Canberra Para Cycling Team: Shotguns, Vintage Cars and Electric Fences

Yep, today we've seen it all!

We drove over to Roskilde this morning to familiarise with the course. Our little Chinese Taipei team was lucky enough to go the 30-something kilometres in convoy with the Australian team, since we hadn't been there before and they knew where they were going. Made it much easier than finding our own way!

We drove around the course first to make sure we knew where to go, but we needn't have worried as the Danish organisers had already been out on the course and there were helpful arrows clearly identifying every turn. Next step was onto the bikes for Jing to do a semi dress rehearsal on her time trial bike with me hanging desperately onto her back wheel offering advice on cornering lines etc, when breathing permitted it!

Jing taking in the scenery on the course

The course quickly leaves urban Roskilde, the road becomes quite narrow and winds its way through small country villages that are only a very few kilometres away from town, but in appearance could be 100 years away - thatched roofs, doors opening onto the road and so on.

The view towards Roskilde from the back of the course

So the reference in the post heading? Well first of all, we rounded a corner to the sounds of shotgun fire to discover a full blown duck hunt going on around the shores of a small lake between a few cottages. One of the shotgun wielding crew looked to be no more than about 12, but, safety first, at least he was wearing protective earmuffs! We quickly carried on in case they mistook us for flightless birds and showed us a different kind of Danish welcome.

Vintage cars. I think there must have been a vintage car rally on somewhere because there was a constant stream of rather old cars passing by. For the most part this wasn't an issue, but a couple of times it caused a bit of nervousness when confronted with an old 1950-60s Rolls Royce or similar, which took up the entire narrow country road, or an even older, "real" vintage car (1920s), which seemed to have difficulty with the steering, heading straight for us on a bend, but then veering back onto its own side of the road at the last moment!

In spite of various suggestions that Denmark is totally flat and there can't possibly be any hills on the course, it's actually quite undulating and to add to the interest, has several quite tight corners, which when combined with the narrow roads, will make for some interesting racing if anyone is feeling a bit daredevil. One of the Australian hand cyclists, Michael, tried out one of the sharp downhill corners today and overcooked it a bit. After a spectacular barrel roll/flip with a degree of difficulty Matthew Mitcham would be proud of, he ended up in the long grass adjacent to the road. This of itself wouldn't have been an issue, except that in true Tour de France style, he ended up tangled up in the fence. Fortunately not barbed wire, but as it turned out, an electric stock fence. Needless to say, a great deal of care was taken extracting him!!

Since there was a cast of thousands on hand to see Michael right, Jing and I continued on our way and made friends with a local Danish para cyclist, Bo and rode for a few kilometres with him before Jing rode off to complete the course on her own.