were working, no radio on me, so I had no idea what the time gap was (apparently we got to around 2 min) or what was happening in the main peleton! I knew that Team High Road rider(ex T-mobile) was sitting on us and that probably meant that sooner or later they were going to shut it down, and they did after about 2.5laps, once we got caught by the main bunch about 20 sec later I got a flat, so a quick change and off I went, then had to stop again as the spokes were about to rip out my sensor, once that was all sorted I got back in the pack!!

Think the next couple of laps I was just trying to recover and maybe cover a few moves, but what I didn’t realise that there were 2 riders up the road clocking up some serious time on the peleton! Apparently at one point had almost 7 min on the us! Oops…. Anyway long story shot-ish….. Again everyone waited for Team High Road to chase it all down, and they did, they brought it back to 2 min or so, in 2 laps….. But not quite enough… I blew on the last climb and was out of the pic for the sprint. The team did pretty well, 17^th and 23^rd were our top 2.

 

Righto, that’s all for now, will write more when I get to Wellington (doing a 5 day tour starting on Wednesday…eeeeeeekkkk)) !! Hope the internet there‘s cheaper then $24 for a day!!! What a rip!!!

Have fun and will try write in next day or two!

See you

Marina J

Gidday from Geelong!!!

 

My week has started off pretty full on!! Monday was a slight panic, 3 houses 4 offices to clean, quick trip to the bank, the bike shop, mamas house, pack bike and bag …… man I was pretty shattered! Managed to finally get to sleep by about 11.15pm…

 

Tuesday started off at 4.40am, drive to the airport!!! Could I just say, I think I’m the worlds best packer, for a girl… All up I had 25kgs!!! Bike and everything (1set of wheels)!! I should get a medal just for that!!

Anyway, when we arrived at Melbourne airport it was insane, we got through customs ok, the usual lines, but it took about 2.5 hrs to get the luggage and make our way through baggage customs (after schmoozing and smiling politely at one of the officers to let the whole team through the separate x-ray machines, otherwise it would have been another hour) J It was insane, I have never seen the airport that busy! People were trying to play dumb and the old “no speak english ” card! After standing in line for that long it was like “nah mate back of the line’s that way” as you point to the 400people waiting behind you!! Suckers!!!!! Haha…

 

Anyhow, the drive from Melbourne airport to Geelong is about an hour!! Pretty sweet, pity the 12 seater van had NO windows that opened in the back!! It was soooo hot, think it was over 34degrees!! Once we arrived at the accommodation it was straight to unpacking and going for 1,5hr spin! By 15 min I’d gone through a whole bottle, so had to ration out the other one, within half hour though the water in the bottles was that warm it was like sipping on plastic tasting tea. I’m rooming with Brei , and that night her and I were in bed at 8.30 absolutely shattered, woke up 12 hrs later!! I hadn’t had a sleep like that in months!! Magic!!

 

Wednesday was a different story, raining, and freaking cold, I didn’t bring my thermal jacket, so had to pile on whatever I could find! A thermal, 2 jerseys and a windbreaker, booties, arm and knee warmers! We got soaked! Of course in the mid afternoon it cleared up, but it was only like 17-18degrees!! Last night I was freezing, slept with my skins and jumper on….only had this thin wannabe blanket and sheets!!! I forgot how random the weather can be here!!!

 

We’re staying at the same campground we were in 2 years ago, and I was dreading trying to squeeze myself into the tiny beds! But as we discovered this year not all cabins are the same! Last time there were 4 of us per room! 1 queen bed in the double room and 1 tiny room with 2 bunks the length of the room which were as long as I was tall as I could hardly lie straight!! Even tiny little Brei was struggling with the microscopic bed! Dale opted to sleep on a mattress under the kitchen table as the we were probably gonna suffocate to death otherwise!! And lucky Kara had the queen!! This year we are spoilt, only 2 per cabin , same queen bed but the bunks are massive!! We so got rolled last time!! Hehehe…..

 

Anyway we have started racing , but I think I will write about that separately. There is not much to do here!! So I’m trying to spread out my computer time!!!

Have fun!! And hope you’re all having fun!!

Over

Hi there!!

 

Well here it is, an update on the last couple of weeks….

 

Last week’s been pretty hectic for me! Loads of work on and a fair bit of racing on too!!

