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