This is my first blog for a while and I think it comes at an appropriate time of my season. My last blog took us up to the end of our second team training camp. This point marked the end of my winter training and the beginning of my 2012 racing season. I had already spent 3-4 weeks away with my new team mates and as the start of the season drew closer, the exciting talks of racing were growing evermore common. Personally I couldn’t wait to take off the legwarmers and get stuck in.
My season started relatively quietly with a local 25 mile TT. A very cold Sunday morning in Sussex marked my first race, where I was entitled to proudly pull on my Rapha Condor Sharp skinsuit for the first time. Although the TT itself was hugely uncomfortable and not particularly quick, it felt good to lay down a definitive marker and I can now monitor my improvement as the year progresses. More importantly it meant the season had now officially started.
My first big race for the team was the UCI 2.1 classified Tour de Taiwan. But before I jetted off to the other side of the globe, I was looking to fit in a few more races to help ease the always painful transition from training to racing. I was lucky enough to be given the offer to stay up North with my team mate Rich Handley – I got to know Rich quite well after sharing a room with for the duration of our first training camp in Lanzarote. It appears I didn’t annoy him too much first time round, so he was willing to accommodate me at his home for a weekend of training and racing. Along with a few of our other team mates, we raced in the Eddie Soens Memorial and CDNW Pimbo circuit races. I was pleasantly surprised with how I felt in the season openers and picked up 6th on the Saturday and 9th on the Sunday.
Tuesday afternoon I was dropped off at Manchester Airport to meet the members of the team I was travelling to Asia with; Luke (Mellor), Andy (Tennant) and Pete (Taylor). You can always sense the disappointment of the person behind the check-in desk at the airport who has to deal with us and this time was no exception as we had quite a large entourage of baggage to stow away on the plane; 7 bike bags, 8 suitcases and 1 very lanky rider. Our flight plan would add a few more pins into the chart on my wall with the journey taking us from Manchester to Amsterdam to Bangkok and finally to Taipei.
With no apparent signs of jet lag on arrival, the few days we had before the start of the race flew by. A few short rides, lots of Starbucks coffee, birthday cake purchasing, press conferences and probably too much twitter were what filled my time. After receiving our race programme it quickly became apparent that we weren’t going to be waking up any later than 6am at any point during the race. I generally don’t have a problem with early starts and here was no different but I did find myself struggling to stay awake past 9:30 most evenings.
Stage 1 was a short, very wet 55km crit around the centre of Taipei city. The short distance, bad weather and tight corners suited my style of riding quite a lot. I was pretty nervous before the start – as John picked up on when I couldn’t stop fidgeting – as I didn’t really have any idea how I was going to compare to the highest ranked field I’d ever raced against. I was fortunate enough to be given a nice initiation into this level of racing with a fast but comfortable first stage where I picked up 4th in the bunch sprint, which was good enough for 10th on the stage. However, the following few stages weren’t as kind.
The next 3 days involved me suffering, wheel sucking and trying my best not to get dropped from the main group too early. Even after a nice first stage, in my head I knew I was going to take a bit of a kicking. Last year whilst stage racing, although I experienced some good stages I also experienced a lot of bad days where I was struggling from the start to the very end of the stage. Naturally, taking a step up from the racing I did last year I expected it to be harder, so I think not underestimating how hard it was going to be was what helped me get through those first few days. I wasn’t panicking about my performances at night and wasn’t dreading getting up for the race in the morning – quite the contrary as although I wasn’t performing as well as the rest of the team, I was still loving the racing.
After a tough 5 days and my personal goal of reaching the finish of the race nearly complete, I was given the opportunity of trying to get in the days break away. Stage 6 was my best chance, when the break was let go within the first couple of km’s. This marked for me, personally my worst day of the tour. Sitting in the bunch steadily riding along knowing I could’ve been in the break wasn’t a nice feeling and to top off a very long drawn out day, I got burnt to a crisp by the sudden heat wave shortly after the start – 35 degree sun and pale Irish skin without any suncream is a terrible combination. After the disappointment of not capitalizing on my role of getting in the early break-away on stage 6, I was determined to rectify that on stage 7 and must’ve followed over 10 attacks within the first hour but to no avail. The not too shabby average speed of 49 km/h probably had something to do with that. The end of the race was tarred with an unfortunate event. A fast technical finish looked to be the perfect end to our tour, with Deano [Dean Downing] and Ben (Grenda) both up well within the top 10 with 500m to go but some bad dangerous riding from another rider saw Ben being taken down and bouncing down the tarmac on his ass. Not a nice end to Ben’s tour, especially after his solid performances taking a 5th and a 6th.
