Wangaratta Racing

The Criterium

The Wangaratta Criterium was officially my comeback race since the states, and what an interesting one it was! The crit was held on a circuit at Sam Miranda Winery which was about 500-600m long with a hot dog corner in it. Now that I actually think about it, the whole thing was basically a corner! wasn't much opportunity to pedal, but that was not to say that it wasn't fast! The weather was perfect, sun was shining, wasn't any wind to be seen...loving life :)

They key to this crit was going to be stay at the front. We had about 13 girls who had entered? including Belinda Goss who one of the top domestic rides at the moment. Our crit was 30min and 2 laps with a few intermediate sprints thrown in for good measure. within the first couple of laps, the hot dog corner proved to take some casualties with the bunch reduced to about 6 riders. The constant acceleration out of that turn further reduced the field and in the end there were 4 riders left including myself. I didn't have as powerful acceleration as a couple of the other girls in the group so had to chase hard to get back on the end of the break most laps, legs were definitely feeling the lactic acid... it was like doing a track start every 500m for 30min! makes you tough haha. coming into the last 3 laps i realised that if i was to have any chance at winning, i'd have to go into that hot dog turn in front and hope for the best, was on the front for the last 3 laps and managed to hold them off until about 100m to go where got pipped for the line and picked up 3rd behind Belinda Goss and Chloe McConville.

Wasn't too fussed about the result, i'm not a classic sprinter but i think i gave myself every opportunity i had to do well! had a good cool down afterwards and fueled up on probably some of the best woodfire pizza (greek with lamb and tzatziki...yummy..) and iced chocolate in preparation for the road race the next day! quality stuff

The Road Race

The road race, where do i start? well guess first thing was the weather. I was surprised at just how quickly it could change! Perfect weather for the criterium and we rock up to the road race and it was blowing a gale and raining! Was definitely going to be a tough day in the office...100km of racing into the wind with a few climbs thrown in for good measure! I have to admit, I was pretty excited to see how i'd go on the climbs as it proved to be one of my strengths in the US. there was an 11km climb of about 3.25% i think, followed by another climb which was about 5km on top of which was a KOM (about half way into the race). the first climb was about 10km in and one girl attacked and I chased after her with Belinda on my wheel and turned around to see that we'd dropped the bunch. We stayed away on the climb until just after the KOM where we saw a chase group coming so was eased up and waited as we still had 60km in a head wind to do, so we didn't mind the extra company! The climbing was great, just a gradual increase. felt really strong but was a bit reserved because didn't know how my form would stack up. just missed out on the KOM because i left it too late and Belinda had the stronger acceleration. Should have just tried to ride them off my wheel with about 1km to go, but hey now i know where i stand in my ability and will hopefully be able to have more trust in it for next weekends racing! The decent from the KOM felt awesome, such an adrenalin rush! Hit the front and just smashed it, glad i had the 12 on! although it was a bit sketchy with all of the debris on the road from the wind :s

So there was a bunch of about 7 girls after we got caught and we stayed together for the rest of the race as it was basically flat or downhill. it was gong to come to a bunch finish because the winds were too strong for anyone to get away in by themselves. not my ideal situation, but hey, thats bike racing! So in the bunch finish i got 3rd again behind Belinda and Chloe again, so same placings as the crit. Was happy with how i raced, pulled my fair share of the weight just wish i was more aggressive on the climbs!


There is a picture of the break which i was in for the first half of the race going up the climb here:
http://www.pixweb.com.au/main/gallery.php?alb=73


It was great to get the first lot of racing under my belt and i'm looking forward to the next block of racing which i have coming up! It was definitely a race worth the 6hr drive! although, needless to say i was a bit buggered for the trip home!

Next on the to do list: Glen Innes to Inverell. Bring it.

P.S full results can be found here:
http://www.vic.cycling.org.au/?Page=17780