Since my last post my life has been very busy with a lot of driving around the North Island for some more bike racing.
On the 24th of January my Dad and I drove down to Taranaki for the Round the Mountain Cycle Challenge. Driving down on Friday night along the coast was awesome seeing the sunset over the West Coast. It is always one of my favorite road trips but this is the first time I have seen it like that! We decided to wing it this weekend and didn’t book accommodation or anything but ended up in a super nice motel just 100m from the start line of the race, CHOICE!
The race was 150km of rolling terrain with strong winds. I made the early break of 4 where we stayed away until I was dropped 100km into the race where my legs had had enough into a brutal head wind. I was caught by the chasing group and was able to get up and sprint for 3rd place. It was an awesome ride by Hamish and Ryan who rode away from the break and went 1st and 2nd. Thank you to the Taranaki community who put on an extremely well run event and I will certainly be back next time!
Taranaki Cycle Challenge
It was a long drive home that day to prepare to head down to Palmerston North on Monday for the New Zealand Cycle Challenge a UCI 2.2 Tour. During the few days before the tour I received an email from a Professional Diabetic rider for Novo Nordisk with an article on how to manage my condition better through races. I read this over and over and realized what I was doing wrong before and instantly knew I needed to change the way I use my insulin to improve my performance. In simple terms I needed to inject more insulin for breakfast than I did before to keep my levels in range so that my body can receive the nutrients it needs to perform. Before I read this article I was having no insulin which pushed my levels high. When the blood sugar levels are high all the food and electrolyte I drunk during my rides would not absorb into my body. This can lead to dehydration and poor performance.
After the 6.5 hour drive down to the Manawatu it was time to start the tour with a 6km Time Trial on Wednesday night. For this tour I was guest riding from my current team Charter Mason Giant for the team of Armstrong Prestige along with Ryan Wills, Tim Rush and Paul Odlin. My Time Trail didn’t go the best but was still positive and excited for the road race stages of the tour. The first Three Road stages all finished the same way with bunch Sprints after the race was controlled by the leaders team of Budget Forklifts who were super strong all tour. The final stage was a 167km Road Race with some big Climbs and a Hill Top finish up to the wind farms. I felt as though my form was building well all tour and being only 35 or so seconds of first place I was looking forward to seeing how I would compete up the climb. Unfortunately I got caught up in a crash only 30km into the stage and hit the deck hard damaging my left hand side with a nasty gash on my back. After checking over my bike and body I got back up and chased back on with my team mate Ryan who also went down. After a long hard chase and a strong pull by the boss Reon Nolan we got back on 25km or so later. By this time my body was in deep pain. I managed to make all the spits and get to the bottom of the final climb with the leaders. I ended up cruising up the climb at my own pace and my hip didn’t like putting down for than 300watts of power. Was a shit way to end the final stage but that’s bike racing and I was pretty stoked to be able to finish the stage!
Stage 1 NZCC
Stage 3 NZCC
All though my final result was not what I was after I can take nothing but positives out of the week! Here is a few…
– Managed my diabetes each day and had no issues. I am now confident it will not stop me from competing at the top and I can only learn to manage it better and improve my performance.
– Finished my first UCI Tour and felt competitive.
– Made some new friends and had a lot of laughs.
– Thanks to Ryan I know to go to the race doctor when you’re in Pain after a crash. I would have kept riding without any pain killers if he didn’t say anything to me!
NZCC Stage 4
Next up for myself is a training camp in Bright with my Charter Mason Giant Racing team. I will be getting off to Melbourne on the 18th of February.
I have also added a contact tab on my website, so if you have any questions or want to get in contact with me this is a good way of doing it, don’t be shy!
Thanks for reading,
Scotty
Scott Ambrose 