Cold....so cold

The weather has turned to sh!t in the last couple of days...but more on that in a moment.

Saturday
I'm sure someone was taking a bit of revenge when after the bakery bunch (all 8 of us) rolled out from Philip at 7 o' clock on Saturday morning the heavens opened and proceeded to dump for the next 10 minutes. By the time we got to Civic the bunch was 3... I called time to go home here, cold and soaking wet. So the morning ride that was supposed to be ~120k turned into 60k by the time I got home...but I had dried out by this time.
Feet up and a bit of recovery before rolling out for the race start at 1pm. Rolling into the car park a top Lookout hill I was greeted by a gaggle of Drapac riders....yay this was going to be fun! Riding against one or two pro-am riders is difficult but three you know you're just going to get a working over....especially when they're gearing up to ride in Europe in a couple of weeks.
The pace was on from the gun! it had to be we were chasing 29 minutes to the front... the joys of handicap racing. Slowly but surely the numbers reduced, from a bunch of 10 riders starting.. to 6 left with a lap remaining I called it a day with one to go. By this stage I was seeing stars, and hadn't taken a turn of about half a lap. I'm an honest rider when it comes to handicap racing, if I can't pull my weight, I'm not going to sit on and contest the sprint at the end.
So all up it ended up being 110k for Saturday, not bad for a day curtailed by bad weather.

Sunday
Sticking by head out of the door at 8am and it was cold! I mean really cold. I was rugged up so I thought I would be alright for the ride over to Stromlo for the start of the CORC race. Following the bike path over with a head wind took abit longer then anticipated, and by the time I arrived there was a long queue for rego. I was too worried I was warm from the ride over. Then the call came down the line, one of the computers used for registration had broken down and it was going to take longer then normal.. 'K by the time I had made it three quarters of the way up the line the cold was starting to seep in.
At this point Heather & Xavier showed up to cheer up till I made it through rego. Just after the call to the line was made, so we all started griding up. And then the wind started picking up! Anyone who has been to Stromlo know there is no cover, none! And i started shivering, and when I say shivering I mean shaking badly enough I thought someone was going to ask me if I was having an epileptic fit! I just couldn't control the shaking, and was thinking of leaving the thermal jacket one for the first lap till I warmed up.
The grades it front were let off and we were called up to the start line. Just then it started raining, "Yeah, that's about right!?" I thought given the way my weekend had gone up to that point. Stuck it I pulled the jacket off, "Take a couple of tablespoons of concrete, And harden the f&*k up!" words from my old coach echoed around my head as I was stripping the arms off. Paul Cole calls "Ready?", "Ten seconds to go!" and half the bunch jumps the start! Sh!t the run up to the tunnel is screwed up and I am sitting in what feels like last place! The winds still up, and while I don't know the exact course we're using I know there is a bit of fire road so I can use my roadie skills to bounce my way up to the front. Sure enough, by about a quarter of the way around the course I've hauled my sorry a$$ up into third place at the base of the main climb and am drafting off second place recovering from all the anaerobic efforts up to this point.
Slotted into third place I'm comfortable, sitting, planning, watching, looking for weakness in the two riders in front but the race is still in the early stages so there is nothing to be seen yet.
Up the climb, and we're on the descent... this is my weakness and today it's worse! I'm riding the hard tail and loose touch with second place. Through the start/ finish and out the other side, A big boy on a Trance comes through, time to slot in and recover till we hit the climb again (this will come back to haunt me later). The big fella is the right size to shelter from the wind and the gap to second place is still the same about 15sec or so. I hit him at the base of the climb and start the bridge back up to second place, by the time we at the end of the fire road descent I have latched back on, however we hit the more technical section and gap opens again! Back out to about 20 seconds. And so it remains for the next lap, however the gap is growing a second here or there.
After another lap the big fella's back, and this time he's learnt his lesson from the first time around. He won't come through so I pull the two of us around the open section before the base of the climb. By this stage the climb and work effort has started to take it's toll, I don't have the kick to distance him on the climb. I hitting a couple of times through the corners but no dice. The climbs not steep enough, nor long enough for me to do any serious damage.
We get onto the fire road, and he rips past me. I jump and struggle to get back on his wheel. We hit the tech section and door starts opening, pushing with all I have left I can't get back and cross the finish in 4th.
All up I'm glad I raced, as the course turned out to well laid out and allot of fun even though there was still allot of water still on the ground. Just after the finish on the way home in the car it started bucketing down again....