On today’s schedule was 7 laps of a 5km circuit with a steep 500m climb (basically like Red Hill) every lap to the finish. We had 25sec to make up so the plan was to keep on attacking and hopefully I was going to be able to breakaway for the win (picking up 10sec in time bonuses) and put some time into the race leader. Rick had told us that the race had to be on from the word ‘GO’ and we had to do lots of repeated attacks to try and tire out the race leader.
So the stay started pretty much like the other days.. woke up at some ridiculous hour of the morning and wandered over to the buffet where i decided to be adventurous and have a choc chip pancake...yummy haha. Then we all headed over to the course (which was just outside the room where we were staying) and did all of our race prep. We then cruised over to the start of the race where they introduced all of the riders and since i was now holder of the green jersey and 2nd on GC, i got priority on the start line! It felt awesome! You get treated like a bit of a celebrity... could get use to that!
Anyway, the race started off and Mickey attacked straight of the gun and once she got back Brodie countered. This was the trend throughout the race as the race leader felt the need to chace my team mates down (probably not the best idea on her behalf but had a good chat to her and she is a rower and has only been riding for a year which could have explained the need to chase everything...and why she dominated the TT). The yellow jersey was tiring at about 4 laps to go... you could see it. She was about to crack. At 2 laps to go I thought 'YES' perfect time to attack her and just as I was about to step out, we got neutralized because the masters were catching us. we got neutralized for a good 3km which gave the leader time to recover... dammit.. so all of our work had gone basically to waste! With 1 lap to go and the bunch still in tact, had no choice but to attack and attack hard. Mickey jumped on the front at about 1km to go mark and just as we turned the corner at the base of the hill (500m to go) i went wide and attacked up the climb. I managed to stay away solo for the win picking up 10sec time bonus and putting 5sec into the race leader and 10sec into the main peleton. I also won each of the KOM point sprints giving me the green jersey for another day. After the stage, went straight over for presentation (wasn't going to miss it again!?!?!) and it is amazing how you get treated if you win a bike race over here! haha.. as soon as i crossed the line, the organisers were congratulating me and taking my bike over for the rollout and were offering me drinks and there is a special sort of 'holding area' while you wait for presentation. Its a great feeling :D
So I got presented with another green jersey and the stage win. The margin is back to 12sec going into the last stage: a 0.9 mile flat crit....its going to be a mammoth task but I hope we can pull it off... I really want to win it for the team, they have worked so hard for me over the past couple of days and it would be great to win it for them.
After all the racing business, we watched the boys. Pete won and Thommo finished in the bunch holding onto his 30sec lead. All in all, another good day for the team.
I then went and crashed for about 2hrs on my bed trying to figure out how on earth we were going to win this bike race tomorrow whilst everyone else was watching the rest of the bike racing/having lunch. Woke up just in time to see the pro men and women race which was pretty cool! Also ventured downt the the photography tent and saw some of the pictures they'd taken. They were awesome! They had great photos of the whole team! Maybe not as good as some of the ones Pat took though ha ha... Audrey should have then on her facebook soon and I wil upload them on here ASAP.
We then cruised over to dinner and had our final meal with the other juniors...They are some of the coolest people i've ever met and it will be really sad to say goodbye to them all tomorrow! I will miss the chats in the common room and having other juniors to talk to! Kutztown is lovely don't get me wrong but there aren't many kids there.. well none as cool as the ones we met!!
So today was another big day... got an even bigger one tomorrow!!! Its a mammoth task but i believe our team can do it.
Wish us luck
xo
No comments:
Post a Comment