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...
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
GP Cento Carnavale, a day I'd rather not remember...
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
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
Monday, July 20, 2009
Rest, rest and more rest!
Alora, the Giro is done and dusted and lots of recovery is what the doctor has prescribed! Since coming back from the Giro, I’ve been on a diet of 1hr recovery rides and rest days. A bit frustrating when you’re all the way over in Italy with beautiful weather and mountains to climb, but I know that if I want to be in some sort of form for Cento (18th July) and most importantly the Tour of Limousin (22-26th July) then I have to grit my teeth and deal with it.
On the positive side, it means that I have been able to go do a bit of my own exploring and sightseeing. Over the past week, I’ve caught trains and gotten off at places that ‘sounded cool’ and been on long walks around the place having no clue where on earth I was headed. I figure I’d take the risks and I was often rewarded with beautiful scenery and new experiences.
One of my little adventures led me to Lago di Varese (lake of Varese) where I decided I’d have a bit of a picnic and walk around the lake. Lake Burley Griffin has NOTHING on this lake. It is 27km in total with a bike path running the whole way around with lots of places to stop and enjoy the view. I got off the train at Gavirate and wandered my way down through the cute little town to find the perfect spot for lunch.
Another day was spent shopping in Milan with the girls. It was a epic day, with a 1hr train ride to the Duomo (Cathedral where the main shops are) and then we spent close to 4-5hrs wandering the streets. Upon getting off the metro, it was about 5secs before I was approached by a guy who asked if I wanted to marry him (if only life was that easy!!!). You know the type, the salesmen who spot tourists a mile away and try to sell them stuff they never knew they wanted until you met them. He tried selling me a bracelet and after denying his proposal, gave him back the bracelet and made a bee line for the shops!
Luckily for us, it is the time of the year when all of the sales are on and everything is 30,50,70% off!!! However, we were not the only ones looking to take advantage of the cheap prices. In the shops we were packed like sardines and had to wait up to 20min to try an item of clothing on and god forbid if you wanted to actually buy something! It took another 20min of your time before you could actually make the purchase. It was a good experience and I came away with a shirt/dress for my efforts. I would have liked to have gotten more but so much time was wasted hanging around just looking at stuff! There were so many shops to be looked at that in the time we were there; we never left about a 300m radius around the train station!
Another rest day saw Laura take the girls and I to Lago di Magiore for a nice relaxing ‘recovery’ session. The water was cold enough to be refreshing but not so cold that you couldn’t swim in it! Donning our new Victoria’s Secret swimmers, we took the plunge off the rocky ledge into the water below. We then dried ourselves off on the rocky edge in a miserable attempt to free ourselves of our tan lines. Unfortunately, a few peoples’ pasty white bellies served as a perfect reflective surface for the suns rays resulting in a not so pleasant sunburn!
Apart from that, there has been multiple movie watching sessions, trips to the Gelateria across the street and numerous treatments with soigny extraordinaire Beth. My back is slowly but surely making a comeback and I look forward to seeing what sort of form I’ll be in come the Tour of Limousin early next week!
But before then we have to tackle the GP Cento Carnivale, a 110km pancake flat circuit race equipped with cobbles. Exactly my kind of race :)
Until next time,
Ciao Ciao
Miffy xx
p.s my computer isn't cooperating with uploading photos... but you can see my happy snaps at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=275166&id=746470234&l=7a4717fe97
On the positive side, it means that I have been able to go do a bit of my own exploring and sightseeing. Over the past week, I’ve caught trains and gotten off at places that ‘sounded cool’ and been on long walks around the place having no clue where on earth I was headed. I figure I’d take the risks and I was often rewarded with beautiful scenery and new experiences.
One of my little adventures led me to Lago di Varese (lake of Varese) where I decided I’d have a bit of a picnic and walk around the lake. Lake Burley Griffin has NOTHING on this lake. It is 27km in total with a bike path running the whole way around with lots of places to stop and enjoy the view. I got off the train at Gavirate and wandered my way down through the cute little town to find the perfect spot for lunch.
Another day was spent shopping in Milan with the girls. It was a epic day, with a 1hr train ride to the Duomo (Cathedral where the main shops are) and then we spent close to 4-5hrs wandering the streets. Upon getting off the metro, it was about 5secs before I was approached by a guy who asked if I wanted to marry him (if only life was that easy!!!). You know the type, the salesmen who spot tourists a mile away and try to sell them stuff they never knew they wanted until you met them. He tried selling me a bracelet and after denying his proposal, gave him back the bracelet and made a bee line for the shops!
Luckily for us, it is the time of the year when all of the sales are on and everything is 30,50,70% off!!! However, we were not the only ones looking to take advantage of the cheap prices. In the shops we were packed like sardines and had to wait up to 20min to try an item of clothing on and god forbid if you wanted to actually buy something! It took another 20min of your time before you could actually make the purchase. It was a good experience and I came away with a shirt/dress for my efforts. I would have liked to have gotten more but so much time was wasted hanging around just looking at stuff! There were so many shops to be looked at that in the time we were there; we never left about a 300m radius around the train station!
Another rest day saw Laura take the girls and I to Lago di Magiore for a nice relaxing ‘recovery’ session. The water was cold enough to be refreshing but not so cold that you couldn’t swim in it! Donning our new Victoria’s Secret swimmers, we took the plunge off the rocky ledge into the water below. We then dried ourselves off on the rocky edge in a miserable attempt to free ourselves of our tan lines. Unfortunately, a few peoples’ pasty white bellies served as a perfect reflective surface for the suns rays resulting in a not so pleasant sunburn!
Apart from that, there has been multiple movie watching sessions, trips to the Gelateria across the street and numerous treatments with soigny extraordinaire Beth. My back is slowly but surely making a comeback and I look forward to seeing what sort of form I’ll be in come the Tour of Limousin early next week!
But before then we have to tackle the GP Cento Carnivale, a 110km pancake flat circuit race equipped with cobbles. Exactly my kind of race :)
Until next time,
Ciao Ciao
Miffy xx
p.s my computer isn't cooperating with uploading photos... but you can see my happy snaps at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=275166&id=746470234&l=7a4717fe97
Saturday, July 11, 2009
and all of a sudden it was like being hit in the head with a dead fish...wtf??
It seems as though as quickly as it had started, my time at the Giro has ended. Today I did not start stage 8 of the Tour.
I've been managing a back injury since I was involved in a crash at the Cootamundra handicap over a couple of months ago back home and unfortunately the stress of stage racing has taken it's toll on it which is why it was suggested that I do not finish the Tour. Beth our soigny has done an amazing job getting me as fit as possible to step over the bike everyday but unfortunately not everyone is as talented as our mate Jens Voigt and my body simply would not shut up and do what it was told. I am now back at the base in Varese on strict instructions to do as little as possible so that I can be back flying for our next race, GP Cento Carnevale on the 18th July.
Needless to say i'm crushed not to be able to have finished what I had started but one thing i've recently come to terms with in my cycling career is that it is always best to look at the bigger picture. I was in no state to be of any use to the team and for the last couple of days I was simply doing my best to drag my butt to the finish. As I said preivously, I didn't come here to be a spectator in the Giro Donne, I came here to race. Dragging my butt to the finish isn't my idea of racing, it isn't in my nature and I know under normal circumstance I could do better. By stopping now i'm able to give my body a better chance to recover and hopefully be back to my old self in no time.
Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
I'm sorry to those who have supported me thus far, I really appreciate all of the words of encouragement and best wishes! It really means a lot. I hope that this is simply a small hurdle which i will overcome and I will be giving you all something to cheer about in no time.
Now i'm going to go drown my sorrows with pizza and gelato :p
Until next time, Take care
Ciao
xx
I've been managing a back injury since I was involved in a crash at the Cootamundra handicap over a couple of months ago back home and unfortunately the stress of stage racing has taken it's toll on it which is why it was suggested that I do not finish the Tour. Beth our soigny has done an amazing job getting me as fit as possible to step over the bike everyday but unfortunately not everyone is as talented as our mate Jens Voigt and my body simply would not shut up and do what it was told. I am now back at the base in Varese on strict instructions to do as little as possible so that I can be back flying for our next race, GP Cento Carnevale on the 18th July.
Needless to say i'm crushed not to be able to have finished what I had started but one thing i've recently come to terms with in my cycling career is that it is always best to look at the bigger picture. I was in no state to be of any use to the team and for the last couple of days I was simply doing my best to drag my butt to the finish. As I said preivously, I didn't come here to be a spectator in the Giro Donne, I came here to race. Dragging my butt to the finish isn't my idea of racing, it isn't in my nature and I know under normal circumstance I could do better. By stopping now i'm able to give my body a better chance to recover and hopefully be back to my old self in no time.
Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
I'm sorry to those who have supported me thus far, I really appreciate all of the words of encouragement and best wishes! It really means a lot. I hope that this is simply a small hurdle which i will overcome and I will be giving you all something to cheer about in no time.
Now i'm going to go drown my sorrows with pizza and gelato :p
Until next time, Take care
Ciao
xx
Friday, July 10, 2009
Then there are the days which don't necessarily go to plan...
