Calm after the storm

Well here I am, in a rather large hotel room in Christchurch, with only five hours til a wake-up call for my flight home to Melbourne.

I'm completely bleary-eyed, after two glasses of wine, a bath and a 67km solo breakaway that ended in me winning the Oceania road title by just under nine and a half minutes.

Winning the race was always going to be tricky, with 75% of the field being Kiwis, and the rest all riding as the Australian National team, with their own set of plans and instructions.

So, I did the only thing I could do - attacked solo midway though lap two on the windy, hilly 19km loop.

It was just after Meshy Hall (NZ) had launched off the group to pursue two who were off the front. Alexis Rhodes (AUS) had to chase her down, and as we turned left with a roaring tail wind behind us, I knew I had to go.

I dropped the local who tried to come with me, caught and roared past the two who were away a minute later, and then rode scared for the next 3.5 laps.

I was convinced they'd get organised, despite the small field, and I kept having flashbacks of the same race two years ago when it came down to a bunch sprint after Ruth Corset and a Kiwi had been away for 80km.

So every 10km or so, the official race car gave me time gaps: 2.40 mins at 40km, 3.40 mins at 50km, then out to 8 mins by the last lap. It hailed, it rained and I still thought I could get caught.

By the last 5km of the 95km race, I was flogged, and finally heading downhill to the finish. Very relieved, and with an official start in the Melbourne 2010 Road World Championships.

Local speedster Karen Fulton outsprinted Rohelle Gilmore in the battle for the silver medal and we all tried to get warm in time for the masonic hall medal presentations.

An enormous thanks to:

:: The ebullient and fabulous Oli Brook-White of Roadworks for having the Soloist S2 go as fast as I could make it and being on hand to give bidons and be official photographer.

:: Rob and Bas at Gemini Bicycles for my beautiful Cervélos - if you're going to go solo for 67km, it helps to have the most aero and light road bike!

:: The indefatigueable Donna Rae-Szalinski for putting me through the ringer (in the best possible way) since I got home.

:: National road coach, Martin Barras for destroying me behind the motorbike every week in the Dandenongs - I thought of that on every goddamn hill!

:: Scody for my great race kit.

:: Antho, Dave, Ingrid, Dave and Tanya at CBD cycles for the pre-race servicing and bike love.

:: Rob Eva and Jason Phillips at SRAM.

:: Chris Langdon at Echelon Sports for my new 3T bars and Zipp wheels.

:: Darryl and Steph Griffiths at Shotz sport nutrition.

:: Davide at Italiatech for my splendid SMP saddles.

:: Sheridan and Paul at Oakley.

Next plan of attack is to get a TT spot for Melbourne.

Ciao