I have so many excuses for todays efforts at Round 1 of the NSW State Titles. My injury from Bega was bigger than it was originally thought with a grade 3 groin tear and I have had MRIs and ultrasounds to make sure there was no hip joint damage and there has been a lot of focus put into physio and osteo to gain full movement and flexibility. I have not been able to do much on the bike or off the bike drills and instead been catching up and getting ahead with my schoolwork which was not very exciting. I was not ready to race today and race 1 was the weirdest experience I have had on a track… got an outstanding holeshot in Race 1 and was doing pretty good at staying near the front of the class when the official at the finish line had a dumb moment and put the last lap board out with heaps to go, and then took it back in and then put it back out at the wrong time again which messed up nearly everyone. Some of us slowed up to pull off the track thinking the race was over and lost places because the checkered flag had not been put out. Learned a pretty sucky lesson at this point and this frustration carried on through my rest and recovery time and into Race 2. Instead of trying to look at the positives of what I could do for the series while not at 100% I pushed too hard too fast, faded bad and then spent the rest of the race in my head beating myself up. I had another solid start but with not riding my bike as hard as it should be I had the same issue with lagging power that I had at SummerX. We didn’t finish the day, I had quit on myself. 13-18-DNS for 17th as a start point which is easily 7+ places out from where I wanted to be.
Soren Staudinger 