Apologies again for the delayed updates, who would have thought that the further south we go, the more stone age the motels and the less likelihood of the having internet? But success at last!
Stage 5:
Stage 5 was suppose to be a ‘flat’ stage, and I say ‘flat’ because my idea of a flat stage is one where there are NO HILLS. This ‘flat’ stage comprised of 2 rises of around about 3% which carried on for a good 5km each. Each lap of the course was 27km and for today’s stage we were to complete 4 laps, making it roughly 120km. So I started the stage feeling OK until we got to the first drag and someone (I think it may have been cervelo) decided to lay the smack down. I quickly discovered that my legs weren’t feeling quite as good as I thought/hoped and was struggling at the tail end of the main bunch at the second climb and the majority of the first lap. Coming into the second lap, I knew that in order to hang with the group I needed to position myself as close to the front as possible so I could drift back though the bunch up the climb. Easier said than done. My legs were missing their kick and so gaps in front of me were shut down before I could even get my legs to respond. So I got dropped going up the first ‘false flat’ again. Thankfully I was not the only one and after about 10km of riding solo, a bunch caught me and by the end of the lap we were back at the end of the bunch, where I had just enough time to say Hi to my teammates before being dagged at the bottom of the second climb. And this time I was by myself…(I didn’t know at the time that there was a grupetto about 10min behind me). Coming into the last lap I was thinking to myself ‘please just make time cut…’ when I thought I felt my rear Zipp going flat. I was struggling and thought it was simply my mind playing tricks on me however by the end of the first drag it was evident that my wheel was flat and by the top of the 2nd climb, I was riding on the rim just in time for the decent. Determined not to get pulled from the race and with no communication available through my radio and no spares vehicles in sight, I decended praying that I wouldn’t eat tarmac for the second day in a row. With just under 10km to the finish on the decent, grupetto passed me and the police motor bike told me to jump on and looked at me as if I was stupid going about 15kph on a decent. After finally getting through to him that I had a flat he was on the radio and I had 4 police motor bikes around me. 4km to go and still riding on the flat, a spares motor bike rolled up to me and I got a wheel change, better late than never I guess? I sprinted my butt off to the finish because the police escort and the sag wagon in tow meant that I was now officially the end of the race. I was relieved to finish and it took every bit of mental strength not to give up then and there. But I made it to the end and lived to fight another day… I just hope that I won’t be paying the price too badly after my close to 40km of TTing tomorrow!
Stage 6:
Rest day. That is what today’s stage was meant to be for me. After the ride yesterday, I was somewhat relieved to be told to look after myself and get through the race using as little energy as possible and this meant that as soon as we hit the climb, I was to go straight to grupetto. But as always nothing is quite as it seems and this whole stage is uphill from the word VAI. With the GC contenders firmly in position, today gave the opportunity for those riders lower on GC to get away. This was our team objective today, to try and send someone up the road. But the bunch had different ideas and the pace was on from the start and at some point a group of around about 6 (including Ina Tutenberg and Giorgia Bronzini) slipped away up the road. This group eventually stayed on for the win. The bunch was strung out up the climb before a lengthy decent and by that time for me it was basically game over. Riders were going backwards as the 6 prior days of racing were finally taking their toll. I lasted about 50km with the group before getting spat then spent a while in the convoy trying to drag my butt up to no avail. What hurts the most is seeing riders grabbing onto their team cars and being towed right up to the bunch…Pretty sure that is called cheating. Not long after, a group of about nearly 20 riders came up behind me and I had no choice except to just sit on and limit my losses. Next minute, police motor bikes rock up around us and before I knew it there were riders (from the dodgy Italian teams) grabbing onto the bikes and being towed up the road…Our bunch then dwindled to about 10 riders including Regina Schneider and Charlotte Becker from Nurenberg and Linda Villmanseun from Columbia. As long as those girls were staying there, so was I. I mean we weren’t even grupetto! So it was a long ride to the finish and my legs were counting down the K’s before we would hit the wall with about 800m to go of cobbles at an average gradient of 16%. It was similar to the finish of the Timetrial, except way longer. Girls were zigzagging everywhere and Regina Schneider decked it in front of me and I was thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t come down too. So I grovelled my way to the top of the climb and lived to fight yet another day.
Reading back on my reports you could say that I’m hating life, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m loving the challenge and the invaluable knowledge I’m gaining each and every moment i‘m on the bike. Sure there have been tears but that’s all part of character building. I’m only growing as a bike rider and what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. If I come out of this in one piece I might as well be made of re-enforced steel.
Stage 7:
Lost: legs, if found please return.
When you get dropped within the first 30km of a 120km stage race, you start asking yourself why you do this sport. Today’s stage started at the base of a climb (over 10km in length) and needless to say it wasn’t long before mushroom clouds were seen exploding left right and centre. I made it to the top of the climb dagging between the peleton and one of many chase groups. The chase group of at least 10 riders caught me on the decent and we were joined about 20km down the road by grupetto. We were now a bunch of close to 25 riders and it was again just a case of getting to the finish in one piece. It wasn’t all bad, as it gave me a chance to have a chat to fellow Aussies Kate Bates, Rochelle Gilmore, Emma Mackie and team mate Belinda Goss. One rule of thumb is that you NEVER attack grupetto, unless you feel the need to race for about 140th on GC which most of the lesser teams feel the need to do. With a group the size of ours, you would think that there wuld be no need to get towed but at least 5 girls latched on the police motor bikes nd we never saw them again. Then there were the girls who grabbed on up theclimbs or who motor paced behind their team cars as comssaires turned a blind eye just wishing we’d hurry up and get to the finish. Apart from pissing the girls off, Kate made a good point in saying something similar to ‘these girls who keep on getting paced will be the ones who will always get dropped and never get any better’. Here’s to that. You might as well face the fact that you aren’t strong enough yet to hold onto the main pack and use the rest of the ride as a training ride so that you can learn and one day you will be able to stick with the big girls. It was a long ride to the finish but we made it there in one piece… Turns out it was a hard day in the office for all with no ‘distinctive’ peleton to be seen…
Off the bike, it’s been a ritual of eating, drinking, recovering and sleeping. Safe to say I never want to hear/see the word pasta ever again and I would never have thought I’d see the day where I dreaded having to eat and the very thought of it made me sick. But this is apparently what it’s like to be on tour and you force yourself to eat/drink not only to recover from the day’s race but to ensure you are properly fuelled for the next day. You got to put up with the rain in order to get to see the rainbow.
Our team of mechanics/soigneurs are working around the clock to make sure we have to do as little as possible and it is only by doing tours like these where you truly start to appreciate all the things that they do. On arrival at our motels, Dave has our bags up in our rooms and room allocations all sorted. Nico our mechanic pulls out the hose and cleans/fixes/adjusts our bikes and gets them ready for the next day’s race. Beth and Laura do our laundry, get us food (apparently we go through nearly 20 bananas a day!!), wash biddons, make race food and look after logistics. Then Beth gives up to 6 riders massages/treatments and changes dressings and makes sure we are fit to fight another day whilst Laura analyses files from the day’s race and calculates our hydration loss and asks us questions about each stage to get a better understanding things like if we feel good on the bike if our power is high, or if we feel bad but power still high and vice versa. So whilst we are resting and watching movies, everyone is working their butts off to make sure we can race the next day in the best conditions possible. I definitely feel privileged to be part of this team.
So 3 more days of racing and this means 3 more opportunities t try and make an impact/impression on the race. I came here to race, not to do a 120km training ride every day and I’m doing everything I possibly can to make sure that I can recover and get the form back which I had at the start of the tour so that I can finally fulfil my role for the team and help Tiff claim the white jersey. I’m sick of being a spectator in the game, I want to start being a player. Jens Voigt stated something along to lines of “when my legs start to burn I say to my body ‘shut up boy and do what I tell you to do’”. Tomorrow, I’m going to bring ear plugs.
The tour may be done and won by the time I next get a chance to update but until then, take care.
Ciao
Miffy xx
Stage 5:
Stage 5 was suppose to be a ‘flat’ stage, and I say ‘flat’ because my idea of a flat stage is one where there are NO HILLS. This ‘flat’ stage comprised of 2 rises of around about 3% which carried on for a good 5km each. Each lap of the course was 27km and for today’s stage we were to complete 4 laps, making it roughly 120km. So I started the stage feeling OK until we got to the first drag and someone (I think it may have been cervelo) decided to lay the smack down. I quickly discovered that my legs weren’t feeling quite as good as I thought/hoped and was struggling at the tail end of the main bunch at the second climb and the majority of the first lap. Coming into the second lap, I knew that in order to hang with the group I needed to position myself as close to the front as possible so I could drift back though the bunch up the climb. Easier said than done. My legs were missing their kick and so gaps in front of me were shut down before I could even get my legs to respond. So I got dropped going up the first ‘false flat’ again. Thankfully I was not the only one and after about 10km of riding solo, a bunch caught me and by the end of the lap we were back at the end of the bunch, where I had just enough time to say Hi to my teammates before being dagged at the bottom of the second climb. And this time I was by myself…(I didn’t know at the time that there was a grupetto about 10min behind me). Coming into the last lap I was thinking to myself ‘please just make time cut…’ when I thought I felt my rear Zipp going flat. I was struggling and thought it was simply my mind playing tricks on me however by the end of the first drag it was evident that my wheel was flat and by the top of the 2nd climb, I was riding on the rim just in time for the decent. Determined not to get pulled from the race and with no communication available through my radio and no spares vehicles in sight, I decended praying that I wouldn’t eat tarmac for the second day in a row. With just under 10km to the finish on the decent, grupetto passed me and the police motor bike told me to jump on and looked at me as if I was stupid going about 15kph on a decent. After finally getting through to him that I had a flat he was on the radio and I had 4 police motor bikes around me. 4km to go and still riding on the flat, a spares motor bike rolled up to me and I got a wheel change, better late than never I guess? I sprinted my butt off to the finish because the police escort and the sag wagon in tow meant that I was now officially the end of the race. I was relieved to finish and it took every bit of mental strength not to give up then and there. But I made it to the end and lived to fight another day… I just hope that I won’t be paying the price too badly after my close to 40km of TTing tomorrow!
