Jul 7, 2010
602nds is fortunate to have Australia’s very own World Champion, Sarah Kent write for us. Sarah was a member of the gold medal winning Australian womens team pursuit at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Copenhagen earlier this year.
Sarah is currently in Europe racing and riding with the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) but took the time to write for this blog on Tuesday (06/07/2010) for 602nds and the WAIS (Western Australian Institute of Sport).
It’s sunny and 30 degrees here in the little town, Vaasen, which we’ve been living in for just short of a week now. I’m just sitting back soaking up the sun with a coffee, after our 4hrs on the bike this morning. It was probably the most entertaining ride I’ve had in a while..
After the past couple of months I’ve spent back in Perth doing a rehab program for my back injury, it’s certainly been one giant rollercoaster ride. After a tough past month deciding on whether I should be coming here to Holland for a month of training and racing with 4 other AIS track girls, I’m very happy to say, so far making the tough decision to come and try to manage my injury as best I can has really paid off so far. I feel like I’m in a good place over here and when not training, am feeling pretty relaxed in the environment I’m in. The other girls include WAIS’s Mel Hoskins, and AIS’s Belinda Goss, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Megan Dunn. We’re being joined by another Aussie, Kate Bates, next week.
After arriving in Amsterdam last Thursday morning, tired and jetlagged, we were told everyone except me had to race that night. I was allowed a few extra days to let my back loosen up a bit after the flight. Though it seemed a bit rough considering how tired we all were, to everyone’s surprise they raced very well pulling off a 2nd place by Belinda. Some courses are really tough with tight corners, narrow streets and most are dodgy paved roads.
Our next race day was Saturday, the Ronde van Enter, a pretty tough course. I started this one, and I was keen to see how my back was going to hold up. The first 30-40 minutes are always pretty full on, and my lack of experience in this type of racing, with bug bunches probably caused me to struggle a little more than know I was capable of. When the split in the bunch happened 30 minutes in, I was caught down the back and couldn’t get back up to the front, and by that point I was pretty stuffed. The good news was, by that stage my back felt like it was coping under the load okay! We’ve still got a lot more races to go over the next 3-4 weeks, so I’m happy at where I’ve started the trip and am confident I can increase my skill level in the bunch and manage a much better result soon. The girls raced really well again, helping Belinda to a 3rd place. It’s great to see the girls putting in the effort for each other to get the team a result.
On Sunday, we got the chance to make a trip into Rotterdam to watch the start of stage 1 of the Tour de France. Shane Sutton got us passes back into the team buses to meet some riders and get some good photos and autographs. It was an awesome opportunity, and one that I’m sure a lot of people will be very jealous about! It was so cool to see just how big it is over there. We now don’t race again until Friday now, so it’s back to training this week.
Which brings me back to today’s ride. In the first hour a massive wild pig leaped across the road in front of us, followed by it’s little baby in tow, followed by another massive one! About another 30 minutes later, we saw this massive peloton down the road in front of us. But as we got closer we realized is was a big heard of cows. We had to wait for about 10 minutes for this heard of cows to move paddocks, and as they all walked by us a couple of them strayed off over to us and got right up in our faces. I got the cutest photo of one that came right up to sniff my camera. Another 10km later, we had to get through a long section on a path with tones of rabbits jumping everywhere in front of us. Can’t believe how much wildlife we seemed to attract in one day! Certainly made a long boring ride a little more interesting!
For now, that’s all I have to report on. I can hear the party starting next door at the pub at reception. They’re all getting ready for Holland to win tonight in the soccer. Hopefully they’ll have lots to celebrate!
Until next time, enjoy! 
Sarah
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Sarah Kent (left)
Sarah Kent (second from right)
