Hot hot hot, are three very apt words to describe the Victorian Criterium Sprint Championships!

Jo Wall tells a tale of Melbourne Sprint Champs, Dec 23rd

The day started off on a much cooler note, as we were fortunate enough to have the use of the Bendigo Cycles shop van to travel in style and coolness down to the crit, we were able to fit all 4 Specialized bikes, trainers and the marque in one vehicle which enabled us to enjoy each others company and also interesting tastes in music! Kate was adamant that the Cd's were already in the van when she collected it but that sounded like a cover up from the start!

 

Stepping out from the coolness of the van we were nearly bowled over by the oppressive heat when we arrived in St. Kilda. We set up the marquee in the finishing straight and then it was time to jump on the trainers and warm up the legs. As it was already about 40 degrees I was conscious of only doing enough to loosen the legs up as it was going to be a long taxing race.

We were all called up to the grid for the start, everyone was just wanting to get things underway, as crazy as it sounds it was hotter just standing still. We had planned to have some team organisation off the start where we intended to set a steady pace from the start. We ended up being separated and in what was a bit of a hectic neutral lap, couldn't manage to make contact as a group.

So the race was underway, Kate and Lauretta were making a good impression up the front, riding aggressively and chasing back the breaks, myself Nik, Taylor and Carly were mixing it midfield. The pace was solid with some small breaks forming and the pace ramping up for each sprint, which were every .6-8 laps. Kate was placing consistently in the sprints and accumulating some valuable points.

It was hot work, I found myself with an empty bottle within 30 minutes, thankfully some of the spectators in the start finish area were dousing us with a sprinkler hose each lap, the cool water on your broiling skin was instant relief for about 10seconds!!

At about 45min there was a solid attack and a substantial break formed with about 10 girls up the road. Kate was in the front group, so we sat back and let the other girls do the chasing.
The groups eventually came together with about 5 min to go, everyone was watching the moves for the final sprint finish.
The sprinters were in position, and the mid field riders around me all sensed it was time to sit up and let the sprint be run and won. Kate was sitting perfectly before the last corner but lost some ground coming over the line, finishing a credible 4th place behind Nik Whitburn1st, Chloe McConville 2nd and Miranda Griffiths, 3rd. Kate also had a good collection of sprint points and finished 2nd in the sprints classification.

As a team it was another valuable opportunity to compete in a high class women's field, gaining some substantial exposure for our sponsors and also learning about how we each handle our race. This experience helps us grow as a team and also gets us thinking about how we want to implement some future strategies for how we can work together as a team for future races.

It was a great fun day out in some fun company and I would like to thank our sponsors: Specialized, Skoda, Symes Motors, Bendigo Cycles, Burkinshaw Roofing, Bendbal Financial Solutions, as it just wouldn't have been possible with out their support. Also a big thank-you to Darren "Turtle" Francis Casey for some good photos of the day.

Summer womens crits have started

So it is well into the summer heat, as well as criterium races and our team has now had 2 great Sundays away racing women's criterium racing.
Being a part of a cycling team has so many benefits and one of my favourites is the camaraderie and craziness that occurs in the cars when we go away racing together.
You learn so much about each other that of course can help you out racing...but sometimes it feels like what happens on tour stays on tour.
You learn who is patient and who likes to get things done yesterday, who is the control freak and who is quite happy to be a by stander and not get involved..... 4 girls trying to load 4 bikes plus spare wheels plus trainers plus bags into a van brings up many emotions.
But enough about the travel, lets talk about racing... Cykel Events is running the Women's Grand Prix again this summer and it is one of our teams goals to go well, as it is definitely the level of event that we are all capable of riding and having an impact, especially with the 2 (or now 3) grades.