Stage 6:
Rest day. That is what today’s stage was meant to be for me. After the ride yesterday, I was somewhat relieved to be told to look after myself and get through the race using as little energy as possible and this meant that as soon as we hit the climb, I was to go straight to grupetto. But as always nothing is quite as it seems and this whole stage is uphill from the word VAI. With the GC contenders firmly in position, today gave the opportunity for those riders lower on GC to get away. This was our team objective today, to try and send someone up the road. But the bunch had different ideas and the pace was on from the start and at some point a group of around about 6 (including Ina Tutenberg and Giorgia Bronzini) slipped away up the road. This group eventually stayed on for the win. The bunch was strung out up the climb before a lengthy decent and by that time for me it was basically game over. Riders were going backwards as the 6 prior days of racing were finally taking their toll. I lasted about 50km with the group before getting spat then spent a while in the convoy trying to drag my butt up to no avail. What hurts the most is seeing riders grabbing onto their team cars and being towed right up to the bunch…Pretty sure that is called cheating. Not long after, a group of about nearly 20 riders came up behind me and I had no choice except to just sit on and limit my losses. Next minute, police motor bikes rock up around us and before I knew it there were riders (from the dodgy Italian teams) grabbing onto the bikes and being towed up the road…Our bunch then dwindled to about 10 riders including Regina Schneider and Charlotte Becker from Nurenberg and Linda Villmanseun from Columbia. As long as those girls were staying there, so was I. I mean we weren’t even grupetto! So it was a long ride to the finish and my legs were counting down the K’s before we would hit the wall with about 800m to go of cobbles at an average gradient of 16%. It was similar to the finish of the Timetrial, except way longer. Girls were zigzagging everywhere and Regina Schneider decked it in front of me and I was thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t come down too. So I grovelled my way to the top of the climb and lived to fight yet another day.
Reading back on my reports you could say that I’m hating life, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m loving the challenge and the invaluable knowledge I’m gaining each and every moment i‘m on the bike. Sure there have been tears but that’s all part of character building. I’m only growing as a bike rider and what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. If I come out of this in one piece I might as well be made of re-enforced steel.
Stage 7:
Lost: legs, if found please return.
When you get dropped within the first 30km of a 120km stage race, you start asking yourself why you do this sport. Today’s stage started at the base of a climb (over 10km in length) and needless to say it wasn’t long before mushroom clouds were seen exploding left right and centre. I made it to the top of the climb dagging between the peleton and one of many chase groups. The chase group of at least 10 riders caught me on the decent and we were joined about 20km down the road by grupetto. We were now a bunch of close to 25 riders and it was again just a case of getting to the finish in one piece. It wasn’t all bad, as it gave me a chance to have a chat to fellow Aussies Kate Bates, Rochelle Gilmore, Emma Mackie and team mate Belinda Goss. One rule of thumb is that you NEVER attack grupetto, unless you feel the need to race for about 140th on GC which most of the lesser teams feel the need to do. With a group the size of ours, you would think that there wuld be no need to get towed but at least 5 girls latched on the police motor bikes nd we never saw them again. Then there were the girls who grabbed on up theclimbs or who motor paced behind their team cars as comssaires turned a blind eye just wishing we’d hurry up and get to the finish. Apart from pissing the girls off, Kate made a good point in saying something similar to ‘these girls who keep on getting paced will be the ones who will always get dropped and never get any better’. Here’s to that. You might as well face the fact that you aren’t strong enough yet to hold onto the main pack and use the rest of the ride as a training ride so that you can learn and one day you will be able to stick with the big girls. It was a long ride to the finish but we made it there in one piece… Turns out it was a hard day in the office for all with no ‘distinctive’ peleton to be seen…
Off the bike, it’s been a ritual of eating, drinking, recovering and sleeping. Safe to say I never want to hear/see the word pasta ever again and I would never have thought I’d see the day where I dreaded having to eat and the very thought of it made me sick. But this is apparently what it’s like to be on tour and you force yourself to eat/drink not only to recover from the day’s race but to ensure you are properly fuelled for the next day. You got to put up with the rain in order to get to see the rainbow.
Our team of mechanics/soigneurs are working around the clock to make sure we have to do as little as possible and it is only by doing tours like these where you truly start to appreciate all the things that they do. On arrival at our motels, Dave has our bags up in our rooms and room allocations all sorted. Nico our mechanic pulls out the hose and cleans/fixes/adjusts our bikes and gets them ready for the next day’s race. Beth and Laura do our laundry, get us food (apparently we go through nearly 20 bananas a day!!), wash biddons, make race food and look after logistics. Then Beth gives up to 6 riders massages/treatments and changes dressings and makes sure we are fit to fight another day whilst Laura analyses files from the day’s race and calculates our hydration loss and asks us questions about each stage to get a better understanding things like if we feel good on the bike if our power is high, or if we feel bad but power still high and vice versa. So whilst we are resting and watching movies, everyone is working their butts off to make sure we can race the next day in the best conditions possible. I definitely feel privileged to be part of this team.
So 3 more days of racing and this means 3 more opportunities t try and make an impact/impression on the race. I came here to race, not to do a 120km training ride every day and I’m doing everything I possibly can to make sure that I can recover and get the form back which I had at the start of the tour so that I can finally fulfil my role for the team and help Tiff claim the white jersey. I’m sick of being a spectator in the game, I want to start being a player. Jens Voigt stated something along to lines of “when my legs start to burn I say to my body ‘shut up boy and do what I tell you to do’”. Tomorrow, I’m going to bring ear plugs.
The tour may be done and won by the time I next get a chance to update but until then, take care.
Ciao
Miffy xx
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
We're Back Online
Yes it’s been a while since I’ve last updated, but this is because I’ve been travelling around the North of Italy with the 2009 Giro Donne. For the last 3 days I’ve been in a little motel somewhere near Pisa, with no internet, much to the horror of most of the girls! As we speak I’m sitting in a nice 4 star hotel in Fermo right on the beach, the sun is shining and looks like a perfect day for racing. Unfortunately from today onwards we move hotels every night so there is no time to get settled and long transfers after racing become the norm.
So here’s how the Giro Donne has played out so far:
Prologue:
The prologue was a 2.5km hotdog loop around the streets of Scarperia. It started with a short rise before a long downhill straight and uphill finish. I was pumped with adrenalin leading into the TT. Rolling up to the start line and seeing the likes of team Columbia and Cervelo, and people wearing their national jersey’s and the World Champion bands was overwhelming. As I was rolling up to the start, Marv wished me luck and said to have fun. I’m riding for my country in one of the biggest women’s stage races in the world. How could I not have fun? Sitting on the start line awaiting my start, I couldn’t believe what I’d gotten myself into. I was about to embark on one of my biggest learning journeys yet, that some of my biggest dreams were starting to unfold right in front of me. The clock hit 0 and it was time to go off, and just as quickly as it had started, it was over. I’d just finished the first stage in the Giro. Kirstin Wild from Cervelo won it and Tiff Cromwell was the best placed from the Aussie Team in a time of. A little disappointed, I finished in with a time of 2min29.
