Perth GP

Last week the team and I made a quick trip over to chilly Perth for our first race of the season. Flying in the night before and racing all day Sunday before flying home again straight after racing finished, it was a tough 48hours that didn't go as well as I had hoped for considering my very good physical condition for this time of the year.

That aside racing is racing and I learnt a lot and have come out of it a better athlete after a disappointing meet. The day started off at 10am with sprint qualifying in a warm 5degrees!! We were really lucky to be able to race in leg warmers (you're actually not allowed to) and could at least stay a little warmer! I qualified poorly after over gearing myself and suffered the consequences of a sub standard time for me. This then shattered my confidence a little bit and as a result I raced very poorly finishing 3rd overall.

We were lucky (or rather I think unlucky! ha ha) to get the opportunity to race a handicap today and as the same with last year the sprint girls and I were out to show the endurance girls how to ride a bike fast! We did a great job of that with Anna Meares winning the handicap for the second year running after Emily Rosemond and myself led her to victory (dropping the endurance girls in the mean time! hehehe). BUT gease I suffered after that race. My legs were so badly lactated I wanted to curl up into a little ball and cry! It took me a good 10min to come good again before getting back out on the track for the Keirin.

The Keirin as usual went well for me. I put myself in good positions and raced to my strengths against the opponents I was up against. I was a little unfortunate to get beaten by a better rider up the home straight in Anna Meares and I just need a little more time and hard training to be able to hold my own against riders like Anna. All in good time.

This week we entered our last big phase of our prep for the Commonwealth Games and my body is a little worse for wear already! My injury seems to be coming along nicely with only the occasional niggle after our bigger sessions, which is a huge improvement from the everyday pain I was in for a while there. Next up I have the Adelaide GP on the 17th and 18th of July and I am really looking forward to putting out on the track the 'Kaarle McCulloch' that is within me.

Until then...take care everyone!

Karls