The Road course

Hi All

Well since my pursuit race I have been doing all the things an athlete should be doing to get ready for another event: resting, watching tv, eating, drinking lots of fluid and doing a little bit of bike riding.

I was supposed to head out to check out the road course yesterday but really wasn't up to it. I felt pretty flat and out of energy just going to the toilet so I opted for a day off instead. One of the great things about living in the village is the 8 channels of live video feed of all the sporting action from around the Games. It makes a day off pretty fun just watching sport. All the stuff that I wish was on commercial TV. There is no commentary but I saw some swimming, athletics, wheelchair basketball and of course all my cycling team mates.

So today I felt better and headed out to the road course. I have heard lots about it from other athletes but it is always different to get out there yourself. It is a picturesqe course around a dam. 12km per lap. It goes around a golf course and the start/finish area was the transition area for the Olympic triatholon.

There are definitely some challenges on the course with a good hill with consistent pitch early in the lap. Some rolling terrain and then a really technical section before the last 1km which is on carpet and includes a hairpin bend. I think there will be some risky racing there on the last lap of all the races. My road race will be 5 laps or 60.5km. I am really not sure what it will be like but I am sure that I will struggle to hold the pace, especially on the hill. Just a matter of trying to hold on and stay away from the front of the pack.

I am really excited about getting out there and racing on the road. All of my competition will be doing the road time trial tomorrow so I should be fresher than them which can only help me.

I will be heading out for a light roll tomorrow and then watching some more tv. Sounds relaxing and just the right thing to do before race day.

I will keep you all updated.

MM