Stage 1:
Stage 1 was a 99.9km loop from San Piero to Sieve and Pratolino di Vaglia. It was a relatively flat course with 2 rises in the 2nd part of the course, the first one an average of 3% for km and then the last one a nasty 2km steep finish. My job for the day, and the Tour, is to be Carlee’s right hand man. It is my responsibility to try and help Carlee to position herself in the front of the bunch and help her whenever she needs it. I have to admit I was a little nervous with the role that I was given as Carlee (along with Tiff) is one of our GC contenders and so it was my responsibility to make sure she had to do as little as possible to save herself for the hiller stages when GC would be decided. Overall, I was really happy with how rode and fulfilled my role. I was positioned in the top half of the field for the whole race and managed to get Carlee into some better positions leading into the bases of the climbs. I’m not sure if I was still running on adrenalin or was just ‘in the zone’ but looking back on the race now, I don’t know how the hell I managed to fit through some of the gaps I did or move around the bunch like I did. One of the highlights for me would have been sitting on the back of the Columbia train as they dragged a few of their riders to the front. Definitely a cool moment there. I finished off the back of the main group with some of the other Aussie girls as my role was done for the day and I had done all that I could to help Carlee. It was then just a matter of getting myself to the finish using as little energy as possible. After the race, we rode back to where the van was to find our own seats with our own protein bottle, sandwich and bags all laid out in front. Buckets with water and towels were there to cool ourselves down and Nico and Dave were taking our bikes off us as we rolled in. I couldn’t believe how well organised the team is, and little did I know that this is what would happen everyday that we were on tour :)
Stage 2: 15km TT
I woke up this morning with a sickly feeling in my stomach. I’m not the best time trialist the world has ever seen and frankly, to be honest, they make me feel a little nervous. However, Marv came and spoke to Lauren and I shortly before departure and said that today we’d be having a ‘rest day’ and for us to only go 80%. Oddly enough, instead of feeling relieved, I was a little worried. Going 80% in probably my biggest time trial to date? But I soon looked at the bigger picture and my role in helping Carlee was far more important to me than giving everything in the TT, so I took the opportunity to conquer my fears and concentrate on my technique and practice my race script instead. The time trial ended up being quite enjoyable, I was happy with the way I rode it although the sharp pinch 500m from the end on cobbles through some narrow road through the houses proved somewhat of a challenging surprise (a girl who passed me shortly before we hit the climb literally came to a track stand!). I still finished mid field (I think 69th) however I think there were a few other girls who were having ‘a rest day’ also :p Tiff was our highest place getter on GC and now sits 3rd in the young rider classification
Stage 3: 90km, Monte Serra hill top finish.
What is today? Today is the most important day of our lives until tomorrow. Day 4 was dubbed the ‘Queen Stage’ of the Tour. It was on this stage last year that Luperini broke away from the field to win by 1min30 and secure the leader’s jersey. Needless to say, similar to last year, today would have a major impact on GC. Again today my role was to help out Carlee as best as possible. Loud cracks of thunder sent us off and within minutes, there was a heavy downpour and we were soaked to the bone. This made the 50km of flat before the climbs a lot more interesting. I was unable to move up through the bunch as I had on the first stage as there were mini ponds on the sides of the road and so was forced to fight my way through the much more edgy bunch. Visibility was minimal and scretching brakes and yells were heard frequently and of course there were a few crashes. I got caught up in one but fortunately managed to unclip as the girl infront of me tumbled down the side of the road but Lauren wasn’t so lucky getting caught up in another crash and after requiring a bike change, slipped on a white line as she was being towed back into the bunch! Looking a little worse for wear, she but on a brave face and set a good example for the team which is why she is our team Leader. She is a bit of a tough nut :P . Meanwhile I was still struggling with position when I heard over the radio that Carlee had punctured. I used the opportunity to go back with her and help to tow her back up to the bunch with Chloe and Belinda before the base of the first climb which was rapidly approaching. We managed to get her up in time but the mass of riders negotiating the narrow roads made it dfficult to get into the first half of the bunch. I was still in the tail end of the bunch when we hit the climb, I started to pass riders when the ‘grupetto’ started to form. Lauren and I managed to get into another group in front of grupetto and tempoed to the top of the first 9km climb. Our job was done, there was nothing else we could do for our GC riders now except to make it to the end of the race in one piece. If only it had happened that way. On the 10km decent, I was feathering the brakes to get some of the leftover water off before coming into a hairpin turn when much to my shock nothing was happening. The corner was coming up fast and still nothing from my brakes. I signalled to the girls to come past and took the corner as wide and best I could but slipped out and found myself in the gutter. Loz stopped to help me and the US team car also helped to peel me off the road and get me back on the bike. The rest of the decent was slow and tedious as there was still little response from my brakes. A small group caught us at the base of the decent and dragged our butts with them to the finish up Monte Serra.
All in all, not a terrible day in the office but not one of my finest either. I think I let the weather conditions get to me and never quite settled in. But I was able to take away a few things from the race also, like the importance of positioning in the bunch, that when a small bunch forms behind the leader’s bunch you do not attack it and all roll to the end together just to name a few.
This tour has been one of the steepest learning curves of my career to date and i'm enjoying learning the ins and outs of international racing and I feel that this experience can only help mould me into a bigger and better bike rider :D
Until next time,
Take care
Ciao xx
So here’s how the Giro Donne has played out so far:
Prologue:
The prologue was a 2.5km hotdog loop around the streets of Scarperia. It started with a short rise before a long downhill straight and uphill finish. I was pumped with adrenalin leading into the TT. Rolling up to the start line and seeing the likes of team Columbia and Cervelo, and people wearing their national jersey’s and the World Champion bands was overwhelming. As I was rolling up to the start, Marv wished me luck and said to have fun. I’m riding for my country in one of the biggest women’s stage races in the world. How could I not have fun? Sitting on the start line awaiting my start, I couldn’t believe what I’d gotten myself into. I was about to embark on one of my biggest learning journeys yet, that some of my biggest dreams were starting to unfold right in front of me. The clock hit 0 and it was time to go off, and just as quickly as it had started, it was over. I’d just finished the first stage in the Giro. Kirstin Wild from Cervelo won it and Tiff Cromwell was the best placed from the Aussie Team in a time of. A little disappointed, I finished in with a time of 2min29.
Stage 1:
Stage 1 was a 99.9km loop from San Piero to Sieve and Pratolino di Vaglia. It was a relatively flat course with 2 rises in the 2nd part of the course, the first one an average of 3% for km and then the last one a nasty 2km steep finish. My job for the day, and the Tour, is to be Carlee’s right hand man. It is my responsibility to try and help Carlee to position herself in the front of the bunch and help her whenever she needs it. I have to admit I was a little nervous with the role that I was given as Carlee (along with Tiff) is one of our GC contenders and so it was my responsibility to make sure she had to do as little as possible to save herself for the hiller stages when GC would be decided. Overall, I was really happy with how rode and fulfilled my role. I was positioned in the top half of the field for the whole race and managed to get Carlee into some better positions leading into the bases of the climbs. I’m not sure if I was still running on adrenalin or was just ‘in the zone’ but looking back on the race now, I don’t know how the hell I managed to fit through some of the gaps I did or move around the bunch like I did. One of the highlights for me would have been sitting on the back of the Columbia train as they dragged a few of their riders to the front. Definitely a cool moment there. I finished off the back of the main group with some of the other Aussie girls as my role was done for the day and I had done all that I could to help Carlee. It was then just a matter of getting myself to the finish using as little energy as possible. After the race, we rode back to where the van was to find our own seats with our own protein bottle, sandwich and bags all laid out in front. Buckets with water and towels were there to cool ourselves down and Nico and Dave were taking our bikes off us as we rolled in. I couldn’t believe how well organised the team is, and little did I know that this is what would happen everyday that we were on tour :)
Stage 2: 15km TT
I woke up this morning with a sickly feeling in my stomach. I’m not the best time trialist the world has ever seen and frankly, to be honest, they make me feel a little nervous. However, Marv came and spoke to Lauren and I shortly before departure and said that today we’d be having a ‘rest day’ and for us to only go 80%. Oddly enough, instead of feeling relieved, I was a little worried. Going 80% in probably my biggest time trial to date? But I soon looked at the bigger picture and my role in helping Carlee was far more important to me than giving everything in the TT, so I took the opportunity to conquer my fears and concentrate on my technique and practice my race script instead. The time trial ended up being quite enjoyable, I was happy with the way I rode it although the sharp pinch 500m from the end on cobbles through some narrow road through the houses proved somewhat of a challenging surprise (a girl who passed me shortly before we hit the climb literally came to a track stand!). I still finished mid field (I think 69th) however I think there were a few other girls who were having ‘a rest day’ also :p Tiff was our highest place getter on GC and now sits 3rd in the young rider classification
Stage 3: 90km, Monte Serra hill top finish.
What is today? Today is the most important day of our lives until tomorrow. Day 4 was dubbed the ‘Queen Stage’ of the Tour. It was on this stage last year that Luperini broke away from the field to win by 1min30 and secure the leader’s jersey. Needless to say, similar to last year, today would have a major impact on GC. Again today my role was to help out Carlee as best as possible. Loud cracks of thunder sent us off and within minutes, there was a heavy downpour and we were soaked to the bone. This made the 50km of flat before the climbs a lot more interesting. I was unable to move up through the bunch as I had on the first stage as there were mini ponds on the sides of the road and so was forced to fight my way through the much more edgy bunch. Visibility was minimal and scretching brakes and yells were heard frequently and of course there were a few crashes. I got caught up in one but fortunately managed to unclip as the girl infront of me tumbled down the side of the road but Lauren wasn’t so lucky getting caught up in another crash and after requiring a bike change, slipped on a white line as she was being towed back into the bunch! Looking a little worse for wear, she but on a brave face and set a good example for the team which is why she is our team Leader. She is a bit of a tough nut :P . Meanwhile I was still struggling with position when I heard over the radio that Carlee had punctured. I used the opportunity to go back with her and help to tow her back up to the bunch with Chloe and Belinda before the base of the first climb which was rapidly approaching. We managed to get her up in time but the mass of riders negotiating the narrow roads made it dfficult to get into the first half of the bunch. I was still in the tail end of the bunch when we hit the climb, I started to pass riders when the ‘grupetto’ started to form. Lauren and I managed to get into another group in front of grupetto and tempoed to the top of the first 9km climb. Our job was done, there was nothing else we could do for our GC riders now except to make it to the end of the race in one piece. If only it had happened that way. On the 10km decent, I was feathering the brakes to get some of the leftover water off before coming into a hairpin turn when much to my shock nothing was happening. The corner was coming up fast and still nothing from my brakes. I signalled to the girls to come past and took the corner as wide and best I could but slipped out and found myself in the gutter. Loz stopped to help me and the US team car also helped to peel me off the road and get me back on the bike. The rest of the decent was slow and tedious as there was still little response from my brakes. A small group caught us at the base of the decent and dragged our butts with them to the finish up Monte Serra.
