Bay Crit Day 5: Ritchie Boulevard

My 5th and final day in sunny Geelong and my time at Bay Crits is rapidly coming to an end. The Ritchie Boulevard crit is the last crit of the series and is run down on the waterfront in a car park. This course is probably one of the fastest and it is not uncommon to see the whole peloton strung out from one end of the course to the other. It is a hot dog circuit at it’s best and the men do approximately 60 laps which means that they do around 120 standing starts during the whole crit! The straights are only 300-400m long which doesn’t leave much opportunity to move up in the pack, so it’s best to make it easy for yourself and be up the front on the start line and stay there. Easier said than done mind you. This crit far from suited me and I unfortunately got stuck towards the back at the start line and things didn’t get much better from there on. I lasted for a grand total of 10-15min, my worst effort so far. Not the best way to finish! There were again a few crashes during the race, however fortunately no one appeared to be seriously injured. I think in total there were 3-4 crashes? Kirsty Broun hit the deck twice whilst Chloe also came tumbling down. The crashes all happened on the first hot dog corner and were partly due to the combination of sand and dirt on the course and the speed at which the riders travel! So there were a lot of laps out and it all got a little bit confusing! Lauren and the NSWIS crew did a lot of work chasing down dangerous attacks in the closing stages of the race noticeably by Nikki Butterfield and Peta Mullens which meant that the race came down to a blistering bunch sprint. Chloe had to finish several places ahead of Josie Tomic to get the 2 points she needed to move herself up into 2nd place however a well ridden ride saw here claim 4th whilst Chloe picked up 3rd in the sprint behind Kirsty and Rochelle. Rochelle placed in the first sprint, securing her overall victory in the sprinter’s competition whilst Kirsty extended her lead on GC to take out the crown for the series.

So that is another Jayco Bay Crit Series done and dusted and overall I’m very pleased with how it all turned out. It was a vast improvement on last year and I enjoyed being able to be part of the NSWIS team. Olivia Gollan, our team manager, was awesome. Having ridden the crits on numerous occasions, she was able to provide us with lots of useful advice and tell us what each of us could do to use our strengths. I felt very privileged to have been able to work with her and it was a definitely a very enriching experience! Looking after our team was Olivia’s first experience as a manager and I’m sure it felt unusual being on the other side of the fence, however she did an awesome job looking after us and making sure we were well fed and taken care of! So a big thanks to Liv!

I’m a little bit shattered after the crits so I don’t think I will ride the Nationals TT tomorrow in Ballarat. After discussing it with my coach, we both believe that I am well under prepared for it and it would do me best to rest up and put everything into the road race on Saturday! I can’t wait! Hopefully the bay crits will give me the volume I need in order to come off into a successful Nationals campaign! So Ballarat, here I come!


accelerating out of the corner for probably the 60th time that race ha ha
Take care
xo

Bay Crits Day 4: Portarlington

Today’s race was on the waterfront at Portarlington, about 30km from Geelong. It is described as the toughest circuit of the series with a leg snapping climb on the back straight with a slight uphill drag to the finish. Like yesterday’s stage, it was survival of the fittest, and a course more suited to the roadies in the pack. Lauren Kitchen from the NSWIS squad is a very talent hill climber and is defending champion on this course and was looking to impress again today. This race saw numerous riders launching early attacks to try and stretch the pack. First to attack was Peta Mullens but she was seen as a dangerous attack and quickly chased down by the bunch. Next to attack was team mate Jess Griffiths, a first year U/19 rider who is improving every time she races and is definitely a rider to watch out for! As soon as she was brought back by the pack, another attack by an MBC rider saw her gain maximum points for the first intermediate sprint whilst Rochelle took 2nd over her team mate Lauren. When the MBC rider was swallowed by the pack, a gap opened up in front of me on the climb and I saw my chance to attack. Without even thinking I kicked out of the pack and started riding away from them. No one came with me and the pack was slow to react so it saw me ride away solo. I was away for 4 laps and managed to gain a lead of around 17sec, but I began to feel the impact of the wind blowing in off the water and the climb on the back straight started to take its toll. I was caught by the bunch and managed to slot myself in the pack out of the wind. With around 6 laps remaining, the pack started to fracture and feeling the impact of my earlier efforts, I was unable to stick with the lead group. A group of 10 managed to sneak away containing the majority of the top 10 riders on GC (including Chloe and Lauren) and so there was no real need for me to bring them back. In my group was NSWIS rider Ashlee Ankudinoff and we were starting to line things up to try and win the bunch kick as there were still places to be claimed when a crash involving Belinda Goss saw our chase group be given the red flag just as we were about to launch our attack. Kirsty, Chloe and Nikki Butterfield managed to avoid the crash and ended up finishing the race in that order respectively. It was a fantastic result for Chloe who is proving she is one of the most consistent riders of the competiton! Lauren was also looking good for the finish however the crash happened right in front of her and so she missed the break. I was please with my efforts today, I managed to launch a pretty significant attack and also finish what people call one of the most toughest circuits of the series. Not a bad day in the office if I don’t say so myself! I was a little tired on the ride home and got dropped by my team mates on the climbs, but hey, I worked my butt off! Ha ha and it felt good. Chloe has moved herself up into 3rd on GC with her result today and hopefully we can try slide her up in front of Josie Tomic on tomorrow’s decisive stage. Fingers crossed!


