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