All in all, not a terrible day in the office but not one of my finest either. I think I let the weather conditions get to me and never quite settled in. But I was able to take away a few things from the race also, like the importance of positioning in the bunch, that when a small bunch forms behind the leader’s bunch you do not attack it and all roll to the end together just to name a few.
This tour has been one of the steepest learning curves of my career to date and i'm enjoying learning the ins and outs of international racing and I feel that this experience can only help mould me into a bigger and better bike rider :D
Until next time,
Take care
Ciao xx
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Ah recovery days. After smashing yourself for over a week, it’s nice to unwind with a cruisey ride where you have time to take in the scenery around you and even make a brew stop or two. That is what we have on the program today :) After a pretty solid few days, my body is relishing the fact today I will not be crawling back from this ride on my knees. And how exactly have I come to reach this point? Well since our last double session, we’ve ventured close to 4hrs south to do a recon of Stage 3 of the Giro Donne (also dubbed as the ‘Queen stage’) which includes 2 climbs which are close to 9km in length. The stage starts of with a flat 50km before winding through a little town up the first climb, then down a long decent with another flat section not long before we start the climb to the hill top finish up Monte Serra. It is definitely going to be a tough one but at least now I’ve seen the climbs so hopefully it will not be too much of a shock to the system as I know it’s humanly possible to haul my butt up them!
We’ve also done some more motor pacing and yesterday ventured up what is more commonly know as the ‘Basso Climb’, I’m just hoping that means I’ll now climb like him! Now just a couple of more days for our bodies to recover before we tackle the Giro Donne head on!
Off the bike, the girls and I have enjoyed yet more gelati, grocery shopping, Italian lessons, shopping excursions and pizza eating. I even managed to catch up with fellow Canberran Vicki Whitelaw and her husband Dave who are currently living about 40km from where we are! It was great to catch up with them and hear how Vicki is coping with life as a pro cyclist, plus it was nice just to see another friendly face! It sure is a small world! We originally met at what the girls call the ‘chocolate spoon café’ which was dubbed that as the hot chocolates are actually served with a chocolate spoon! However, much to my disappointment, it was closed so we had to settle for another café where I had a very respectable hazelnut smoothie, not quite a chocolate spoon but I still rated it :)
We’ve also hit up the train to do a spot of shopping Varese before getting stuck in a thunderstorm in hail whilst having yet another mouth watering gigantor pizza from della Motta. Hmmm. I’ve finally mastered the food ordering process and can now add/change ingredients at my discretion; nothing is going to stop me now!! Who knows what random concoctions I’ll come up with next! We also had fun talking to one of the waiters who when we proceeded to give him a tip, kindly declined it in what we thought was a very polite manner before adding ‘I only take notes’, all in good spirits though. After having a bit of a laugh over that, we decided it would be funny to leave him a $5 Aussie note which he took as a souvenir, little did he know that it was well below the value of the 15 euro tip that we’d originally left for him!
Today I’m going out the lunch with some of the girls to Bar Cavour, home of my very first Italian hot chocolate. Apparently they don’t have a menu and you simply ask for whatever ingredients you want on your Panini or salad and voila! Just for something different.
My roommate Belinda Goss has also finally arrived! It’s great to have someone else around, started to get a bit lonely! And the U23 boys have come back to the base and Marv and Laura both arrive today so the base is crawling with action!
Our nights have been filled with more high stakes UNO bliss and we have decided that we are going to hold the inaugural UNO World Championships! Winner takes all. We’ve also discovered one of the dangers of owning a credit card = online shopping. Last night, the girls and I spent hours scavenging through the Victoria’s Secret website and we ended up with an order bordering on $400 worth of swimmers and dresses! You could hardly blame us, with a one day only sale of 20-60% it was an offer we simply couldn’t refuse!! So hopefully when we get back form the Giro, we’ll have a nice little package waiting for us on the doorstep . It was also an excellent team bonding exercise, with girls each giving their 2 cents worth, phrases such as ‘you’d look so hot in that’ and ‘nah, you have to be a skinny bitch to pull that off’ were thrown around and peer pressure was used heavily on the indecisive. I ended up with a bikini and a dress, chosen for me with the help of the team of personal shoppers :P can’t wait until they arrive!
Yesterday was also our last Italian lesson until we get back from the Giro. Ariane treated us those who had done their homework to a lovely homemade cheese cake. We’ve learnt a lot in our lessons and I now feel confident that I have been provided with enough material to get by in Italy it was also another great team bonding experience, with the girls each discussing how we could cure the ‘drought’ that has plagued a few of us over the last few months :P
We’ve also are starting to get organised for the Giro which starts this Friday with the 2.5km prologue. I didn’t actually realise just how fortunate I was to be apart of the Australian team. I wouldn’t be joking when I said all you had to do was ride your bike. At a brief meeting we had yesterday, we were told that all meals/snack food/biddons was taken care of, that our washing would be done every night for us, we’d get massages at least every 2nd day and all of the recovery stuff and bike equipment taken care of. We sure are spoilt!! I feel a bit lazy actually…
Well I think that is all that has been happening over the last couple of days..I’ll try and give another quick entry before we head off for the Giro as who knows when we’ll have internet!
Until then, take care and best of luck to all those riding the Canberra Tour!
Ciao Ciao
Miffy xx
We’ve also done some more motor pacing and yesterday ventured up what is more commonly know as the ‘Basso Climb’, I’m just hoping that means I’ll now climb like him! Now just a couple of more days for our bodies to recover before we tackle the Giro Donne head on!
Off the bike, the girls and I have enjoyed yet more gelati, grocery shopping, Italian lessons, shopping excursions and pizza eating. I even managed to catch up with fellow Canberran Vicki Whitelaw and her husband Dave who are currently living about 40km from where we are! It was great to catch up with them and hear how Vicki is coping with life as a pro cyclist, plus it was nice just to see another friendly face! It sure is a small world! We originally met at what the girls call the ‘chocolate spoon café’ which was dubbed that as the hot chocolates are actually served with a chocolate spoon! However, much to my disappointment, it was closed so we had to settle for another café where I had a very respectable hazelnut smoothie, not quite a chocolate spoon but I still rated it :)
We’ve also hit up the train to do a spot of shopping Varese before getting stuck in a thunderstorm in hail whilst having yet another mouth watering gigantor pizza from della Motta. Hmmm. I’ve finally mastered the food ordering process and can now add/change ingredients at my discretion; nothing is going to stop me now!! Who knows what random concoctions I’ll come up with next! We also had fun talking to one of the waiters who when we proceeded to give him a tip, kindly declined it in what we thought was a very polite manner before adding ‘I only take notes’, all in good spirits though. After having a bit of a laugh over that, we decided it would be funny to leave him a $5 Aussie note which he took as a souvenir, little did he know that it was well below the value of the 15 euro tip that we’d originally left for him!
Today I’m going out the lunch with some of the girls to Bar Cavour, home of my very first Italian hot chocolate. Apparently they don’t have a menu and you simply ask for whatever ingredients you want on your Panini or salad and voila! Just for something different.
My roommate Belinda Goss has also finally arrived! It’s great to have someone else around, started to get a bit lonely! And the U23 boys have come back to the base and Marv and Laura both arrive today so the base is crawling with action!
Our nights have been filled with more high stakes UNO bliss and we have decided that we are going to hold the inaugural UNO World Championships! Winner takes all. We’ve also discovered one of the dangers of owning a credit card = online shopping. Last night, the girls and I spent hours scavenging through the Victoria’s Secret website and we ended up with an order bordering on $400 worth of swimmers and dresses! You could hardly blame us, with a one day only sale of 20-60% it was an offer we simply couldn’t refuse!! So hopefully when we get back form the Giro, we’ll have a nice little package waiting for us on the doorstep . It was also an excellent team bonding exercise, with girls each giving their 2 cents worth, phrases such as ‘you’d look so hot in that’ and ‘nah, you have to be a skinny bitch to pull that off’ were thrown around and peer pressure was used heavily on the indecisive. I ended up with a bikini and a dress, chosen for me with the help of the team of personal shoppers :P can’t wait until they arrive!