attacking up the back straight

Take care
xo

Bay Crits Day 3: Geelong Botanic Gardens (short course)

Today’s race was again held right outside our door step in the Botanic Gardens. It was held on a 2km course over the other side of the gardens with a couple of tight corners at both ends and a slight rise out of the back one just to mix things up a little bit. From the time the race started, the pressure was on. This crit is basically the survival of the fittest and within the first few laps the peloton was strung out and the elastic band showed signs of snapping. I was clinging to the pack for dear life as the hammer was being thrown down and one by one riders started dropping off. It was hard to see who was causing most of the damage, but whoever it was, was doing an awesome job at it! Unfortunately this race was scared by a crash involving our NSWIS team mate Meagan Dunn. Meagan’s front wheel slipped out as she was driving it around the first bend and she crashed, breaking her collar bone. It was a very unlucky thing to happen, and she was lucky that no other major damage was caused! Meagan has now had an operation to fix her shoulder and hopefully she will be on the bike fighting fit in no time, I wish her a speedy recovery! The crash meant that the race stopped for around 18min whilst the riders were being attended too. The clock continued to run due to TV commitments and so we started the race with around 15min remaining. The bunch had regrouped (which most of the girls weren’t too happy with) and so the pressure was on again to regain the advantage that they had but into the bunch. As soon as we rolled out, I felt my legs. The lactic acid that had been building up over the last half of the race had accumulated in my legs and so I was struggling big time and I think so were the other girls. I managed to stay in the race until just under 5min remaining when my bunch of 5 other riders got pulled out. I was a bit disappointed not to be able to make it to the end of the race, but looking back on last year I think I lasted less than 10min? So that in itself is something to be proud of! The stage got taken out by surprise winner Rowena Fry, a mountain biker from Tasmania. It was a tactfully well timed sprint and a well deserved win. She attacked right as the peloton swerved left and no one was expecting her to go! Peta Mullens rolled across the line to pick up 2nd and Kirsty Broun rounded out the podium for 3rd. Chloe Hosking rode another brilliant race to finish 5th and so has moved herself into 5th on GC whilst Rochelle Gilmore scored herself a few more sprint points to extend her lead in the Sprint Classification! Tomorrow’s stage is one I have been looking forward to all week, Portarlington. Can’t wait! Hopefully I’ll be able to report back with some good news from the team!


Warming up before the crit

Take care
xo

Jayco Bay Crit Day 2: Botanic Gardens (long course)

After having probably one of the best night sleeps ever, I wearily scrambled out of bed to attend a meeting with the entire squad at 7am. With a squad as large as ours, its hard to get everyone in the same place at once but you can almost guarantee you’ll find us all at a buffet breakfast so it was as good a time as any to get us all together to have a chat. I’ve never been away with the NSWIS team before, but I have often admired the way which they conduct themselves both on and off the bike and I was excited and felt privileged to be a part of such a reputable squad! After our briefing, it was simply a case of eating ourselves silly before heading out for a 30km rec ride. When we came back, we had a couple of hours to chill and do our own thing before it was time for lunch and to start getting our stuff together! The Geelong Conference Centre is located inside the Botanic Gardens which is convenient as the start line for today’s and tomorrow’s races are literally less than 500m up the road! The NSWIS and Mazda girls all rode over together as a squad and cut a few laps of the course, sussing out potholes and strategically placed islands in the middle of the course before parting ways to do our own warm ups. This course was more of a roadie’s course, with only one real significant corner and a slight uphill on the back and finishing straights. Just as we were heading over to the start line, the men’s support race was on their final lap and unfortunately there was a crash less than 200m from the finish line which looked pretty nasty, one guy’s carbon wheel was bent clean in half whilst there was another broken carbon fibre frame. Some of the guys were seen by the ambo’s but I don’t think there was any really significant damage which is always good! Not the best thing to see just as your about to commence your race though.