So off we headed down to Casey fields on the 16th, Nik, Tayla Evans (as a guest rider for a few races this Summer), Jo Wall, myself and Cheryle and Gary team support, Lauretta was meeting us down there. We headed down in our pretty groovy with lots of buttons SKODA Octavia wagon thanks to Symes motors.... all excited for our first official team race, Jo painting her nails for the first time ever, Kate excited to have company and Nik concentrating on driving, trying to ignore the nerves.
The clouds were clearing as we arrived after thunder and down pours of rain, and we all road a few laps together, commenting on who was going to push the hardest in the prologue and if we could last our 3min effort. We were all off around 10min apart from each other, Tayla first and myself last, long story short, we all smashed it and made div 1, and had 1.5hrs before we were to race. I think this made Tayla nervous but was good to have us all in division 1.
The race was interesting, we had wanted to make it aggressive, and Lauretta got in the first break of the day which lasted for about 3 long laps, it was windy out there and this created a very on again off again race and everyone was very touchy on the breaks. The first sprint came around and Lauretta got on the front for myself, however as we had never practised this before, she forgot to open a gate for me to pass through and when Nicole Whitburn and Jen Macpherson jumped a little early to my right and boxed me in I basically had to hit the brakes hard before going again and got 4th. A crash occurred in the back on this lap with an unfortunate rider requiring a ambulance, so we all had to wait until this happened, it only took about 20min and then we were given 4 laps to go.

Pippa Savage from Total Rush launched straight away and set the final few laps off to a cracking pace, Jo got some grass action and the break had given Lauretta and myself time to discuss our lead out. At 1 to go I was positioned well and it started bunching up, Lauretta joined me and just before the left up the hill I told her to go, I could tell she was tired as e only just got to the front which meant I would have to jump earlier than what I wanted. About 20m before turning left into the final straight I yelled at Lauretta to open the gate and went underneath her and went for it. I knew at 30m to go I was starting to die but kept pushing and threw on the line, to only be beaten by the ever strong Nicole Whitburn, I need longer arms to throw that bit further I think... The rest of the girls finishing the race and having a good learning day. With goals for the future races being described planned and set on the drive home.. Full results can be seen here and timing and points here at MYLAPS

 

Lauretta tells us whats been happening lately on the track

After many months of cold weather track season is now finally upon us. Unfortunately mine started a few weeks later than most due to my year 12 studies and with only two full weeks of training under my belt, the Victorian track cup was my first open for the season. I was a little nervous coming into the open due to my lack of fitness and it was my first event as an Elite woman. The two day event consisted of 3 events, the pursuit, sprint and time trial. As an endurance rider my main goal was to win the pursuit but somehow I surprised myself and won all three events and the overall classification. By winning the Vic track cup, I gained an idea of where my fitness level actually was and it gave me a big confidence boost and motivation.

After two more weeks of training I raced the Victorian Open and Para cycling Track Championships. This event is particularly important to me as state selection is based on your performances at this event. I arrived early Saturday as the last thing I wanted was to be rushed for time. This did mean a few hours of sitting around but this allowed me to relax and organise myself. Soon enough I was on my bike warming up and planning out my race, because I have just moved up to elite women, my pursuit distance has increased from 2km to 3km. Having only ridden my first one two weeks prior I was still learning the best way to ride it for me. Finally it was my turn, I was locked in the gate with my coach, Brad Robins, standing off to the side with schedule and stop watch in hand. Usually I go out easier and come home hard but this time I went out harder and hoped to sustain it. About half way through I could see the other rider in the same straight and when you reach this stage it is just like chasing a rabbit. The problem is once you catch and pass them there is nothing left to chase with 1km to go, my legs began to die.

Despite this, I still managed to qualify first with a 5 second PB in a time of 3:50.735.  In the final, against Imogen Jelbart, I didn’t go out quite as hard, and although a slower ride, I felt I finished it better. I finished in a time of 3:52.804 which was enough to win gold.  With my goal of winning the pursuit achieved I could now recover and prepare for the next day’s points score.

Due to the small amount of U19 women, they were combined with our race which was then shortened by 20 laps. I wanted to make a break, but after a few unsuccessful attempts I gave up and decided I should go for some sprints and get some points. In the end I won two sprints and got just enough points to get second in the elite women’s category.

Although I wasn’t as fit I would normally be coming into a state championship I was still very happy with how I rode.  I received state selection and will represent Victoria at Track Nationals at the end of January.

Niks Tour of Bright, 2012

The first weekend in December saw the running of the Alpine Cycling Club’s very popular (sold out within 30 minutes of entries opening); 3 stage Tour of Bright which I was lucky enough to get a entry into (winning already).

With 550 riders across 9 grades Bright becomes a Mecca of cyclists for the whole weekend.  I participated in the tour in 2011 for the first time and loved the environment of the weekend as well as the racing.