Yesterday was also our last Italian lesson until we get back from the Giro. Ariane treated us those who had done their homework to a lovely homemade cheese cake. We’ve learnt a lot in our lessons and I now feel confident that I have been provided with enough material to get by in Italy it was also another great team bonding experience, with the girls each discussing how we could cure the ‘drought’ that has plagued a few of us over the last few months :P
We’ve also are starting to get organised for the Giro which starts this Friday with the 2.5km prologue. I didn’t actually realise just how fortunate I was to be apart of the Australian team. I wouldn’t be joking when I said all you had to do was ride your bike. At a brief meeting we had yesterday, we were told that all meals/snack food/biddons was taken care of, that our washing would be done every night for us, we’d get massages at least every 2nd day and all of the recovery stuff and bike equipment taken care of. We sure are spoilt!! I feel a bit lazy actually…
Well I think that is all that has been happening over the last couple of days..I’ll try and give another quick entry before we head off for the Giro as who knows when we’ll have internet!
Until then, take care and best of luck to all those riding the Canberra Tour!
Ciao Ciao
Miffy xx
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Just like living in paradise...
Eat, ride, eat some more, stretch, recover and sleep. They are basically the only things you have to worry about over here. Forget work, forget all the dramas back home and concentrate purely on what you are here to do, ride your bike.
Over the past few days, we’ve embarked on more challenging training rides such as double sessions and more recently a 6hr ride with SEs and a 10km climb followed by some pacelining in the 35 degree heat!! We also rode over part of the 2009 World Road Race course, it’s definitely one for the climbers! Although it may have seemed like an epic day in the saddle, after a recovery day yesterday we are ready to get stuck in and do it all over again today! Motor pacing this morning then in the arvo we are pulling out the big guns with some power climbs!
Off the bike, we have started having our Italian Lessons. Ariane has been given the duty of teaching us some basic Italian so that we can survive whilst we are over here. We’ve had a couple of lessons so far and I’m really enjoying learning another language and make an effort at every opportunity I get to try and practice it with the locals. I even managed to order myself a piece of steak (I made sure I learnt how to say the word ‘beef’ so I wouldn’t end up eating horse or anything :p) from the butcher who then proceeded to have a conversation in Italian with me to which I had to reply ‘Mi scusi, non capsico!’ I’m still working on it but my goal is to be able to have something that sort of resembles a proper conversation with someone by the time I get home!!
Not surprisingly, the girls and I have also ventured across the road for numerous gelati trips. The man who owns the shop makes the gelati fresh every morning fee from preservatives and with all natural ingredients (yes, so that gives me the right to have it everyday and not feel guilty :) ) and since he uses whatever ingredients he has on hand, you never know which flavours he is going to have!! So far I have had: banana, coconut, strachiatella, hazelnut, strawberry, some rice crispy one, a ferrero rocher one and something called ‘biscotto’ (which is basically the cookies and cream equivalent to gelati)!! My favourites so far are by far the biscotto and banana however these seem not to be made very often…Oh well, just means I’ll have to get extra when it is there :P And since we are talking about food, I think I’ve mastered the whole ‘cooking your own food in Italy’ situation. I now know what you can and can’t buy (no, don’t bother looking for ‘mixed herbs on spices’ in the racks…) and have been introduced to the world of fresh bread and cheeses. Yesterday I bought a fresh loaf of bread form the pizza restaurant called Risto around the corner, it was still warm when I bought it and needless to day it didn’t last long after I used it for lunch and made the tastiest bruschetta know to man for dinner that night!
The girls and I have also taken UNO to a whole new level, making it ‘high stakes’ UNO. Screams and shrieks can be heard well into the evening as whoever loses is forced to do whatever punishment the group has decided on before hand. So far Chloe has been the only unlucky one having to wear chamois cream on her face instead of sunscreen and today has to do the motor pacing session in leg and arm warmers which may not seem bad for those of you back home, but when it’s a lovely summers day like it is here...Let’s just say I’m glad its not me!
So apart from that, nothing much else has been happening. Belinda Goss arrives today so I am no longer by my lonesome which will make for a nice change! Rumour also has it that we are going to do a recon of the time trial and one of the climbs in the Giro (the Monte Serra) tomorrow which will be good! And we are also thinking of heading into Milan to do a bit of shopping either Monday or Wednesday and we have a date with the Pizza restaurant scheduled in there too!! Beth is also back so we are being pampered with massages and Ariane now comes twice a week for Italian lessons!
So things are looking pretty good over here. I think my body has finally started to adjust to the time zones after waking up at 5-530am everyday since I’ve been here, I was relieved this morning to roll over and see my watch was ticking over close to 630am!! Success!! And I’m starting to feel my legs again too which is good considering the training that we have coming up! Not to mention something we call the Giro starting just around the corner….
So until next time, take care
Ciao
Miffy
xx
P.S Uploading photos seems to be a touchy subject for my computer at the moment... I will try again soon but in the mean time feel free to check out my photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=275166&id=746470234&l=7a4717fe97
Over the past few days, we’ve embarked on more challenging training rides such as double sessions and more recently a 6hr ride with SEs and a 10km climb followed by some pacelining in the 35 degree heat!! We also rode over part of the 2009 World Road Race course, it’s definitely one for the climbers! Although it may have seemed like an epic day in the saddle, after a recovery day yesterday we are ready to get stuck in and do it all over again today! Motor pacing this morning then in the arvo we are pulling out the big guns with some power climbs!
Off the bike, we have started having our Italian Lessons. Ariane has been given the duty of teaching us some basic Italian so that we can survive whilst we are over here. We’ve had a couple of lessons so far and I’m really enjoying learning another language and make an effort at every opportunity I get to try and practice it with the locals. I even managed to order myself a piece of steak (I made sure I learnt how to say the word ‘beef’ so I wouldn’t end up eating horse or anything :p) from the butcher who then proceeded to have a conversation in Italian with me to which I had to reply ‘Mi scusi, non capsico!’ I’m still working on it but my goal is to be able to have something that sort of resembles a proper conversation with someone by the time I get home!!
Not surprisingly, the girls and I have also ventured across the road for numerous gelati trips. The man who owns the shop makes the gelati fresh every morning fee from preservatives and with all natural ingredients (yes, so that gives me the right to have it everyday and not feel guilty :) ) and since he uses whatever ingredients he has on hand, you never know which flavours he is going to have!! So far I have had: banana, coconut, strachiatella, hazelnut, strawberry, some rice crispy one, a ferrero rocher one and something called ‘biscotto’ (which is basically the cookies and cream equivalent to gelati)!! My favourites so far are by far the biscotto and banana however these seem not to be made very often…Oh well, just means I’ll have to get extra when it is there :P And since we are talking about food, I think I’ve mastered the whole ‘cooking your own food in Italy’ situation. I now know what you can and can’t buy (no, don’t bother looking for ‘mixed herbs on spices’ in the racks…) and have been introduced to the world of fresh bread and cheeses. Yesterday I bought a fresh loaf of bread form the pizza restaurant called Risto around the corner, it was still warm when I bought it and needless to day it didn’t last long after I used it for lunch and made the tastiest bruschetta know to man for dinner that night!
The girls and I have also taken UNO to a whole new level, making it ‘high stakes’ UNO. Screams and shrieks can be heard well into the evening as whoever loses is forced to do whatever punishment the group has decided on before hand. So far Chloe has been the only unlucky one having to wear chamois cream on her face instead of sunscreen and today has to do the motor pacing session in leg and arm warmers which may not seem bad for those of you back home, but when it’s a lovely summers day like it is here...Let’s just say I’m glad its not me!
So apart from that, nothing much else has been happening. Belinda Goss arrives today so I am no longer by my lonesome which will make for a nice change! Rumour also has it that we are going to do a recon of the time trial and one of the climbs in the Giro (the Monte Serra) tomorrow which will be good! And we are also thinking of heading into Milan to do a bit of shopping either Monday or Wednesday and we have a date with the Pizza restaurant scheduled in there too!! Beth is also back so we are being pampered with massages and Ariane now comes twice a week for Italian lessons!
So things are looking pretty good over here. I think my body has finally started to adjust to the time zones after waking up at 5-530am everyday since I’ve been here, I was relieved this morning to roll over and see my watch was ticking over close to 630am!! Success!! And I’m starting to feel my legs again too which is good considering the training that we have coming up! Not to mention something we call the Giro starting just around the corner….
So until next time, take care
Ciao
Miffy
xx
P.S Uploading photos seems to be a touchy subject for my computer at the moment... I will try again soon but in the mean time feel free to check out my photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=275166&id=746470234&l=7a4717fe97
Thursday, June 25, 2009
After a rather late night, I was not surprised to find myself awake at the ungodly hour of 5am. Unable to get back to sleep I admitted defeat and jumped online to wish my twin sister a Happy Birthday. It has been 3 years since we last celebrated our birthdays together as this time last year I’d just arrived in the USA and this year I’m in Italy…When you put it that way, life sounds kind of tough :P
So I had a long chat to my sister and she revealed that for part of my birthday present she’d hacked into my blog and totally redone my layout and so VOILA :D Although I was angry she’d hacked into my account, I forgive her because I think that the layout is bloody awesome, gold star for effort :D
On the agenda today was a 4hr ride with some SE climbs. Have only being been here for less than 24hrs, I was exempt from the efforts and so casually ‘tapped’ up the 10% climbs taking some happy snaps as I went. After we’d finished the efforts we rode round the Swiss border and round a beautiful looking lake (pics below) before riding though a rather hectic Varese back home to Castronno.
