We all have bad days, thats a given, and it turns out that I was apparently just about due for one.
The GP Cento Carnavale was about a 4hr drive from Varese and was 11 laps of a flat 10km circuit on narrow roads with two cobbled sections in it, just my kind of race! The team for Cento was Chloe Hosking, Rochelle Gilmore, Emma Mackie, Tiffany Cromwell, Shara Gillow and myself. Our plan was to follow attacks and work for Rochelle in the sprint. Sounds simple, right?
Well unfortunately I was having troubles even BEFORE the race started. Although we arrived at the race in plenty of time to spare, the teams presentation took way longer than expected and so my warm up consisted of rolling to the presentation and sitting on the start line. Then it turned out that my rear wheel was flat and so a quick wheel change was on order before we got under way.
From the word "go" the bunch was pretty much strung out and whilst trying to move up, another rider suddendly swung out infront of me, sending me off the road and falling into the grass. Barely 5km into the race and I was already having to chase back onto the bunch! The dirty crosswinds weren't making my life any easier either and it was a couple of kms until I was able to rejoin the back of the bunch. I held my position for another lap when an attack went and I was dagging off the back of the train, doing my best just to get back on! I rejoin the pack again by the end of the lap, and just as we hit the cobbled section, my front wheel goes flat. So another wheel change and I was chasing onto the bunch yet again. Legs screaming and back burning, I never quite got on the back of them and at lap 6, the sag wagon pulled me out of the race....
So there we have it, a far from ideal say in the office on my part but the team did come away with a great result! Emma Mackie was in the breakaway which got caught with less than 2km to go, then Rochelle was set up perfectly by the rest of the team to come home in 2nd place behind World point score champion, Fabiana Luperini.
Although my day didn't precisely go to plan, I did get to experience racing on cobbles for the first time which was a bit of fun! And it was a good chance to experience a different sort of European racing instead of the hard hilly stages of the Giro!
Next on the agenda is Tour of Limousin in France. On paper, we are considered to be one of the stronger teams so hopefully we'll be able to come away with a few more results!
Until next time
Ciao Ciao
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment