Queensland’s talented Masters athletes headed to Melbourne last week for Masters Track Nationals, returning with a plethora of medals, state and national records. Over four day of racing, Queensland’s Masters accumulated 14 gold medals, 15 silver medals, 13 bronze medals, 6 state records and 1 national record at the 2018 Masters Track National Championships.
Cairns Cycling Club’s Gabby Thomasz did an amazing job bringing home:-
National Masters Track Championships:
🥇500m TT
🥇Scratch race
🥇Sprint
🥈Points race
and on the road Road:
🥉Victorian Masters State Criterium Championships
Below is her story from a post on Facebook – worth the read.
Looking back at a big week of racing…I went into this after two crashes, both of which landed me in hospital and resulted in injuries (dislocated collarbone + ligament tears, concussion, whiplash and infection), once in January, once in February. Preparation was therefore compromised – to say the least- but after doing so much training I was determined to stay optimistic make the best of it.
Once healed up, 2.5 weeks before the championships, our track in Cairns was still not finished so the only two times on my track bike since New Years Day was on a footpath doing a few starts. Add to that training outdoors on the road in the middle of the wet season, it was important to try and make every minute on the bike count.
The best I could do was focus on positives and what I could influence, and work with people who have my back; thank you all.
I had an amazing week of hard racing at the Tasmanian Christmas carnivals and crits thanks to Janelle Smith That was in the bank and excellent as a confidence booster. Throwing me in the deep end with the crits also was good for me, as it spurred me on to ride and place at the Victoria state crit titles yesterday, something I never thought I’d be able to do.
I worked with Rob at the The Brain Room to ensure cognition was optimised, giving me assurance also that both crashes hadn’t compromised awareness and information processing. 
📈
Tim at Game Day Performance helped with gym programming, with the folks at my gym Iron Strength – Power & Performance always watching over me, giving me support and advice. The shoulder injury certainly limited the options and threw the original pre championship gym plan out almost completely. But we pressed on..literally. 
💪
Hilton, my cycling coach, who works with me week in week out, and patiently rewrote my program after each crash. Over the past couple of years I have had a few crashes and injuries, and his knowledge and wisdom has allowed me to rehabilitate fast every single time and stay confident and not lose too much fitness after these setbacks and get on with the job much sooner than I thought possible. The last couple of months especially were a challenge but, we managed… Moreover, while I still have so much to learn and achieve physically and race tactics wise, my training with Hilton so far has resulted in age group national championship wins, an elite medal, carnival race wins, and now even a road crit race. I enjoy having a plan, the flexibility of having a go at different types of racing (even if it is just to have a go or have a race away from the track) and process of continuous improvement. Thanks Hilts. 
👍
While on a personal level I wanted to do or be better at quite a few things I am grateful for the achievements nonetheless and inspired to keep chipping away at it all…
Last but not least, thank you to my husband Richie, who got me into cycling, and fortunately understands and knows what it takes to try and get better at this sport, and has to put up with me being quite tired at times, grumpy about (slow/no) progress at other times, and late dinners most of the time. We’re both national sprint champions now 
👐 Love you 
😍
To anyone thinking about competing at masters level: do it! You’ll meet the best people, who are healthy, sociable, generous, and share your passion for your chosen sport. It takes effort but it’s rewarding, with or without medals.