Looking back now I am pretty satisfied that I got through the race. I loved the experience and it felt great to finally get involved in some racing after months of excitedly anticipating lining up with my new team mates. International stage racing has definitely become one of my most favourite aspects of the sport in the last few years. I relish the way the team comes together throughout the race to help each other achieve the best results possible and to get each other through the lows as well as the highs is something that I haven’t yet experienced anywhere else. Although in the Tour de Taiwan I was at times disappointed that I wasn’t able to help my team mates more, I think the experience gained there will stand be in good stead for the rest of the season.
From this moment I have quite a busy 4 weeks ahead of me. This Saturday (24th March) I’m racing for the first time since Taiwan in a short hilly circuit race in East London. I then move to my next race with the team the following Sunday – the Dengie Marsh classic premier calendar. After that I fly to Belfast for the 4 day stage race: the Tour of the North. Finally, I fly out to Holland to compete in the ZLM U23 Nations Cup event, where I will be riding my first race of 2012 for the Irish National team. A busy, but very exciting few weeks ahead and I can’t wait to get racing again.
After a tough world cup in Beijing where I got quite sick, I took some time off to balance the options for the 2012 season. It became clear I wanted to be in races that best suit me; criteriums and fast races. I got in touch with Emile Abraham who runs one of the best amateur teams in the USA; Rossetti Devo Cycling Team.
Emile is himself an excellent rider, he’s put together a strong core of cyclist from six different nations;
Emile Abraham – Trinidad Gevan Samuel – Trinidad Daniel Asconeguy – Uruguay Ricardo Giraldo Sierra – Colombia Jean-Michel Lachance – Canada Benjamin Bryant – USA Franco – Puerto Rico
The calendar is still in the oven, but promised to be filled with some of the best races around USA, Canada, Trinidad, Puerto Rico and other countries.
Our sponsors includes Rossetti bikes which are simply amazing, the best bike shop in Atlanta Outback bikes, EDA construction, SauceBox cyclewear and a few others.
For this venture, I drove a crazy 2250km in two days to finally arrive on wednesday 14th. The following day, was one of those days… building the bike, adjusting the position and finally a short ride which ended up being a long four hours. The next weekend, we had two races on the program. I was a bit anxious about my fitness with a few weeks completely off trainning and a good three and half month off the road. Speaking about winter trainning, it was pretty much the first time in four years, I spent the whole winter in Quebec city. Preparing for a road season in the cold is never easy and it takes a lot of motivation to train at high intensity on the trainer.
Anyhow, I took part in both races; a one hour crit on saturday and a seventy-one mile road race on sunday. To be honest, I was happily surprised with my form. My legs were still sore from the two previous rides in the days before. I tried to go away a few time in the crit and won one prime after the breakaway lapped us, I went on a gruelling 40km solo breakaway in the road race.
After the success of the previous camp, I had high expectations for our second camp of the year and it didn’t disappoint. It was my first time meeting the 3 new international additions to the team for 2012; Ben Grenda, Rich Lang and Chris Jennings. The 3 guys fitted into the team immediately – probably helped by the ‘Twitter banter’ which started before we’d even met the guys and has kept everyone entertained both at home and whilst together on camp. Our stay in Benidorm was scheduled by the boss to get us race fit, just before we kick start our racing season. The harder efforts were a bit of a shock to the system, in contrary to the laid back steady riding I had become accustomed to over the winter and whilst out in Lanzarote. This time around I wasn’t nervous about the camp, but I had a small amount of doubt at the back of my mind about how I was going to perform after training was interrupted when the UK skies decided to snow. I’m writing this now about 10,000 feet up in the air, wedged into my Ryanair seat (thankfully I’m on the shorter side so I have some leg room, unlike a few of my longer team mates), flying towards London Stansted (or knowing Ryanair, somewhere within a 50 mile radius) in preparation for our team launch at Sharp HQ. Our mechanics and soigneurs are currently driving north through Spain heading towards the French border. With our bikes being driven back home, it means each of us only has to worry about getting our suitcases and a pair of sore and heavy legs back home to the UK, sometimes easier said than done.
