Doubling as an NRS Tour and the Vic State Championships for TT, Road & Crit, it was set to be a big weekend.
The first stage was a 28km TT with no flat bits. TTing not really being my strong point, I wanted to just get through it with my head in a good place! The weather was fantastic with the sun shining, I was riding a shiny fast looking P4 borrowed from a friend, and all was going well until the final climb when I went to hit the small chain ring and dropped my chain! Ouch. Coming to a rapid stop I had to get off to fix it and then get myself going again, in the end basically doing a nice SE effort up the final climb! Not that I was going to challenge the winners, but it’s disappointing to lose over 30 seconds for a silly thing like that. That’ll teach me for riding a bike I’ve only done 30k on before!
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| Photo thanks to Jules from XOSize |
The team did awesome, with 3 in the top 12, so we were set for a big couple of days trying to move up GC.
An amazing, delicious steak and veggies was cooked for me by Dean T, and then his awesome fiancé Jen gave my hair some much needed styling, before heading back to the team base for an early night before Saturdays road stage.
Having pre rode the course the week before, I knew what was in store, and knew where I needed to be and when, and yet I still stuffed it up. Finding myself at the back of the bunch recovering from bridging across to an unsuccessful break, I saw the sign signalling the first descent and knew I was in trouble. Trying to get around dodgy descenders on the tight corners proved impossible, and I found myself gapped off the back of the bunch with another couple of girls. We chased for a while but knew the pace would be on in the bunch, so we decided to save our legs for the next day and just get to the finish. Rolling in I found out that Loren had taken out the stage, best news I’d had all day!
Bit of a failure on my part, but it’s only one if I don’t learn from it! Will be doing my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
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| Photo from jxphotography |
The next day’s Crit was a nice leisurely lunch time start, so we went for a bit of a coffee cruise in the morning and then enjoyed some couch time! It went too quick though, and before we knew it, it was time to kit up and hit the road.
With a sprint prime with bonus seconds every second lap, the pace was on from the start. The game plan was to get as much time bonuses as we could for the girls up on GC, so Maddi, Trish and I did as much work leading out and chasing down attacks as we could. End result, another win for Loren! Zoe came in 4th, and Whitburn rounded out our top 3 in 7th. A super successful race!
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| Photo from jxphotography |