Stage 1 The Gap Loop -91k

Stage 1 climbs Rosewhite Gap at the halfway mark and finishes at the top of Tawonga Gap; last year I lost contact with the bunch going over Rosewhite gap and never rejoined. My fist goal for this stage was to be with the bunch coming down the other side of Rosewhite and I achieved this. Some of Men’s C grade came round us going up the gap; we then got slowed up as the rest of their race came around us coming down the other side. This neutralized our race for a few km, just when we got moving aging we got told to go single file for the A grade men; a few frustrating interruptions, but part of racing.

After all that I was feeling great at the bottom of Tawonga, then I nearly lost my back wheel on the corner. I didn’t know what I had done wrong then I had that sinking feeling of my back tire being flat. There is no neutral support due to the large number of volunteers that would be required and I hadn’t taken anything to fix a single (big mistake). I knew if I didn’t finish I couldn’t keep going in the tour so after a few choice words I keep on climbing yelling at everyone that went past to see if they had something to help me out. With still4km left to climb a total rush rider threw me a can of pit stop, up went my wheel straight away back on the bike and I climbed the last 4 k. Thank you to Neil form total rush you saved my day!!

1 big lesson learned never race without anything to fix a flat again.

I was happy with my ride till that point.

Stage 2 15.7k Individual TT

This is that stage I was supper excited for after turning my old road bike in to a time trial bike and spending a few hours riding in aero position I was excited and ready to roll.

After a quick chat with fellow team rider Kate, I was excited to put the flat tyre of the road stage behind me. I had talked with my coach Kim Howard on the day and decide I wanted to do a 26 min and I would be happy considering my time last year was a 27.31.

I was the 3rd last rider off I was determined not to get caught. I caught the rider in front of me early I knew this was good but still couldn’t let anyone pass me. I then caught 2 more riders before the turnaround and could see the rider behind me had not put time into me and I wanted it to stay that way until I crossed the line in 25.50. I couldn’t believe it I was so happy a big tick and another goal achieved for the weekend.

Stage 3, Mount Hotham 55k.

The initial 25k to Harrietvile is relatively flat as the road winds along the Ovens valley to the base of Hotham.

Their were 2 sprint on the way Harrietville with the last one being just before the base of the climb, I was positioned well and started the climb in the bunch. I was climbing well to the top of the Meg (not quite half way) then was done. I had nothing left so I settled in for a long day of climbing.

Overall results can be seen here http://my3.raceresult.com/details/index.php?eventid=13607&lang=en

Overall it was a thoroughly enjoyed weekend with some major achievements made and some new goals discovered. Signing out for now, Nik.

Start officialy with clothing!!

Today Sunday the 25th of November racing was on! It was 2nd race of the Symes Motors/Spencers Cafe criterium series with the Bendigo Cycling Club and all us BCS girls were out to race. We had Jo and Kate both competing in B grade and Carly and Nik in C grade. There was a good turn out of 65 riders at the criteriums today held at Mayfair Park. All us girls were in the new kit and well didn't we stand out! All in red and excited to race. Today we were missing Lauretta and Maddy due to other commitments. Today's racing was fast, with everyone racing well and keeping upright. Both Jo and kate held great positions in B grade and mixing it up with the men. Along with Carly and Nik in C grade. After racing we did a training ride out to Huntly, this was good to get all the girls together to ride and support each others training and racing, and mostly to have a bit of fun and support the sponsors whom sponsor us women in the team!

Signing out for now... Carly

Thanks Darren Casey for the photo

Trivia, travelling and team members

Well BCS is officially off and running for this next Season.
We ran our successful team launch/trivia night on Friday 12th of October, and thanks to all the local businesses that contributed for the night including MFG, Mona Lisa, Cafe Au lait, Bathlane Cafe, The Green Olive, Bathlane Bakery, The Goodloaf Bakery, Brewhouse Coffee Roasters, Kirby Moore Massage Therapy, The National Hotel, Sportsco Bendigo, Hume & Iser Bendigo, Sportspower, B & B Basil, Innersence Healing Massage, Burkinshaw Roofing, Runaway Mums & The Queens Arms Hotel. As well as all the people who turned up to make the event what it was as well as our fantastic head honcho for the night Steve Sparkle who mad the night run impeccably smoothly.