With a total of 9 training days, the camp was split up into two four day blocks with one rest day. This alone was going to make the camp harder, and with the added bonus of specific TT, hill and leadout efforts it was destined to produce; aching legs, stiff backs and tired bodies. Along with the different style of training, we had our team nutritionist Mayur over for a few days, examining our meals and checking our skinfolds – which always brings competitiveness from everybody. We’ve decided that Luke has to be removed from the competition as he puts us all to shame! The presence of an all you can eat buffet meant that Mayur was definitely necessary to keep us in shape and to make sure we were getting the most of what we were putting into our bodies. The combination of Mayur’s advice at the dinner table and the support from Science In Sport, every rider has got through the tough camp without picking up any illnesses and we’ve all seen the ever welcome improvements in our skin folds.
The setup in Benidorm was different to the self-catering apartments we had out in Lanzarote. We had smaller rooms with 2-3 people in each, which I think suited this type of camp a lot better. There was also the huge bonus of having free wifi in every room. Having access to wifi always make for a more relaxing stay – the ability to lie in bed, flicking about the interweb after a hard days riding is priceless. This time around I was rooming with Mr Deano Downing. I learnt a lot throughout the week just from chatting to Dean about the upcoming season, and the expectations this team has. All of the talk of racing throughout the week, has every rider on the team chomping at the bit and super excited about pinning our first set of race numbers on the back of our Rapha Condor Sharp jerseys.
Along with the other stuff going on, we had the Rapha film competition winner Andrew with us for the duration of the camp. He’s producing a short film of the team, which will show the ins and outs of a Rapha Condor Sharp training camp. After seeing some of the shots he’s picked up over the week, I can’t wait to the see the finished product. A few of the days involved Andrew filming out the back of the Skoda team car with the boot open, whilst we chased him down one of the particularly fast and windy descents. All good fun!
Training throughout the week was kept simple and we made sure we got some essential race prep work done. I won’t bore you with the specifics but as I said earlier we worked on a 4 days on, 1 day off schedule. The first 3 days were each between 90-100km, with the first day working on TT efforts, the second day working on threshold hill efforts, the third day – my favourite of the block – was leadout/sprint day and finally we ended with a steady endurance day. We each worked on our efforts individually as it was clear from the beginning of the camp that we are all different in our abilities in certain areas – as expected with our age gaps and variety of different types of riders. The steady (sometimes not so steady for me when the Aussies got to the front) endurance day took us on a nice loop around the surrounding mountains, allowing us to clock up 160km in 5:30 hours with 3000m of climbing. Each ride was always a good laugh and with a few coveted ‘Strava segment sprints’ being contested there was always a good flow of conversation between everyone – saying that I was communicating considerably less on some of the climbs… not out of choice.
All in all, another highly successful camp. All of us are buzzing for the start of the 2012 racing season and judging by the way a lot of the guys were riding it won’t be long until we have a few wins under our belts either.
It appears the Olympic Test Event; the UCI Track World Cup Final Round was a great success. There were supposedly minor grumbles from cyclists track centre who would have preferred not to have to trek so far for toilet facilities but everything else seems to have had the thumbs up. It seems the venue has been embraced by the majority of the cycling community in attendance. The track and closely controlled temperature seem to have enabled the athletes to achieve some very fast times with a number of new world records being set.
Team GB came out fighting providing a haul of medals and encouragingly for Team GB they are in areas that will count come the London Olympics. The international cyclists seemed to treat the event as a mini Olympics or World Championships. The times are looking very close amongst the top teams. In the men’s sprinting the German team looked to have breadth and depth, the French and Australian’s too were looking on course for a peak later in the season. The Women’s GB endurance riders seem to be on top form with only minor tinkering needed before the major events of the season. The Men’s endurance team look like they need a little more work but they had a great result (taking silver) with admittedly less time than they would have liked to train together, but they will no doubt be addressing that in the coming months. They seemed very relaxed and happy with their performance so I think we can expect more.
I can’t wait to see the cream of the worlds track cyclists battle it out in Australia for the World Championships, it’s going to be a wonderful summer of competitive cycling. Track cycling is in rude health and it’s a great example to other sports particularly for the camaraderie and respect between teams.
Bring on the World Champs!