Later that afternoon, Lauren suggested that we go out and find ourselves an authentic Italian hot chocolate (ciocolata) to try. Rumour has it that they are so thick that you put a spoon in the middle of it and it stands straight up…needless to say it wasn’t long before we’d jumped on the townies in the direction of Bar Cavour. Our journey did not go incident free mind you, lets just say that I may have lost a little skin on my leg and that the score is Townie 1, Miffy 0. There will be revenge!
So we ordered our ciocolatas and Lauren got hers with panna (cream) and my draw literally dropped when the waiter placed my order in front of me. Sitting there was a cup of chocolate ‘sludge’ which tasted exactly like chocolate pudding…apparently these things are everywhere and it’s simply how the Italians do hot chocolates!! Yummy :)
Loz and her Ciocolata con Panna
Me and my Ciocolata
We then casually rode the townies back home so that we could greet out newest addition to the family, Chloe who had just arrived from the Netherlands after a tour with her Moving Ladies team. It was great to finally see her again as I haven’t seen her since she left Canberra nearly 3 months ago!
the Townies
For dinner that night we embarked on a journey to Varese to go and sample what was some of the best Italian pizza by Dave McPartland, our coach until Marv arrives on the 1st. After trying to decipher the 100 different types of pizza (pizza with mozerella, tomatoes and basil or mozerella tomatoes and oregano etc..) and with the help of the very patient waiter, I managed to order a pizza with fresh tomatoes, basil, artichoke, mushrooms and mozerella. Oh my goodness. Apart from being close to 3 dinner plates in size, the pizza was probably the best thing that has happened since the invention of the Italian hot chocolates! Each of the girls devoured their pizzas whole and were all in agreement that they could probably eat more! Pizza is never going to be the same again. Ever.
After rolling ourselves out of the restaurant, we jumped back on the train to Castronno and dinkied the townies back home where the girls had bought me a delicious chocolate cake and card to celebrate my birthday which was unexpected and very sweet of them :)
So not a bad way to spend my birthday. Nice weather, good ride, yummy food and probably some of the nicest company you could ever ask to spend your day with. I just wish my sister was here to enjoy it all with me!
Tomorrow we have an easy ride and our first Italian lesson! I’ll be fluent before you know it :p
Until next time,
Ciao
xx
So I had a long chat to my sister and she revealed that for part of my birthday present she’d hacked into my blog and totally redone my layout and so VOILA :D Although I was angry she’d hacked into my account, I forgive her because I think that the layout is bloody awesome, gold star for effort :D
On the agenda today was a 4hr ride with some SE climbs. Have only being been here for less than 24hrs, I was exempt from the efforts and so casually ‘tapped’ up the 10% climbs taking some happy snaps as I went. After we’d finished the efforts we rode round the Swiss border and round a beautiful looking lake (pics below) before riding though a rather hectic Varese back home to Castronno.
Later that afternoon, Lauren suggested that we go out and find ourselves an authentic Italian hot chocolate (ciocolata) to try. Rumour has it that they are so thick that you put a spoon in the middle of it and it stands straight up…needless to say it wasn’t long before we’d jumped on the townies in the direction of Bar Cavour. Our journey did not go incident free mind you, lets just say that I may have lost a little skin on my leg and that the score is Townie 1, Miffy 0. There will be revenge!
So we ordered our ciocolatas and Lauren got hers with panna (cream) and my draw literally dropped when the waiter placed my order in front of me. Sitting there was a cup of chocolate ‘sludge’ which tasted exactly like chocolate pudding…apparently these things are everywhere and it’s simply how the Italians do hot chocolates!! Yummy :)
We then casually rode the townies back home so that we could greet out newest addition to the family, Chloe who had just arrived from the Netherlands after a tour with her Moving Ladies team. It was great to finally see her again as I haven’t seen her since she left Canberra nearly 3 months ago!
For dinner that night we embarked on a journey to Varese to go and sample what was some of the best Italian pizza by Dave McPartland, our coach until Marv arrives on the 1st. After trying to decipher the 100 different types of pizza (pizza with mozerella, tomatoes and basil or mozerella tomatoes and oregano etc..) and with the help of the very patient waiter, I managed to order a pizza with fresh tomatoes, basil, artichoke, mushrooms and mozerella. Oh my goodness. Apart from being close to 3 dinner plates in size, the pizza was probably the best thing that has happened since the invention of the Italian hot chocolates! Each of the girls devoured their pizzas whole and were all in agreement that they could probably eat more! Pizza is never going to be the same again. Ever.
After rolling ourselves out of the restaurant, we jumped back on the train to Castronno and dinkied the townies back home where the girls had bought me a delicious chocolate cake and card to celebrate my birthday which was unexpected and very sweet of them :)
So not a bad way to spend my birthday. Nice weather, good ride, yummy food and probably some of the nicest company you could ever ask to spend your day with. I just wish my sister was here to enjoy it all with me!
Tomorrow we have an easy ride and our first Italian lesson! I’ll be fluent before you know it :p
Until next time,
Ciao
xx
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
What dreams are made of :)
23hrs of flying and 7 plane meals later, and I’ve finally arrived in Italy! The flight was anything but cruisey but it all quickly became worth it as we began our decent into Milan airport. I was greeted by the stunning view of the sun beaming down on the glistening snow capped muntains which surrounded us. See it doesn’t have to be minus a thousand degrees and miserable to have snow! Pretty sure someone should have told Canberra this.
So I was great at the airport by soigny extraordinaire Beth Duryea in the unmistakeable AIS team van and it was only a short drive to Castronno, Varese which I will be calling home for the next 6 weeks!
Pulling up to the house, it was nothing like I had expected! It is a 4 story ‘complex’ with self contained apartments varying in size on each level. I’m staying in room 6 which I will be sharing with Belinda Goss when she arrives on the 26th and Tiffany Cromwell who arrives on the 2nd of July but for now I’m in here all by myself! Lauren Kitchen is sharing with Amber Halliday and Carlee Taylor, Shara Gillow and Chloe Hosking are bunking together. We are each responsible for cooking/preparing our own meals for the length of the stay which is good as it teaches us to still become independent whilst away racing and gives us the challenge of trying to fend for ourselves in a country where we have no idea what is going on! But fear not, I have come equipped with my Italian phrasebook and dictionary on my Ipod touch and have been informed that we will be having Italian lessons twice a week for the duration of our stay!
After unloading all of my gear, I was faced with my first challenge of a trip to the supermarket to buy some essentials for lunch (so I could eat something which actually resembled real food!). I only had a couple of minutes in the shop but I was quite impressed with my efforts and came out with all the essentials to make probably one of the tastyest sandwiches to date. I would give myself an A for effort in this challenge :)
In the afternoon, I went out with the girls for their second session of the day to spin out the legs. It was about 28 degrees and you couldn’t have wiped the smile off my face! I think it was just after we’d ridden through the middle of Varese and then out pass the Lindt factory onto the windy undulating roads when I said to myself “yeah, I could get use to this :)”
The day was capped off by a trip to the Gelati store which is literally just across the street! The owner hand makes it fresh every morning and it’s safe to say that he will be seeing a hell of a lot more of me whilst I’m here!! Equipped with my Italian dictionary, I was able to decipher all of the flavours and settled for a mixture of stracciatella, banana and coconut. Oh my. I’m pretty sure I’m never going to eat gelati in Canberra ever again! The taste in your mouth as the ice slowly melts on your tongue and the refreshing feeling it gives you as it slides its way down your throat…Jealous yet? :P
So that pretty much sums up my first day in Italia :) It is everything I could have imagined and o so much more! I will upload photos shortly of the house and where we are staying so until then stay tuned!!
Take care
xx
So I was great at the airport by soigny extraordinaire Beth Duryea in the unmistakeable AIS team van and it was only a short drive to Castronno, Varese which I will be calling home for the next 6 weeks!
Pulling up to the house, it was nothing like I had expected! It is a 4 story ‘complex’ with self contained apartments varying in size on each level. I’m staying in room 6 which I will be sharing with Belinda Goss when she arrives on the 26th and Tiffany Cromwell who arrives on the 2nd of July but for now I’m in here all by myself! Lauren Kitchen is sharing with Amber Halliday and Carlee Taylor, Shara Gillow and Chloe Hosking are bunking together. We are each responsible for cooking/preparing our own meals for the length of the stay which is good as it teaches us to still become independent whilst away racing and gives us the challenge of trying to fend for ourselves in a country where we have no idea what is going on! But fear not, I have come equipped with my Italian phrasebook and dictionary on my Ipod touch and have been informed that we will be having Italian lessons twice a week for the duration of our stay!
