My first crash with a Roadbike

With the goal in my mind to get really fit again and to get back into the 2009 racing season, I had an early start this morning to go out for a morning road ride. But while turning around the corner I saw myself going down besides a standing car .
I went over my handlebars and came to an abrupt halt in the gutter.
I couldn't explain myself what had happend when a passenger got out of the car and picked up a round stick from the ground that looked like a cut off broome stick. I was really lucky to get away with bruises and(unfortunately) a dint in the top tube of my roadbike. I much more prefer to crash with my Mountainbike and have a softer landing...

In agony!

...after 10 months without training, I decided to take part in the toughest Marathon race Australia has to offer - the Otway Odyssey !
Well, I had a ball last year and managed to finish top ten, but this year...
It's been 11 Months since my last race and I probably thought I could just plug in a memory stick and ride along with the other girls the same way I did before. Not that I expected to be competitive but I didn't think I would have to suffer so much and for every km in the 100km race.
I ended up within a group of riders, which got off their bikes on every single steep looking climb, blogging of the trails for riders going past.
Walking was the only option left and I soon developed Cramps in my legs that made me feel sick... not even the hardest 24hr race has done this to me.
The single track around Forrest is just superb and the fun factor kicked in temporarily.
While pobably everybody out there improved their time from last years race, it took me 7:36:44 to finish, almost 30 minutes more than last year, where the extreme muddy conditions slowed everybody down.

There is only one solution to it: Get out and ride!

Back in Melbourne

After seven month, one day and 27000km on the road(in the car) we finally arrived back in Melbourne.

Happy to be back and anxious about what there is to come...

2009 will be a challenging and exciting year. We are packing up and moving back to Germany after six years in Australia, trying to find jobs and to establish ourselves – all a bit frightening.
But on a positive note, I already started organizing my European racing schedule and will participate in the ‘Trans Alp’ stage race.

Unfortunately my race partner got injured and I will have to find someone else who is keen on traversing the Alps.
There is a lot of training ahead of me - not having trained seriously during the last 10 month doesn’t prepare for climbing up the Alps. Autsch!