RESULTS
MEN’S TEAM PURSUIT
1 AUS Australia 3:54.615
BOBRIDGE Jack
DENNIS Rohan
EDMONDSON Alexander
HEPBURN Michael
2 GBR Great Britain 3:56.330
BURKE Steven
CLANCY Edward
KENNAUGH Peter
THOMAS Geraint
3 NZL New Zealand 3:59.242
BEWLEY Sam
GATE Aaron
GOUGH Westley
RYAN Marc
4 BEL Belgium
DE POORTERE Ingmar
CORNU Dominique
DE KETELE Kenny
DUFRASNE Jonathan
5 RUS Russia
6 NED Netherlands
7 COL Colombia
8 LOK LOKOSPHINX
9 CHI Chile
10 DEN Denmark
Final World Cup Standings
1 AUSTRALIA AUS 42pts
2 NEW ZEALAND NZL 28pts
3 RUSVELO RVL 24pts
4 GREAT BRITAIN GBR 17pts
5 BELGIUM BEL 17pts
6 DENMARK DEN 16pts
7 NETHERLANDS NED 16pts
8 GERMANY GER 14pts
9 COLOMBIA COL 11pts
10 LOKOSPHINX LOK 11pts
MEN’S SPRINT 200m TT
1 HOY Chris GBR 9.932
2 SIREAU Kevin FRA 10.026
3 LEVY Maximilian GER 10.096
4 FÖRSTEMANN Robert GER 10.144
5 NJISANE Phillip TRI 10.148
6 KENNY Jason GBR 10.153
7 PERKINS Shane AUS 10.162
8 BAUGE Gregory FRA 10.217
9 BOTTICHER Stefan ERD 10.218
10 CRAMPTON Matthew SKY 10.234
11 SUNDERLAND Scott AUS 10.250
12 WATANABE Kazunari JPN 10.257
13 DAWKINS Edward NZL 10.272
14 ZHANG Miao CHN 10.277
15 PUERTA ZAPATA Fabian Hernando COL 10.278
16 NAKAGAWA Seiichiro JPN 10.279
1/8 Finals Heat 1
1 HOY Chris GBR 10.526
2 NAKAGAWA Seiichiro JPN Heat 2
1 SIREAU Kevin FRA 10.466
2 PUERTA ZAPATA Fabian Hernando COL Heat 3
1 LEVY Maximilian GER 10.685
2 ZHANG Miao CHN Heat 4
1 FÖRSTEMANN Robert GER 10.695
2 DAWKINS Edward NZL Heat 5
1 WATANABE Kazunari JPN 10.538
2 NJISANE Phillip TRI Heat 6
1 KENNY Jason GBR 10.476
2 SUNDERLAND Scott AUS Heat 7
1 CRAMPTON Matthew SKY 11.517
2 PERKINS Shane AUS REL Heat 8
1 BAUGE Gregory FRA 10.577
2 BOTTICHER Stefan ERD
5th to 8th Final
5 KENNY Jason GBR 10.848
6 CRAMPTON Matthew SKY
7 WATANABE Kazunari JPN
8 BAUGE Gregory FRA
1/4 Finals
Heat 1 HOY Chris GBR beat BAUGE Gregory FRA 2-1
Heat 2 SIREAU Kevin FRA beat CRAMPTON Matthew SKY 2-0
Heat 3 LEVY Maximilian GER beat KENNY Jason GBR 2-0
Heat 4 FÖRSTEMANN Robert GER beat WATANABE Kazunari JPN 2-0 Semi Finals
Semi 1 HOY Chris GBR 10.293 beats FÖRSTEMANN Robert GER 2-0
Semi 2 LEVY Maximilian GER beats SIREAU Kevin FRA 2-0 Finals
GOLD HOY Chris GBR beats LEVY Maximillian 2-0
BRONZE FORSTEMANN Robert GER beat SIREAU Kevin FRA 2-1
Final World Cup Standings
1 HOY Chris SKY 24pts
2 LEVY Maximilian GER 20pts
3 DMITRIEV Denis MTT 18pts
4 FORSTEMANN Robert ERD 15pts
5 NJISANE Phillip TRI 14pts
6 CONORD Charlie FRA 12pts
7 BOTTICHER Stefan ERD 12pts
8 SIREAU Kevin FRA 12pts
9 ZHANG Lei CHN 10pts
10 ENDERS Rene GER 9pts
11 CRAMPTON Matthew GBR 9pts
16 KENNY Jason GBR 7pts
WOMEN’S KEIRIN 1st Round (first rider to 1/4 finals, rest to repechage)
Heat 1
1 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
2 MCCULLOCH Kaarle AUS
3 PENDLETON Victoria GBR
4 BREZHNIVA Elena PHL
5 HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED
6 LEE Eunji KOR
7 DIEZ Alba CAT Heat 2
1 JUNHONG Lin GPC
2 GNIDENKO Ekaterina PHL
3 CASAS ROIGE Helena ESP
4 MUSTAPA Fatehah YSD
5 HANSEN Natasha NZL
6 VILERA Mariesthela VEN
7 ALANGO Monika EST Heat 3
1 VOGEL Kristina GER