 

I ended up racing the B-grade crit at North Harbour on the Tuesday evening and even though I felt like complete crap ended up winning it!! Funny!! I Was absolutely smashed had to clean like 4 houses that morning, but it made me feel good finally winning something!!

 

Wednesday was a quiet recovery ride thank god. Well it was supposed to be endurance but I could barely manage 2.5 hrs oops!!. Thursday I did the tank farm crit. I started with the A-grade, again feeling like crap the plan was to sit in and try loosen the legs up to try and have a good ride on Friday night. Well I started off ok, sat in for about 15 min and felt pretty good then treid to go with an attack and, boooom!! Gone!! Hahah … I was outta there!! Legs were huuurting pretty bad, lucky I still had to ride home!! Not!! It took me forever to get home, it was that dark I had to ride on the footpath as I didn’t bring lights!  You would have thought that the pink and white kiwivelo kit and the bike would be glowing enough though but not quite!!! 

 

Friday Night was the Takapuna Grand Prix!! And somehow I’ve managed to do pretty well at this race winning it in 2005& 2006. First time was probably a fluke and a bit of luck, 2^nd time was pretty darn cool!! So 3^rd time would have been bloody wicked!! The race was rather short only 20min this year, Anyway, I ended up 2^nd, Toni Bradshaw, Emmap Peterson and myself got away after a sprint, about 15 min into so there wasn’t much time to do anything really .. (secretly stoked as I felt like I was towing a fridge) I had nothing in my legs for a sprint and had to settle for 2^nd! Slightly disappointing,! I must say I was kinda surprised when I received the prize money, from what I understood we were racing for $1000, (up from the $500 from last year) anyway, I ended up with $150 for 2nd…apparently it was cut to $300 for the win..hmmmm L not quite fair I think!!

 

Anyway, Bev May Tour was on the Saturday and Sunday, I have no idea how I finished the tour. My goal was to have a good hard tour!! Man I was hurting right from the start! The Saturday morning stage was cut short to 50km, but it felt like it was 120km, the legs were sore right from the gun! I managed to chuck in a few attacks but nothing eventuated, and finished in the bunch!

2^nd stage was a 21km TT,not quite my specialty so nothing major to report, I still tried but wasn’t exactly going to smash myself. Think I got 12^th so not too bad!!

 

Sunday was a pretty hard day, the morning stage went from 80km to 95km in the end and as a few of us agreed to work together and see if Tones could get her double win!! So when a break of 4 went up the road of Tones, Rush, Emma Crum and Karen Fulton we were pretty happy with that and it made the current tour leader the young powerhouse Rachel Mercer do a fair bit of chasing!! And man can she go!!! I think most of the girls would agree that while she was doing the hard work we were rather sore trying to keep up!! Heheh.. Anyway, beside the 4 up the road and 5out of the 8 that were in my bunch sliding out about 5 km from the finish, nothing else to report! (they were all fine, tough wee cookies)

 

The last stage was the criterium! Tones and Rush were within the reach of the Yellow, so the plan was to have at least one of them up the road and claim the tour!! Tones needed 8 sec, easy!! After a few attacks her and I established a pretty good gap, think we had about 1.20min in the end! Cool huh!! Bit of team work!! Felt pretty good finally being able to help her out! That woman is a hammer in Europe and has saved my butt soo many times!! Cheers mate!! In the end Tones got the tour win for the 2^nd time and the stage win!! Woohoo!! I felt pretty darn good too, I was bloody sore but kept pushing it right to the end… so it was nice to finish on a good note!!

 

The week ended up pretty long, after the tour drove straight back to Auckland and had to work couple of hours! So slept like a baby Sunday night!! .. I have definitely paid for it this week. Basically I’ve had 4 days off the bike and a couple of rides, and only just starting to feel slightly better! Think I might have been taking on a bit much and didn’t quite realize I was starting to burn out!! Either that or I just gotta get some toughen up pills!! Hehe

 

I’m off to Geelong on Tuesday morning with the NZ team to race in the 2 day tour and the first round of the World cups!! So fingers crossed everything goes well!! Hope everyone’s good and having fun.

 

 

See you!!

Ok just quick hello and I will do an update  on the Takapuna Grand prix and the Bev May tour in next day or so, haven’t had a chance to sit down and write it all out!!    My bad….  :)!!  Work’s keeping me busy!!! 

Hpe everyone’s having fun!! See you!!! 
Marina