We can also officially name the members of our team for the up and coming season to be Kate finegan, Nik McNamara, Lauretta Hanson, Carly McCoombe, Jo Wall and Maddi Leske on board as a development rider, AND our new sponsors for the up and coming season are Specialised bikes, Symes Motors, SKODA, Bendigo Cycles and burkinshaw roofing has stayed on board from the previous seaso.

Its exciting things happening for the BCS girls, especially with state titles only around the corner in our home city.....

Our new web page is launched, check out http://bcswomen2012.wix.com/bcswomen for team information, and continue to follow our blogs and updates as we head into the summer season of criterium racing...

Women on bikes

As a team, BCS women  we like to think if nothing else we encourage more women to get on bikes and ride, ride ride. Over the last 2 weeks I am feeling we are beginning to show our faces more readily within the cycling world in Bendigo and more things are happening to encourage other women to swing their leg over a bike.

The Bendigo 6hour mtb race was held last Sunday 9th September on Cavagnah's road, a Bendigo Cycles event. BCS entered a women's triple team with Kate Nik and Roz for the day.
Nik & Roz had gone and done some practise runs the arvo before, whilst I had gone over to the Castlemaine clubs combine in Harcourt for her first race since getting back on the bike.
Morning of the race I headed over for an early practise lap and got some time to get all the pain out of my legs from the road race the day before. Then onto the first lap of the day, I was nominate by Nik & Roz to start first as they knew I'd want to mix it up with the boys, and mix it up I did until about the 3km mark when I was copying the speed of the rider in front of me down a hill that was way out of my league and suddenly my head had hit a tree.
I sat there for about 5minutes stunned at my broken helmet, got back up and kept on going to finish this lap albeit a little more careful and cautious. The rest of the day went off without a hitch and we finished 2nd in the mixed 3 team for the 6 hour for the day. It was a blast and thanks for Bendigo Cycles and Bendigo Mountain bike Club for putting it on. Hopefully we can get a few more women's 3 teams next year and have our own category.

Then during the week nik and Jo Lythgo from Bendigo Cycles have put all the plans into place for our next Specialised women's day ride on Saturday 13th October where there will be opportunities to try more clothes as well as a range of rides to meet all abilities that we will have facilitators running. So keep this date in your diary ladies.

In fact make sure you keep that whole weekend free, as the Friday night is our team launch and fundraiser trivia night to be held at the Schweppes Centre Sky Lounge.

Then today Nik and I dragged Carly out to her first race for a very long time. With tired legs after a hard ride yesterday, the 3 of us and Jo Wall attended Bendigos local club racing for 2 laps of the block. The women nearly made up a 1/4 of the field!!!!!
 Although none of us were feeling fresh by any means, we all gave it our best, so much that Jo and Nik were seeing stars and struggled to make it to the all important coffee shop following the ride. Nik especially went caboom, thank goodness the Florentines were there for all to grab at Spencers!!!

If you ar interested in attending our ride day or trivia night, just head into Bendigo Cycles for the details.......

Sunday 15th July 2012
Finally, a mountain biking post for the BCS girls!!
Roz took a bunch of five mountain biking ladies out through the bush around Maiden Gully, on the outskirts of Bendigo.  These ladies are definately not new to cycling, but they are quite new to the world of mountain biking. 
The idea for the ride was for Roz to guide the ladies on a loop that they can then rediscover another day and to also offer up hints and tips for bettering their technical skills and overall confidence whilst riding on the dirt.
The ride was a resounding success!

Initially, we all rode as a group along some bitumen roads to access the bush, which gave us time to warm up and enjoy some early morning banter.  Our first challenging section came at about 20minutes into the ride and to describe this, one could say the valley looks like a big dipper...........and VERY rocky!  Roz gave an example of how to descend and then came back to help and coach each of the girls to get down.......... These chicks are impressive!  So we had an 80% success, (only one lady decided it wasn't for her); at the novice stage in my mountain biking career, I doubt I would have attempted what these girls achieved.  We regrouped at the top of the big dipper after walking up the (rocky!) incline.  Then there was the lovely meandering of singletrack, a few more rocks, some quartz rocks and of course the trees........ onwards towards Stumpy Gully.  Some open fire trail arriving at the big dam which is the start and finish of the fun loop that we call the Stumpy Gully Loop! The loop is mostly single track with rocks!  And puddles.  And rocks.  Not too much climbing - a good track to cruise on and also a good track to rip it up if you want to push yourself.
Everyone was having a ripper time.  The ride ended up being a little over two hours with numerous stops to regroup and share "zen" mantras for getting through tricky sections.
Things like...........Breathe!  Let it roll.  Pedal.  Feather the brakes. Push, Push,Push, Pedal, Pedal, Pedal.