2 JANKUTE Gabriele LTU
3 GAVIRIA RENDON Juliana COL
4 MEARES Anna AUS
5 VOYNOVA Anastasiya RUS
6 KANIS Willy NED
7 EL BUSTO ARTEAGA Ainara NAV Heat 4
1 VARNISH Jess GBR
2 LARREAL Daniela VEN
3 GODBY Madalyn USA
4 WELTE Miriam GER
5 ISHII Hiroko JPN
6 STRELTSOVA Olga MTT
7 DYLKO Alena BLR Heat 5
1 SANCHEZ Clara FRA
2 ZHONG Tianshi GPC
3 GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB
4 LOHVINAVA Maryia BLR
5 WALKER Cristin USA
6 HUANG Ting Ying TPE Heat 6
1 LEE Wai Sze HKG
2 GUO Shuang CHN
3 LEE Hyejin KOR
4 BARANOVA Viktoria RUS
5 CALVO BARBERO Tania ESP
6 SCHOFIELD Katie NZL 1st Round Repechage (first two progress to 1/4 final) Heat 1
1 SULLIVAN Monique CAN
2 KANIS Willy NED
3 MCCULLOCH Kaarle AUS
4 LEE Hyejin KOR
5 LOHVINAVA Maryia BLR
6 ISHII Hiroko JPN Heat 2
1 PENDLETON Victoria GBR
2 SHULIKA Lyubov UKR
3 BARANOVA Viktoria RUS
4 WALKER Cristin USA
5 STRELTSOVA Olga MTT
6 GNIDENKO Ekaterina PHL
7 EL BUSTO ARTEAGA Ainara NAV Heat 3
1 CALVO BARBERO Tania ESP
2 JANKUTE Gabriele LTU
3 BREZHNIVA Elena PHL
4 CASAS ROIGE Helena ESP
5 HUANG Ting Ying TPE
6 MAEDA Kayono JPN
7 DYLKO Alena BLR Heat 4
1 LARREAL Daniela VEN
2 SCHOFIELD Katie NZL
3 RIBEIRO Sumaia BRA
4 MUSTAPA Fatehah YSD
5 HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED
6 GAVIRIA RENDON Juliana COL Heat 5
1 MEARES Anna AUS
2 ZHONG Tianshi GPC
3 HANSEN Natasha NZL
4 GARCIA Diana Maria COL
5 LEE Eunji KOR
6 GODBY Madalyn USA Heat 6
1 GUO Shuang CHN
2 GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB
3 WELTE Miriam GER
4 VILERA Mariesthela VEN
5 VOYNOVA Anastasiya RUS
6 DIEZ Alba CAT 1/4 Finals (first two to semis, rest to 1/4 final repechage) Heat 1
1 SHULIKA Lyubov UKR
2 MEARES Anna AUS
3 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
4 KANIS Willy NED
5 CLAIR Sandie FRA
6 GUO Shuang CHN
7 212 LEE Wai Sze HKG Heat 2
1 SANCHEZ Clara FRA
2 SULLIVAN Monique CAN
3 GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB
4 JUNHONG Lin GPC
5 JANKUTE Gabriele LTU
6 LARREAL Daniela VEN Heat 3
1 PENDLETON Victoria GBR
2 VARNISH Jess GBR
3 SCHOFIELD Katie NZL
4 ZHONG Tianshi GPC
5 VOGEL Kristina GER REL
CALVO BARBERO Tania ESP DNS
Semi Finals Heat 1
1 SHULIKA Lyubov UKR
2 GUO Shuang CHN
3 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
4 VARNISH Jess GBR
5 SULLIVAN Monique CAN
6 JUNHONG Lin GPC Heat 2
1 PENDLETON Victoria GBR
2 MEARES Anna AUS
3 LEE Wai Sze HKG
4 SANCHEZ Clara FRA
5 CLAIR Sandie FRA
6 KANIS Willy NED
Finals Final 1-6
1 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
2 LEE Wai Sze HKG
3 GUO Shuang CHN
4 SHULIKA Lyubov UKR
5 PENDLETON Victoria GBR
6 MEARES Anna AUS Final 7-12
7 SANCHEZ Clara FRA
8 JUNHONG Lin GPC
9 KANIS Willy NED
10 CLAIR Sandie FRA
11 SULLIVAN Monique CAN
12 VARNISH Jess GBR
Final World Cup Standings
1 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU 38pts
2 GNIDENKO Ekaterina RUS 21pts
3 SHULIKA Lyubov UKR 21pts
4 GUO Shuang CHN 20pts
5 VOGEL Kristina GER 20pts
6 SANCHEZ Clara FRA 16pts
7 LEE Wai Sze HKG 10pts
8 MEARES Anna AUS 10pts
9 LARREAL Daniela VEN 8pts
