You can't contol the uncontrollables!


I want you to think for a minute. Do you know someone or heard of a person that has been hit by a car whilst on a bike? Sadly, I am sure your answer will be yes. Any official statistics will grossly understate the truth as only a fraction of accidents are reported and luckily most do not result in the ultimate cost. My brother has been clipped twice and unfortunately now, I have an experience of my own to tell. Whilst out on a Saturday 50km ride, a driver on the left of me didn’t stop at a give way sign onto a main road. We all swerved in different directions and unfortunately one of us, Ashlee Bailie, wheel was clipped sending her flying into the windscreen of the car and into the air. Hearing and seeing the impact of what happened was certainly a shock to the system. She was one very strong, brave and lucky girl – fortunately, I did not add to her injuries as at some points I was holding her hand tighter than she was holding mine!  She has come out with stitches, bruises and hopefully not too much of a scarred memory of what happened. Luckily bikes are very replaceable but the lives of people aren’t!

 

The accident has certainly reinforced with me how important it is as a rider on the road to make yourself as visible as possible to cars. Sometimes they don’t actually realise how fast we are going.  I want to share a few tips as my little bit towards improving the safety of riders.

·         Use lights especially in dusk and dim conditions to enhance your visibility.

·          In a two lane road, especially with a group, take the lane to make yourself more visible to cars. If cars beep you, well generally it’s because you look good in your lycra.

·         One big thing I have learnt is that no matter how hot or cold it is wear an undershirt. It acts as a second layer to your skin. I thank Jamie for enforcing this one as I have not gone a day without wearing my extra layer of protection as the day that I don’t wear it something could happen.

 

 

April has felt a bit like Christmas with a lot of new gear for the 2013 season. You can’t miss my new bike on the road. Thanks to SPEARMANS CYCLES Wollongong and LIV/GIANT for my new Giant Envie. I would be envious too - the bike not only looks good but is a dream to ride! The photo does not do it justice. With a new bike comes a brand new bag to put it in. Thanks to SCICON for the new bike bag for the 2013 season and I look forward to working with the company in the future. To make sure I am fitted correctly on my bike, a big thanks for Aaron Lean from Cadence Cycling for my retul bike fit. COMPRESSPORT also have been great to me with new socks and compression wear to keep me in order overseas and looking good when I train and race. Add all this to my latest HUUB wetsuit and I am ready to go.
 

 

In a few days, I start my big adventure again, 158 days to be exact! First stop is Yokohama WTS! April started well with a successful 10th place at Auckland WTS race. No doubt I have been training hard all month and I am excited to see what Yokohama will bring. Although I am excited to head overseas, get my dish maid and roomie back (Grace Musgrove), buy our blow up pool for recovery pool parties, explore the world, challenge myself…this list could go on. But who wouldn’t want to end their day with views like this?


 




 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WTS Season!

Image
          ITU season overall Driving home from our caving experience in December 2017 with my previous psychologist Jason Patchell, we spoke about what I wanted to achieve this year and how I was going to do it. One of the main things he asked me was what I wanted to set as an overall series goal for the WTS series. After placing 21 st last year, I said a top 15 would be a good progression forward. He looked at me said " what about a top 10? " I tossed it back and forward in my mind wandering if It was a possibility. We finished that conversation with why not make it a challenge and how I was going to get there with other key processes throughout the season. One of my key themes for the year was having confidence in the whole picture. Starting my WTS season with a podium in Abu Dhabi really set the tone for the year and was a big driving force for my confidence and my ability to compete against the best girls in the world. That race was...
Read more

It’s not about perfect. Its about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day that’s when transformation happens. That’s how change happens!

Image
  Arriving back from Noosa, I reset my mind into 27 days of hard work before 70.3 Western Sydney. I sat down with my computer with training peaks infront of me and put in everything I knew I had to do, to be best prepared for race day. Having already been on my TT for the last month, I didn’t have to change my training around too much. I was excited and motivated to dip my toes back into the long distance triathlon scene with it being something that I wish to pursue more regularly in the near future. To break up the month of training, I headed to Hamilton Island for the first time as an ambassador for the triathlon and ocean swim. I decided not to taper as I wanted to go in fatigued under a week of training stress. It was definitely pain in paradise as I never expected the course to be so hilly. It’s such an iconic race with riding on the airport runaway a standout feature. The smaller race atmosphere makes it a great community event and I was happy to take the win...
Read more

Two weekends. Two races. Two second places

Image
October is a month I really look forward to with two consecutive weekends of hard racing at home in Australia! I was feeling good leading up to Nepean and Noosa. I had a month of consistent sessions and I could see improvement every week especially in my running speed. This time of year I can train when I want and you certainly appreciate the skill involved in coaching when you are under your own guidance. I put old fashioned pen to paper to detail my training weeks and then set about ticking off each session. The morning of the Nepean was absolutely freezing. I had gloves, tights and headwear on just to keep warm and I was still shaking. It was a wetsuit swim for the first time in the 6 years that I have competed and I was glad of the added protection. The women’s field was pretty small and I lead out with five of us exiting the water together. I was a little disappointed with the swim based on how well I have been swimming but the cold was definitely a factor. In the fi...
Read more