 The only way to finish up is to say that if we measured this ride by smiles it would rate 10 out of 10.......

P.S.  Stay tuned for another ride in late August or early September...........Date to be announced.

Santos North Western Tour

Where to begin with this tour as it turned out to be a bad tour for the team. This may be a understatement as things went from bad to worse for all the girls ....hope you enjoy the read ..
So Kate, Nik and guest rider Lauretta Hanson began the long drive to Coonabaran at 4am on Wednesday morning full of excitment for the long tour ahead the first 2 stages were in Narrabri a 3.6km prologue followed by a 30min criterium.
Nik and Lauretta were off in the first few riders this how ever resulted in problems arising straight away as the course was not fully cleared from cars yet ...
Lauretta having to go round cars and Nik having to wait for 3 cars in her prologue.
Nik received some bad news of the passing of her nana decide to call it a day and head home to be with family ..special mention must go out to super husband Greg for driving 11hr up to pick nik up then driving the 11 hr back home with only a dinner break..(what a man )
Kate and Lauretta race the crit in the afternoon, which was a bit of a non event as a crash caused the race to be nuetralised for 20min of the 30min crit, giving noone the chance to really get into the race when the bell was rung, Kate came home in 7th place.
We drove back to Coonabarabran via looking at the next days decents at Lauretta's request however it made the girls more nervous and Nik even more confident she had made the correct decission to go home.
Fridays stage was a hilly 80km with 1100m of climbing, the last 15km a long climb with some steep pinches, and without a hill climber on our team both Lauretta and Kate were nervous.
The first climb came around 10km and really kicked up at 20% at its peak at 17km. Kate got over in the second bunch, Lauretta in the 4th. Then the decent which Kate enjoyed and worked with the second bunch to rejoin the first, making it a peleton of about 30 riders. When the final climb started Kate tried to stay with the front girls as long as possible and then road at her own tempo up the climb, fininshing in a credible 21st position, and Lauretta finishing no too far behind.
The day was raining, cold and windy, and then this was made worse by the fact that once we had finished our race up the top of the climb, exhausted and cold, we had to wait over an hour for the men to finish before we were allowed to head down the mountain. And the weather was that bad it was not going to be safe for us to ride down, luckily Liz, from Specialised womens team helped everyone out to ensure they had a warm dry safe lift down the mountain. Disaster strikes again, it was at this stage the exhaustion for Lauretta started kicking in, she had not been feeling well all week and just wanted to sleep.
Lauretta woke Saturday still tired and feeling not well so decided to pull the pin, so Kate started Saturday on her own, with Lauretta in the car with s helpful woman from Coonababran driving our car. The race started fine, Kate was confident and excited finally a day to shine, first break of the day, Kate goes in it to test the legs up the first feww climbs and feeling good, drop back in the peleton, 15km later a few girls start moving off the front nearly someone from every team, Kate goes around the left of someone andsuddenly her rear wheel gets taken out, shes in the gutter in a bit of pain, bike broken, pedal broken and shifter broken. End of tour, time to spend the next 2 hours driving behind the womens road race, and watch the girls race very negatively.
So we drove home Saturday afternoon/Sunday mornind feeling sad and sorry for ourselves and Kate trying to work out how she was going to get a bike before flying to the USA on Tuesday.... Special thanks to Total Rush Bendigo Cycles and faithful mechanic and team mate Roz and Brett Bradley for all ensuring Kate had a bike ready to go Tuesday morning, even if it meant little sleep and very rushed packing a new Specialized Venge frame was rebuilt and rearing to go.

Bendigo Club Tour

well the long weekend in June is club tour weekend ,with kate taking part in her first tour and lining up in B grade and Nik in c grade the girls were excited for a big weekend unfortunately nik came down with tonsillitis on wednesday and started the tour however pulling out after stage 1 pulling e3 hart rate to e1 watts never good so nik turned to support roll of cheering kate on.