10 CUEFF Virginie FRA 8pts
11 PENDLETON Victoria GBR 6pts
25 JAMES Rebecca GBR 2pts
WOMEN’S OMNIUM Individual Pursuit
1 WHITTEN Tara CAN 3:31.604
2 TROTT Laura GBR 3:35.388
3 HAMMER Sarah USA 3:38.553
4 WILD Kirsten NED 3:40.992
5 EDMONDSON Annette AUS 3:41.357
6 GALYUK Svitlana UKR 3:41.536
7 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL 3:41.887
8 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 3:41.973
9 HUANG Li CHN 3:42.970
10 OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire ESP 3:43.586
Omnium Scratch
1 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR
2 HAMMER Sarah USA -1lap
3 HUANG Li CHN -1lap
4 D’HOORE Jolien BEL -1lap
5 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL -1lap
6 EDMONDSON Annette AUS -1lap
7 WILD Kirsten NED -1lap
8 JEULAND Pascale FRA -1lap
9 TROTT Laura GBR -1lap
10 ROMANYUTA Evgenia RVL -1lap
500m TT
1 TROTT Laura GBR 35.642
2 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 35.645
3 EDMONDSON Annette AUS 35.718
4 WHITTEN Tara CAN 35.805
5 HAMMER Sarah USA 36.288
6 TREBAITE Ausrine LTU 36.420
7 LEE Min Hye KOR 36.579
8 HUANG Li CHN 36.583
9 D’HOORE Jolien BEL 36.638
10 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL 36.752
Final Omnium Standings
GOLD HAMMER Sarah USA 30pts
SILVER EDMONDSON Annette AUS 30pts
BRONZE TROTT Laura GBR 32pts
4 WHITTEN Tara CAN 34pts
5 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 41pts
6 WILD Kirsten NED 45pts
7 HUANG Li CHN 55pts
8 TREBAITE Ausrine LTU 57pts
9 D’HOORE Jolien BEL 58pts
10 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL 62pts
Final World Cup Standings
1 HUANG Li CHN 28pts
2 HAMMER Sarah USA 24pts
3 ROMANYUTA Evgeniya RVL 24pts
4 WHITTEN Tara CAN 17pts
5 TROTT Laura GBR 16pts
6 TREBAITE Ausrine LTU 15pts
7 WOJTYRA Malgorzata POL 12pts
8 WILD Kirsten NED 11pts
9 EDMONDSON Annette AUS 10pts
10 KING Dani GBR 10pts
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With no apparent signs of jet lag on arrival, the few days we had before the start of the race flew by. A few short rides, lots of Starbucks coffee, birthday cake purchasing, press conferences and probably too much twitter were what filled my time. After receiving our race programme it quickly became apparent that we weren’t going to be waking up any later than 6am at any point during the race. I generally don’t have a problem with early starts and here was no different but I did find myself struggling to stay awake past 9:30 most evenings.
distance, bad weather and tight corners suited my style of riding quite a lot. I was pretty nervous before the start – as John picked up on when I couldn’t stop fidgeting – as I didn’t really have any idea how I was going to compare to the highest ranked field I’d ever raced against. I was fortunate enough to be given a nice initiation into this level of racing with a fast but comfortable first stage where I picked up 4th in the bunch sprint, which was good enough for 10th on the stage. However, the following few stages weren’t as kind.
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