The day started like most other days I had seen in Europe, sun peeping through the shutters at 5am and the temperature rising quickly. This wasn’t any normal day; it was the day that I had dedicated many long hours to, the day of the world championships.

    Our race start was at 11am, this was still before the hottest part of the day but at the same time gave that bit of extra sleep. My plan was to take it easy at the start but not to lose many places and to come home strong; I knew it was going to be a really hard and fast start.

    To my horror I struggled, from the start I was unable to get my heart rate down to a safe zone, it just skyrocketed and stayed that way. I backed it off a little but only found myself losing many places. Just when nothing else could have gone wrong it did, I felt flat, really flat.

    It came to me that it just wasn’t my day; from feeling flat towards the start I struggled throughout the whole race. I had never felt the way I did before; I had heard that it does happen but never experienced it like this. As a cyclist I have learnt that this is just what I need to accept, even after all the training and preparation it just comes down to the day. As hard as it was to accept, I just had to accept it and move on. I took the experience and learnt all I could from it for next time.

    Congratulations to Robbie Hucker and Peter Braunsteins who finished 32^nd and 34^th respectively and Luke Fetch and David Johnston who also put in a solid effort.