After a pretty successful day yesterday, I have to admit I was a little worried that I wouldn’t live up to yesterday’s standards. Regardless, I was still feeling pretty good and was looking forward to giving everything up the climb. This stage was 56.5km with a climb up the beautiful Mt Hotham at 26.5km in. In addition, there were also two intermediate sprints, one at 16km and the other at the base of the climb (26.5km). The race set off at a pretty cruisey pace however it wasn’t long before attacks were being launched. Vicki had been giving me advice and mentoring me all weekend and she told me simply not to chase anything and to save myself for the climb, so that is what I did! Chloe was leading the sprint competition and her goal for the day was to hopefully maintain her lead, however a small breakaway made by Veronica Dudderidge saw her jump clear and pick up maximum sprint points in both sprints. Meanwhile, the pack was rolling along at a comfortable pace with the 3 sprinters from yesterday playing out front and debating on who was going to chase down the break. Bridie O’Donnell than launched an attack and the pack recognised this as another possible threat, giving a time trialist a significant head start on the climb and were quick to respond! Vicki chased and I was hot on her heels with the pack strung out behind us and we caught the two lead riders at the base of the hill. In similar fashion to yesterday, the pace was set from the base of the climb. This climb could be divided into 3 10km sections and this made it easier to tackle both from a mental and physical point of view. I had analysed each section of the climb and recognised where the danger spots were and possible places to attack. Slowly but surely, riders started to drop off the back and by the time we reached the 2nd section (which was predominantly false flat) we had about 10 riders left in the pack. The false flat gave us a chance to regain our breath and Lisa Jacobs took advantage of this to attack us and launch a solo attack up the road. Going into this stage, Lisa was about 17sec ahead of me and so to let her get up the road was a bad idea. I tried to get around the pack to chase to no avail and attempted to get the rest of the pack to help me chase but they were not interested, so I was left with no choice but to try and chase her back myself. Thankfully, fellow Canberran Narelle Hards came to my aid and help me keep the pace on. Unfortunately we weren’t making up any ground and she ended up wining the stage 2min ahead of us. As we approached the last section of the climb, the pack had dwindled to about 6 riders most of which who featured in the road stage yesterday. The third section was made up of pinches of 7, 9.7 and 10% and was definitely taking the sting out of my legs. I was trying my hardest to stay on when Shara Gillow launched an attack just shy of the KOM. The small group didn’t have the legs to chase so we continued to ride at our solid pace, trying to minimise our losses. Once over the KOM, we were given a little bit of recovery before the 3km to go mark. At that point, I wasn’t feeling too bad and I was contemplating trying to attack and try and put some time into Bron Ryan who was only 20sec ahead of me on GC. Stupidly, I didn’t do it. I think it was just because I was afraid I would blow and loose even more time which was stupid. Like they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained and as a result, I didn’t gain anything. Once we reached the summit and saw the 500m to go mark, I was starting to get edgy because Carlee Taylor was only 3sec behind me on GC and she was still looking strong. Luckily, Vicki was there to give me a hand and I was sitting on the front with her keeping up the pace and she was telling me “wait…wait..wait…” until we reached the 100m to go banner when she said “now” and I launched an attack. I ended up placing 3rd and gapping the chase group by 2sec. I was ecstatic with the result however disappoint that I didn’t give myself the opportunity to move up on GC and use my potential. I hate walking away from races thinking “what if” and annoyed that that was the case. But I can take away lots of positive things from the race, like the fact that I rode well leading up to the climb trying to conserve energy and that I pushed myself more than I thought possible to hang on on the climb!

In the end, I finished 5th on GC. I was very pleased with the result as it was my first major tour as an Elite Woman. Although the professional riders who were present were well below their usual form, it was still comforting to know that I was able to stay with them on the climbs and I look forward to seeing what I can do come Nationals at the beginning of next year! I took a lot away from the Tour and I will no doubt learn from the mistakes I made to improve my performance at my next race!

The top 5 on GC were as followed

Vicki Whitelaw
Shara Gillow
Lisa Jacobs
Bronwyn Ryan
Myfanwy Galloway

For the full results and final GC:
http://www3.your-sports.com/details/results.php?lang=en&page=6&eventid=1402&contest=7&name=Allg.%20Listen%7CGC%20RANKING%20with%20Stage%20Times&CertificateLink=1&format=view


Vicki Whitelaw and I at the top of Mt Hotham after the completion of Stage 3


The view of Hotham