Kate got better and better as the tour went on and a good hit out of racing and it is safe to say will be keen to race agin next year ...
thank to bendigo club for putting on a great weekend of racing and for the Melbourne girls who came up and mixed it up
our next race as a team is round 3 of NRS santos north western tour at the end of june. kate is then off to the U.S.A for some racing... fair to say she is a bit excited for her new adventure and will keep us posted on whats going on .





thank once agin to Darren Casey for the great pictures .........

Up Date

Ok so just a quick up date of what everyone is up to Nik,Cait and Shantelle have country champs coming up tomorrow at Harcourt.
The race is 2 laps of a 12k circuit followed by 1 lap of a 56k circuit...
hear a look at race profiles
12km Circuit  56km Circuit
As for Kate F as she is a non victorian.... she will be training up a storm to get her self ready for the
Fred Icke which is on the 2nd of june
so if your in or around Creswick next saturday give her a cheer as she go's past ....
hear's a look at the circuit 3lap
CSV_Creswick.htm

The next race the team will be doing is the 3ed round of the NRS which is Santos North Western Tour ,in and around Narrabri.

Tweed Heads

The good always comes with the bad, and I had been having such a good run with my health of late that I should have been a bit more cautious coming into the first NRS race of the year. The fact that I can now look back and see the tell tale signs of a virus coming on means I will take note of these signs sooner next time (hopefully) and avoid what occurred over the weekend. A big fat DNF next to my name, pretty disappointed, but you really shouldn't be racing when your morning HR is 60bpm, nearly double its normal Hr and your temperature is giving you hot and cold sweats so I only raced one miserable day of the battle of the border. On the positive side I got be be a helper for Nicole and Shantelle as they raced in B grade to gain some experience in tour racing. They both flourished and gained tremendous knowledge over the weekend, from what to do after a crash, how much time you can make up or lose on a decent and the fine art of hurting yourself till exhaustion just to stay in a criterium. I think Nicole wanted to murder me each time she came past in the criterium on the last day me yelling at her to get up the front and her legs screaming at her to stop, but she got through it nearly got dropped got back on and finished lucky 13th overall in the tour.

Full results can be found here.... http://my1.raceresult.com/details/index.php?page=4&eventid=10671&lang=en     Shantelle also discovered a lot about racing in general and it was her first ever road tour so was great for her to get through the whole 3 days...

   

Some images thanks to Gill who helped us out over the couple of days as well as Kim Howard....

Next event is country's for Nicole, Shantelle and Cait, and Fred Icke for myself

NEWCASTLE

On Friday Nik, myself, our matching bikes and the awesome Subaru wagon headed off on the road to Newcastle for a mini road trip to get some head space and have a race at my club Hunter District’s state open. I had just received my bike the day before leaving  thanks to Bendigo cycles and Specialized bikes being so quick at getting me back on the road following my recent about incident with another car we don't talk about.

 The road trip up was quite eventful ranging from a brief stop at the inland submarine, a random man at a road side rest stop with his knee totally popped out and dislocated and a gorgeous 45minute ride in Goulburn to brake the trip up (utilising my local knowledge of the bike shop/greengrocer/cafe in Goulburn to ensure we had good coffee for the final 3 hour drive).

We arrived in Newcastle Friday night to a beautifully cooked roast lamb with roast vegetables and beans and nice wine, all local produce thanks to Gill’s great preparation. As well there was of course, the great company.

Saturday we got to sleep in a little and headed off to my favourite cafe in Newcastle, 3Bean, for an amazing breakfast and coffee to start the day off in a calm manor we then went for a brief stroll along the lake and headed home to kit up, prep up and ride out to Kooragang island in the gorgeous summery 28 degree weather.

Off we headed for the 28km ride out; I’d forgotten how busy the traffic was in Newcastle. On arriving Nicole realised how much of a local celebrity I am haha…it was great to see all the riders from Newcastle, and to have such big entries in all grades was awesome indeed. We had 20 girls in the race, divided into A and B grade but all racing in the same race, for 7 laps of the infamous 7km “gang”. Nik and I had a few pre-race plans, obviously wanting at least one of us on the the podium but preferentially the 2 of us, obviously we aim high.

The race got underway and as it was so warm and a smallish field no one wanted to show their colours too early so Nik set a lovely steady high tempo on the front to discourage any early attacks and to allow her to get to know the course.

Thanks to Aaron Dial for this mid race pic

After 2 laps a few surges occurred however no one wanted to continue on with a move until after 3.5laps I got away with a local rider Kelly and we got a gap of 100m fairly quickly but the gap never grew more than that and we were away for only ~5km before we were brought back, numerous small moves were made over the rest of the course but it seemed most of the girls wanted a print or didn’t want to work to keep moves away.

I was giving a lot of guidance to Nik throughout the race, and had gotten a few funny looks from other girls in the race wondering why I was yelling at her, but its all a learning curve and was a great experience for us to get to race together and for me to be able to give her advice whilst racing.

Coming into the sprint I was sitting second wheel and not rolling through for the last 3km, a young local girl ,Alicia MacDonald, launched the first move in the sprint with still 900m to go, I let her get 15m  on us before I jumped and followed as she was going fast. When I got to her I thought it was to early to sprint but new I had to keep going then as everyone else was coming so sprinted for 800m and took the race out by a bike length.

Nik had just gotten on the back and had been about to come around underneath everyone when Alicia jumped.

Podium girls, I like it when they aren't so tall

NAB 2012 Criterium

Sunday was BCS women's first state open race as a full team… there were butterflies, lots of toilet stops and a few abrupt words prior to the start due to pre-race nerves (this was only Kate F).
From now I will refer toKate Finegan spelt like with a K, and Cait Fraser Jones spelt with a C so as you don't get confused.
 Kate was defending champ and wanting to replicate her win last year, however knew the field was a lot stronger with some internationals in there as well as double the number of riders. Nicole knew her fitness was coming along nicely, and Cait is not that fond of a Criterium so was unsure of how she would go… Race plan was to keep it together early, but ensure we had at least one of us in each of the moves, and if it was still together at about the half-way point Cait was to give it a go and try and rip the field apart. Within the first 10 minutes there had been a few minor attacks, then one of the Belgium girls went up the road, Kate followed within half a lap and the 2 dangled off the front by about 70m for 4 laps, before being joined by Cait, the other Belgium and Amy Bradley of Total Rush. This formed the break of the day, all 5 were working well together and at the 35minute mark overtook the remainder of the field who were all pulled from the race.

Fellow team members Nik and Shantelle had been in this group so got to stand on the sidelines and cheer/laugh at our pain. It was made easy by only needing to cheer for one name; we do what we can ;)

At 10minutes to go Cait asked me what do I want her to do?? I said whatever you like, knowing that she would then attack which was what I wanted her to do to, this would see if we could drop one or 2 of the others in the break, over the next 4 laps Cait and one of the Belgiums attacked a few times but no one was suffering enough to get dropped/strong enough to drop the others. The bell lap came around very qick and that second last corner was the key. Cait layed herself on the line keeping the pace up and I came around the second last corner shoulder to shoulder with the 2 Belgium’s but came out third best and held onto that position till the end. Cait came over the line in 5^th place. 
Thanks to Bendigo Best Cycling Photographer Darren Casey for the photo below 

Cait powering around the course

Post race smiles

NAB 2012 winners, the band aid on the knee for Kate was a post race clumsy incident...

Good result for our first state level team race, we all learnt a lot and hope to build onwards and upwards throughout the season.

Thanks to NAB and Castlemaine cycling club for running the race, and thanks to Matt Wallace mechanic for the day and Cheryle and Gary for team cheer squads...

SPECIALIZED WOMEN'S RIDE DAY

Shantelle,Kate and Nicole and honouree team member Cheryle (aka Kate's mum)had the pleasure of being involved in Bendigo Cyles Specialized womens day.

wow where to start it was amazing to see so many women on bike's .......... we had over 50 woha!!!!!!

we started of the day with a chat about bike maintenance from bike boy Brock. Then went on to

 some safety stuff light,helmet gloves ect,and bike fit issues with Matt form coachprobikefit.com ,then it was time to head out on the bike so we split into three groups and we were off the girls loved it .
on return from our ride we were treated to coffee and cakes.........and some awesome prizes were given away everyone had a great day the buzz was unreal with all the girls looking forward to do more of these types of thing's ...
a big well done to Bendigo Cycles and Specialized for getting behind women on bike's .............
i am specialized are you ....?
stay tuned for some go pro footage of the day

