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 haTake care
xo
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