Well what an eventful two weekends of racing it has been with the BCS girls! I have learned so much in just two races and also gained some really good experience!
Last weekend Lauretta, Nik, Tayla and I were racing down at the Phillip Island Grand Prix. Quite novel to be racing at such a unique venue; super-fast surface, picturesque views out to Cape Woolami, and some aggressive women’s racing to boot! It was a teams’ race, with a focus on accumulating points through sprints and KOM’s which ultimately contributed to overall standings in the Team’s Classification.
Experience gained included; trying my hand at leading Lauretta out for a sprint, not my forte, think I just set a nice ‘tempo’ pace leading to the line! And also getting involved in my first convincing break off the front!
Lauretta and I held good position for the race, I positioned myself so that I could react to any moves that went and this paid off. In the latter half of the race I managed to cover a couple of attacks from the LIV Giant girls and the next one made by Sarah Riley seemed to spilt the group; bang we were in a break! I was pretty buggered after covering the earlier attacks and it took me a while to recover, luckily Sarah was doing a great job at driving it into the head winds, and I was able to give her some recovery with my contributions! It was looking like we might be able to hold out for the KOM points, but it was not to be, the girls got organised and reeled us in about 100m from the KOM line!
Meanwhile Lauretta was riding a smart race, sitting in, not working and focusing on the sprints. She picked up valuable points winning one of the intermediates and also placing 4th and 2nd in the other two. To top it off she took out the final sprint finish in an impressive show down between herself and Nic Whitburn. I was impressed with my 6th place considering my sprinting qualities! Nik and Tayla were not far behind, finishing strongly in the top 20.
We finished what must have been a very close 2nd on the Team’s Classification, a fantastic result for the team!
This weekend Nik, Kate and I raced the Country Road Championships held at Harcourt. It is always great to race on our local roads, having had the opportunity to train regularly on them and also just as great is the little sleep in and no travel time!
A small field set out for two short 12km loops which saw us all stay together, then one big 56km lap south to Elphinstone then back over the ‘Goose Neck’ and also the dreaded ‘Turdie’! Kate tested her legs for an attack a couple of times, once we hit the old Calder Highway, but nothing seemed to really stick. Then at the 25km mark we passed through Harcourt and set out on the big lap, Kate lit it up again. I was straight on her wheel and also behind me was Vic Luxton-Baine.
We quickly got organised and rolled some hard turns to maximise the gap. We hit the long draggy climbs around Faraday on our absolute limit, but this proved to be an opportunity to extend our lead as the gap was widening, how exciting! From here we rode the remaining 50km at a solid pace, never wanting to relax as we had no idea what the time gaps were to the chasing bunch.
It was a great experience for me being in a break with team mate Kate, and also really inspiring to see firsthand the determination and intensity she is capable of racing at. She was the strongest of us by far and was relentless with her motoring turns, very nearly on more than one occasion, leaving both Vic and I behind! My confidence was lifted by the clear fact that Kate was backing me all the way and even setting me up for the possibility of winning this race! Her actions were effective in changing my whole mindset and instilling confidence in myself to be able to give it 100%
We knew that if we stayed away up the Turdie we would have it, but it was amazing at how slow I felt I was climbing due to the matches that were burnt establishing and maintaining the break. We were all nervously checking behind, but no bunch showed.
It was near impossible to discuss tactics leading into the sprint finish, in the end Kate said that if I went early she would do her best to hold off Vic. As it happened I just went far too early and couldn’t sustain my effort to the line, Kate came round me and also Vic and I was left to roll over the line in third place! So a personally a slightly disappointing finish for me but at the same time so much had been gained!
I now look forward to the possibility of racing club championships on a similar course and also our local 3 day club tour!
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