Based upon yesterday’s results, we started on the 2nd and 3rd rows from the front, meaning that we had a bit of work to get up the front! The race was pretty solid for the most part, with several riders keen to have a dig however, nothing was going to be left unmarked as it was yesterday and all moves were soon brought back by the pack. There were quite a few moments though were the bunch would ease up and things started to get a bit sketchy in the bunch and with people doing everything they can jut to survive, there were moments where I got a bit scared! But I didn’t crash, and I was able to get out of those situations, so that in itself is a bit of a confidence booster! One of NSWIS’s goals for the race today was to protect Rochelle’s sprinter’s jersey and in the 1st of 2 intermediate sprints, they had a textbook lead out which ended up in a break of all the NSWIS riders up the road, taking the pressure of Rochelle who was then just able to get towed across by the bunch. Like the girls’ said in the debriefing after the race, it is not often that plans work but today it did and it was great! To be honest, I’m not too sure how things went in the 2nd sprint, all I know is that the girls did their job and Rochelle is still leading the sprinter’s competition. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned for the girls in the closing stages of the race and a slow in the pace with less than 1km to go caused the pack to congest, making it difficult for the girls to move up and get their trains sorted. In the end, Kirsty Broun edge off Rochelle for the win. Chloe rode another awesome race to finish in the top 10 again along with Meagan Dunn.

I was very please with my race, it was the first Bay Crit that I’ve finished so that in itself was an achievement for me! I also managed to chase down a few attacks as well as launch a few of my own which I was quite pleased about. I like to be able to contribute to races, I’m not a fan of sitting back and watching everyone else control the race. The main thing I believe lets me down is my bunch skills, well lack of. Or maybe it’s just my confidence? I generally found myself on the outside of the pack, either in the dirt or the wind. I would occasionally be able to find some gaps and work my way up the middle of the back but I was a bit nervous. Meagan made a good point in the debriefing when she said that ‘you can’t be afraid of crashing, otherwise you’ll go nowhere’. I think she is dead right. I’ve crashed a lot in my time ha ha and sure you get a bit battered and worn but you walk it off and your good to go! So that is one goal for tomorrow, to try and stay in the mix with the pack as well as try and survive! We are racing mid-arvo basically on the waterfront so it will be very windy! We also have Amy’s Ride tomorrow and it is great that we are able to support such a great cause and help make the roads we train on safer for everyone!


getting underway
Until next time
xo

Jayco Bay Crit Day 1: Williamstown

Day 1 of the Jayco Bay Criterium series and Williamstown was buzzing with excitement. The place was crawling with enthusiastic cyclists keen to meet their teams and get stuck into what is a fast and intense series of racing! One of my favourite things about big races is that you get to see the rest of your cycling friends from around the country who you don’t get to see very often and it’s great to catch up and see how they are going! This year, I am racing on behalf of the Geelong Mazda team and staying at the Geelong Conference Centre with Gary Sutton and the NSWIS team. We also have the pleasure of having Olivia Gollan as our team manager and I am really looking forward to getting to know her and learning from her experiences!

The Williamstown circuit is roughly 800m in length and it is a rectangular circuit with a difficult round-a-bout corner at the end of the front straight. The wind was strong and so there was a nasty headwind going into the back straight which started to take its toll on the dropped riders. The Women’s race was run shortly after the men’s support race and we were all called up for team introductions and 45min of racing. The pace was on from the start and showed no sign of ever slowing down! He field was strung out for the majority of the race, a trend for the men’s racing as well, and it was basically a case of survival of the fittest. In the end, I think only 12 or 15 girls actually finished the first crit. I was in the last group to be pulled by the officials, with just under 15min of racing. I didn’t get to see much of what was happening in the race or who was doing the damage, but from what I herd is that Josephine Tomic launched an attack shortly after the last intermediate sprint with 15min left of racing and she slipped away from the pack, managing to hold on for a solo victory. At the race debriefing, most of the girls said that teams were relying on the other teams to chase and this hesitation and reliance on others; let a dangerous rider quickly disappear out of sight. It was a very smart and tactful way to ride the bike race and a very well deserved win! Rochelle Gilmore, riding for the NSWIS team won the bunch kick for 2nd holding of Australian Criterium Champ Kirsty Broun and Chloe Hosking who is also riding for Mazda rode an excellent race to finish 4th! Giving her a start on the front line for tomorrow’s race.

I was disappointed not to have been able to hang in there until the finish and was a bit down on myself after the race. My initial thoughts after the race were ‘what am I doing here’. But then I remembered that this is probably the hardest series of criterium races in Australia and they are more suited to power athletes, which is not my strong point. My main goals for the series is to hopefully improve my bunch skills and improve my confidence in being able to hold my own in the bunch, and stay close to the front! As well as finish at least 1 race! I think that it is possible, I just have to ride smart and look after myself.

Tomorrow’s course is in the Geelong Botanic Gardens and is the longest course of the series, about 2.5km. It is more of a Roadie’s course and has a bit of an incline in it as well as wider roads with more chances to move up! So hopefully I’ll be able to do something then!

Stay tuned
Xo