Womens GP, Cykel events

The things you do when racing is cancelled, as females we choose to spend money considering we couldn't win any at racing today....
Today was scheduled as the final race for the Women's Grand Prix criterium series in Cambeltown, Melbourne. However due to Victoria's lovely summer/autumn weather the races were called off as it was raining. Our car had been all packed up and we were on our way, we got to the Castlemaine turn off when we heard the sad news, one of our riders sooo keen she was already in Melbourne awaiting a start.
So instead in female style we went shoe shopping instead, with an ergo planned for the afternoon of course.
We were actually quite dissapointed about this as we had gone so well in all 3 previous races.
 In round 3, our home ground race in February, Cait Fraser had achieved her best criterium result ever, after continuing to tell us all she couldn't ride a criterium to finish second by 200ths of a second in Division 1, and in Division 2 Nicole had demoralised the whole field by showing her strength and increasing the average speed of the pace by 5km/hr and Shantelle took out 2nd in the sprint to finish off with some good team work.

http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/news/local/sport/cycling/mcintosh-wins-womens-grand-prix-criterium-race-on-bendigo-east-circuit/2452353.aspx

Round 2 was in Casey Fields, Kate Finegan and Shantelle made the long road trip in heat of 40+ degrees to race. Shantelle forgot she was racing road and went onto the gravel in her prologue, and Kate was leading until the final  riders pulled out some fast times. Pre-race discussions Kate and Shantelle agreed they needed to come out of the final corner first or second to have any chance of the win, yet Shantelle's sprinting prowess showed when she came from 6th back to come 2nd in division 2. Kate then took on division 1 and made the essential break of the day, and pulled out a win, she did come out of the corner first and however nearly made the fatal mistake of raising her arms too early but it doesn't matter how much you win by, as long as you cross that line first.

http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/news/local/sport/cycling/finegan-riding-high-in-grand-prix/2443595.aspx
Round 1 was at Melton and both Kate and Shantelle attended a course that was a specific criterium corners with some nice sweeping corners. Shantelle sprinted to an awesome win in Division 2, after being worried weather or not she would finish prior to racing. Kate was pipped to second both in the intermediate and final sprint by Nicole Whitburn, this meant game on.

We are a bit disappointed as the final round 4 we will now most likely be unable to attend as we will be participating in a womens specialised ride day in Bendigo. But these things happen.

INTRODUCING BCS

Welcome to the blog of the womens Building Chapion Squad based in Bendigo Central Victoria. We are a new team targeting local and state races for 2012, establishing ourselves as a regional, Central Victorian team, with the goal to be riding NRS in 2013. We are a diverse group of women all trying to achieve our own version of success in cycling and other aspects of our life.
We are currently recieving suppport from numerous businesses in various form. These are Burkinshaw roofing, Hot Designs clothing, Bendigo cycles and Coachprobikefit.com (Matt Wallace).
Our 4 main riders for the season are Nicole McNamara, Shantelle Maurer, Cait Fraser and Kate Finegan; we will also be having Carly McCoombe and Roz Bradley riding a couple of races for us throughout the year.
Nicole McNamara is possibly the newset member to cycling, taking up road cycling 3 years ago. Nicole's strong points in cycling are her ability to put high power out FOREVER, she would like to race some time trials and work on her tactical skills in 2012.
Shatelle Maurer is our youngers rider who as recently been coverted from the dark side (mountain biking) to road racing. She is in her final year of U19's, was staate MTB chapion and is one of the best wheel suckers in the peleton don't bother going on a training rider with her if you want to get a wheel sit.
Cait Fraser, an ex world level rower, and power house on the bike. Cait will ride anyone off her wheel if she try's (team mates included) and loves riding up a hill.
Kate Finegan, (the short Kate) a little pocket rocket who appears to be smiling often, but it may just be  grimace of pain. Kate is a criterium specialist who loves to hurt herself and enjoys mixing it up with the boys just to annoy them whenever possible.
Carly McCoombe is a track specialist, with numerous national junior titles. Carly is making a come back after taking some time off to enjoy some of the finer things in life....and attend University on the side. It's lucky Carly can ride a bike, as she has been known to pull a muscle pumping up a tyre (we now know why she tried a little bit of rowing, so this muscle pulling doesn't occur again).
Roz Bradley is a mountain bike extraudinare and can handle a bike as good as the best of them, don't let her take 1m on a decent or she'll take 1km. Roz is also on the comeback trail after some time off being a mother.

Stay tuned to this blog for updates on racing and possibly other things as well...