Tour of Limousin, Part I

Stage 1: 105km

Stage 1 was a relatively undulating course with 3 categorised climbs and 4 intermediate sprints. Our plan of attack was to have our newest member t the team, Jazzy Apples rider Ruth Corset as our GC contender and save Chloe for the sprinter’s jersey and as our sprinter on the flatter stages. This left Tiff Cromwell, Shara Gillow,U19 rider junior world’s representative for Australia Kendelle Hodges and myself as the work horses for the Tour. On paper we were definitely one of the stronger teams and were confident that we would be able to come away with a good result for the team.

The field split up relatively quickly with a break consisting of close to 10 riders, including our own Ruth Corset, get clear up the first GPM. The break contained riders from most of the bigger teams in the Tour so the peleton was in no rush to bring the group back. The weather was shocking, after about 1hr of racing you could see the dark clouds gathering overhead and it wasn’t long until the heavens opened around us, turning the roads into streams. Thankfully the heavy rain lasted less than 1hr but we were left to ride the rest of the race with wet shoes and chamois which we didn’t rate highly. At around the 70km mark, the peleton split up the GPM. I was feeling strong and managed to make it over the top of the climb in the front bunch but unfortunately, whilst reaching for my biddon on the decent, I hit a pothole and my hands slipped off the bars which left me sliding along the greasy roads into the dirt. I watched my bunch race on ahead as I was putting my chain back on and pulling half a tree out of my rear wheel but got my act together just in time to jump onto the back of another bunch which had formed over the climb. Chloe and Kendelle were in the bunch and since we had the rest of the team up the road, we just rolled along with the group to the finish. We came close to catching them at one point but with half the bunch working for team mates up the road, the gap blew out again by the finish. In the end, Ruth’s group dwindled down to 5 girls and she placed 3rd in a close bunch finish, Tiff and Shara rolled in in the 1st bunch behind them, a little over 3min down and my bunch rolled in a further 3min behind them. So overall, not a bad day in the office for the team. I was happy with my form and how I positioned myself in the bunch although a little frustrated about the crash as I can only wonder if I would have been able to hang with them and got a better result for myself at the end of the day. But Ruth is 3rd on GC which is now the main priority and hopefully we’ll be seeing her in pink by the end of the Tour!

Stage 2: 99km

Today’s stage was the ‘flat’ stage of the tour. It consisted of a slightly undulating loop outside of town before coming onto a flat 10km circuit around the town. The majority of the race was run on tiny, narrow roads and the back straight of the circuit could be compared to a goat’s track with moss growing down the middle of it. Our plan was to firstly roll with attacks and protect Ruth’s position on GC and hopefully set Chloe up for the stage win. Luckily for us, Lotto Belisol, who was one of the stronger teams of the tour, had similar ambitions as their rider was currently in the leader’s jersey and they were hoping to set up Rochelle Gilmore for the stage win.

As Marv would say, today was definitely all about ‘position, position, position’ and unfortunately that never quite happened for me. My inexperience on narrow roads and my lack of confidence moving around in the European peleton (although it is improving) saw me quickly squeezed out the back of the bunch and just trying to hang on. I was left praying that someone would put the pressure on at the front of the bunch so the field would become strung out when I could make up around 20 places by simply stepping into the wind and TTing it up the side of the bunch. However, the moment the pace eased and the peleton swelled up, I was back to where I had started. Frustrated with what was happening, I made a solid attack from the back of the bunch to the front up the last climb before entering the circuit in town. I managed to stay there for the majority of the first lap where I was able to go with a few breaks and take the pressure of the other girls but when a counter attack went after I had just chased a bunch, I didn’t have the legs to stay up the front an found myself down the tail end of the peleton yet again. It was virtually impossible for me to move up on the narrow back straight of the course and if that didn’t make for a big enough challenge in itself, thunderstorms welcomed us towards the end of the first lap throwing in a whole other load of challenges I would have to face.
Meanwhile, the team put in an excellent group effort to look after Ruth and Tiff put everything on the line and produced a really gutsy ride to get Chloe in as best as possible position for the sprint. Chloe put up a solid fight to hold on for 2nd in the bunch kick which meant more celebrating for the team!

So although frustrated that I was unable to contribute much to the team today because of my positioning in the bunch, I was able to walk away with yet more lessons learnt from the race which I will utilise to improve my ability for my races to come. I was also happy again with my form today and felt strong throughout the race and the back didn’t cause any concern for me today which was awesome news! I just hope that ‘ll get a chance to put my form that I seemed to have finally uncovered to good use instead of wasting it trying to bridge splits in the bunch because I’m down the back!


Stage 3 and 4 report to come...