A reality check and a fantastic learning experience, this is what the 2009 NZCT Women’s Tour of New Zealand was for me. I had been fortunate enough to be chosen to ride along side some of the Australia’s top up and coming riders to compete on behalf of the National Talent Identification Team. Members of the team included team mentor and current Oceania Time Trial Champion Bridie O’Donnell (VIC), Rachel Neylan and Lisa Jacobs (SA) and Shara Gillow (QLD). We were one of 14 other teams from 8 different countries to contest the tour and what we may have lacked in palmers to our name compared some of the other teams, we made up for with grit, determination and dedication.
The Tour was made up of 3 Stages with the decisive stage to be the final day which finished on top of the infamous Admiral Hill. Stage one, 132km, was a relatively flat lap course with a 1km climb each lap. Although there were numerous attempts from riders to break away, it was clear from the start that nothing was going to be left unmarked and we were destined for a bunch sprint.
Like any bike race though, the race didn’t go incident free. For starters our radio frequency got hijacked by another New Zealand team before turning into nothing but static for the rest of the race, there was a crash which saw two riders retire from the race and to cap it off a dog was running loose on the course with 500m to go just to add a bit of excitement to the already hectic bunch finish.
The stage was taken out by Australian Rochelle Gilmore closely followed by fellow Australians Chloe Hosking and Peta Mullens.
Day 2 was run on a similar course and saw us trek down to Martinborough before returning to Masterton after 132km of racing, over 260km of racing in less than 24hrs!
There were again 2 sprint primes in the race and two KOM climbs. Rochelle Gilmore was wearing the leader’s jersey after the brilliant combined efforts on behalf of herself and her team in addition to leading the sprint classification. Ruth Corset was leading the KOM competition and donned the polka dot jersey after dominating the climb yesterday and Chloe was wearing the young rider’s jersey after her stella performance against some of the best sprinters around. Stage 2 was going to be a test of the fittest and see who had recovered well from the day before. It was obvious that some riders had recovered better than others with riders dropping wheels in the bunch and the peloton was more reluctant to chase down breaks. This proved good for our team as Bridie launched a solo attack which would have been the most significant attack of the day. There were a few more attempts at breakaways but in the closing stages of the race the sprinters teams weren’t letting anything get away and we were again in for another bunch finish.
Rochelle Gilmore took out the stage in fine style closely followed by Chloe Hosking.
Stage 3 was the final and decisive stage of the tour with all riders separated merely by seconds. It was the most demanding course of the tour, 125km of undulating terrain with a finish a top of Admiral hill which was around 12km in length. The tour was over for the sprinters and it was now time for the hill climbers to show what they were made of. The stage was the most eventful of the whole tour with many riders eager to get a head start on the climb. The first attack to get away was a solo one initiated by Kathy Watt shortly after 45km into the race, who managed to stay clear until the final hill. At the 70km mark, an attack made by Peta Mullens from the Australian National Team and Amber Halliday from MBC cycles looked threatening and saw a small group of riders attempt to bridge across including our own Rachel Neylan. This break proved to be the move of the day as a member from each of the stronger teams had someone in it.
Behind them, the peloton was still in tack before hitting the base of the first KOM climb at just over the 100km mark. At this stage, the peloton splintered into several smaller groups. In addition to the riders who had broken away earlier in the stage, there was now another classy chase group down the road which included several members of the Australian National Team, the Chinese and Japanese National time and two of our own members from the NTID team Shara Gillow and Lisa Jacobs. This group managed to pick up all but two members from the earlier break on the climb. Amber Halliday put in an awesome performance to take out the stage by over a 1min, followed by Min Gao and Lang Meng from the Chinese National Team. Shara showed that she is a rider to look out for in the future by coming home in a very respectable 8th place, taking 2nd in the U23 category and the performance of the day went to Rachel Neylan who managed to hold on for 9th place.
This tour was a massive learning experience for me on many different levels. Although I was disappointed not have done as well as I hoped on the overall GC, I still achieved some of my personal goals and was able to reflect back on each day and highlight the things that were good and the things that were probably not so good. On the first stage, I found that it took me close to the 30km mark to feel comfortable moving around the peloton as it is not everyday that I get the chance to ride in a peloton of that size and I was nervous being around riders who I hadn’t ridden against before. Once I started to feel comfortable in the bunch, I was then able to assist my team in chasing down breaks and ensure that our GC contenders were well protected in the bunch.
Lisa and I also learnt that porridge, although being tasty and delicious, probably isn’t the most ideal pre-race food and that we were better off having toast and other simple carbs which were more easy on the stomach!
Sometimes you just have to make those mistakes yourself.
Unfortunately the final stage wasn’t my best day in the office and consequently I payed the price. I was struggling to position myself properly in the bunch and often found myself out in the wind or boxed in with no where to go. This proved to be costly, as my bad positioning made me miss what proved to be the decisive attacks of the day. I was disappointed not because I had missed the winning break, but because I had failed to fulfil my role for the team which was to be in any break which went in the 2nd half of the race. From that point on, I was struggling both physically and mentally and just didn’t have it in me when it came to crunch time. Oh well, it happens. So although I didn’t achieve the ‘result’ I would have hoped for, I learnt more in the last 3 days of racing then I have probably over the last year. I learnt more about myself and which areas I need to focus on, how important it is to ensure you are kept well hydrated and recover properly for the next stage and most importantly, the joys and ins and outs of riding as part of a team. I felt very privileged to be able to ride along side the riders of the NTID team and be associated with such a fantastic group of girls! With the help of our team manager/coach/chauffeur John Forrest, we came away from the tour with 8th and 9th place on overall GC, 2nd in the U23 classification and as a result of the dedication put in by the team; we also took out 2nd in the teams’ classification.
In addition to the racing experience, we were also had the opportunity to experience some local hospitality in our home stay accommodation. I was staying on an 11 acre farm just outside of town with my teammates Lisa and Shara which was owned by a lovely couple named Dave and Dale. Each night we were treated to lovely home killed meat and veg, our clothes could be found washed and hanging in the dry room waiting for us when we came home, our beds made, floors vaccumed…everything we could have asked for and so much more! We were being spoilt and needless to say we didn’t want to leave. We were even treated to a bbq on our final night and had abalone! Although it didn’t look particularly appetizing it was delicious and Dale’s mouth-watering recipe had us all going back for more! So a big thank you for the lovely hospitality we received from our new Kiwi family :D
Tomorrow is the International One Day Cup of Cycling held in Masterton on a flat 9km circuit. We are doing 14 laps of the course which is filled with manhole covers, diesel on the roads and railway tracks with 2 trains scheduled to be coming through the course during our race! It is also forecast for rain and wind just to add to the excitement! It is going to be a good race; the team is going in with nothing to loose and with everything to gain.
Wish us luck :D
Happy cycling
