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
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