After unloading all of my gear, I was faced with my first challenge of a trip to the supermarket to buy some essentials for lunch (so I could eat something which actually resembled real food!). I only had a couple of minutes in the shop but I was quite impressed with my efforts and came out with all the essentials to make probably one of the tastyest sandwiches to date. I would give myself an A for effort in this challenge :)
In the afternoon, I went out with the girls for their second session of the day to spin out the legs. It was about 28 degrees and you couldn’t have wiped the smile off my face! I think it was just after we’d ridden through the middle of Varese and then out pass the Lindt factory onto the windy undulating roads when I said to myself “yeah, I could get use to this :)”
The day was capped off by a trip to the Gelati store which is literally just across the street! The owner hand makes it fresh every morning and it’s safe to say that he will be seeing a hell of a lot more of me whilst I’m here!! Equipped with my Italian dictionary, I was able to decipher all of the flavours and settled for a mixture of stracciatella, banana and coconut. Oh my. I’m pretty sure I’m never going to eat gelati in Canberra ever again! The taste in your mouth as the ice slowly melts on your tongue and the refreshing feeling it gives you as it slides its way down your throat…Jealous yet? :P
So that pretty much sums up my first day in Italia :) It is everything I could have imagined and o so much more! I will upload photos shortly of the house and where we are staying so until then stay tuned!!
Take care
xx
Monday, June 15, 2009
..And we're back!
So I have to admit, it has been a while since I have last updated my blog but now it’s time to dust off the virtual cobwebs as my bicycle and I are about to embark on yet another overseas adventure. Last year I was off to the land of drive-thrus and fried chicken and this year I’m escaping the harsh Canberra winter and heading to the home of the Godfather, gelato and Ferragamo shoes. That’s right people, I’m off to Italia :D
I recently got the unexpected pleasure of being invited to ride with the Australian National team in a 6 week stint over in Europe competing in some of the biggest races on the Women’s calendar including the Giro Donne in Italy and the Tour of Limousin in France. This certainly did come as a surprise! Let me paint the scene for you. I’d just finished having coffee with my coach after discussing plans for the rest of the year, dreading the thought of having to endure the cold months where you ask yourself ‘what the hell am I doing in this sport?’, when 20min into my ride home I received a text message from my coach saying to ‘please ring, it’s urgent’. I quickly rung him back desperate to find out what was wrong when he said ‘Barras (Martin Barras the Australian Women’s Head Coach) wants to know if you want to ride the Giro.’ My initial reaction is probably not suitable to publish on the net but it was quickly followed by a ‘HELL YES!!’ and ever since then it’s been a snow ball effect of activity getting myself prepared for my first stint donning the Aussie green and gold against the best women racers the world has to offer!!
So it has been a while since I’ve blogged and what’s happened? Well life has full of ups and downs of course but that’s all part of the character building and what makes you tougher, I guess. Some of the prominent events have been my involvement in an Altitude Study at the AIS where I was locked up with 12 other girls for 6 weeks during which we underwent various testing and gruelling training sessions which were designed to ‘bring us back on our knees’ all whilst sleeping at altitude to determine if haemoglobin mass had any impact on performance. The study was a huge success and I would do it again in a heartbeat. We were luckily enough to undergo a training program set by Martin Barras and the whole study was organised by Laura Garvican who was assisted by sports science extraordinaire Dave ‘you animal!’ Martin and Torben our very own German doctor :P. I learnt a lot about myself both as a bike rider and as a person during that camp and started to prove to myself that I might actually have what it takes to make something out of this sport! I am also learning more about my body and how it adapts to certain training and most importantly, when it’s telling me that enough is enough and I need to recover. During the last few months I have also had the honour of becoming a of the ACT Academy of Sport and wear now my state’s colours with pride in competition. It was a bittersweet transition as it involved me leaving my old coach with whom I have a bond which could not compare to any other. But I’m not afraid to try new things and am a firm believer in change. My ultimate goal is to make it as a professional cyclist in an international team as well as compete for my country in the Olympic and Commonwealth games and being part of the State Institute seemed like the next logical step to achieving my goals. I am now coached by Glenn Doney and have enjoyed the challenge of the training and have formed a close bond with my big yellow ergo who I have nicknamed ‘Moose’ (I spend a lot of time on there, so it’s good to have a good relationship!!). I’m now doing some more time trial style training (shock horror :O) because to be a good tour rider you need to be able to climb hills fast and have a strong time trial in you. I’ve come to terms that in time trialling, pain is the key. You just have to swallow the hard cold fact that it is going to hurt, bad.
Canberra Tour has also been and gone and overall I was happy with my performances on the Saturday (getting 3rd in both stages) albeit a little disappointed with my efforts in the Sunday race. I was part of the decisive break on the road and at one point was virtual race leader but I got too preoccupied with the race and as a consequence my nutrition suffered and there is no worse feeling then seeing the race ride away from you 100m from the top of the last climb…I was left to ride the last 7km to the finish line with a big mushroom cloud over my head praying that I wasn’t going to get swallowed and spat out by the rapidly approaching pack. I managed to hold on and pick up 5th, making me 5th on GC. I learnt a lot from that tour and I think I’m a better rider having had experienced that. It has highlighted an issue that I have tried to overlook for too long and I am now more determined then ever to settle the issue once and for all. Unfortunately I didn’t have the legs but maybe with a bit more work I’ll get there and crack a podium finish!
Off the bike, I’ve been working up a storm at Aerofit gym owned by Commonwealth and Olympic Games representative in the 20km walk (now if that isn’t a tough sport…)Nick A’Hern and his wife Jen and have recently completed my Cert III in Fitness. I also started my degree of a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Laws at the University of Canberra but chose to defer it until next year when I am in a better mindset to give it 100%, even though it means I’ll still be at Uni when I’m old and wrinkly….
So that’s pretty much all that’s been happening in my bubble over the last few months since coming back from the Women’s Tour of New Zealand. I depart for the AIS base in Varese on Saturday the 20th June where I’m told I will be greeted with close to 30 degree weather and sunshine (thank goodness!!!) and I’ll be arriving on my Birthday, the 22nd June. Last year I arrived in the US on my 18th Birthday and this year I will be celebrating my 19th in Italy…Boy life’s tough :P
I’ll be racing the Giro with a relatively young team comprising of Shara Gillow, Carlee Taylor, Amber Halliday, Lauren Kitchen, Tiffany Cromwell and fellow Canberran Chloe Hosking who has definitely making a name for herself riding with the Dutch Moving Ladies team!!! It’ll be great to catch up and be able to share this experience with her! Under the watchful eye of Martin Barras and with the support of Beth Duryea and Dave McPartland it’s going to be a tremendous experience. I can’t believe that I’m one step closer to living the dream…I’m super motivated and can’t wait for it all to come about!
And so another chapter in my life as a cyclist is about to begin, and something tells me it’s going to be a long but invaluable one :)
Stay tuned
xx
The new kit out in action at Canberra Tour
I recently got the unexpected pleasure of being invited to ride with the Australian National team in a 6 week stint over in Europe competing in some of the biggest races on the Women’s calendar including the Giro Donne in Italy and the Tour of Limousin in France. This certainly did come as a surprise! Let me paint the scene for you. I’d just finished having coffee with my coach after discussing plans for the rest of the year, dreading the thought of having to endure the cold months where you ask yourself ‘what the hell am I doing in this sport?’, when 20min into my ride home I received a text message from my coach saying to ‘please ring, it’s urgent’. I quickly rung him back desperate to find out what was wrong when he said ‘Barras (Martin Barras the Australian Women’s Head Coach) wants to know if you want to ride the Giro.’ My initial reaction is probably not suitable to publish on the net but it was quickly followed by a ‘HELL YES!!’ and ever since then it’s been a snow ball effect of activity getting myself prepared for my first stint donning the Aussie green and gold against the best women racers the world has to offer!!
So it has been a while since I’ve blogged and what’s happened? Well life has full of ups and downs of course but that’s all part of the character building and what makes you tougher, I guess. Some of the prominent events have been my involvement in an Altitude Study at the AIS where I was locked up with 12 other girls for 6 weeks during which we underwent various testing and gruelling training sessions which were designed to ‘bring us back on our knees’ all whilst sleeping at altitude to determine if haemoglobin mass had any impact on performance. The study was a huge success and I would do it again in a heartbeat. We were luckily enough to undergo a training program set by Martin Barras and the whole study was organised by Laura Garvican who was assisted by sports science extraordinaire Dave ‘you animal!’ Martin and Torben our very own German doctor :P. I learnt a lot about myself both as a bike rider and as a person during that camp and started to prove to myself that I might actually have what it takes to make something out of this sport! I am also learning more about my body and how it adapts to certain training and most importantly, when it’s telling me that enough is enough and I need to recover. During the last few months I have also had the honour of becoming a of the ACT Academy of Sport and wear now my state’s colours with pride in competition. It was a bittersweet transition as it involved me leaving my old coach with whom I have a bond which could not compare to any other. But I’m not afraid to try new things and am a firm believer in change. My ultimate goal is to make it as a professional cyclist in an international team as well as compete for my country in the Olympic and Commonwealth games and being part of the State Institute seemed like the next logical step to achieving my goals. I am now coached by Glenn Doney and have enjoyed the challenge of the training and have formed a close bond with my big yellow ergo who I have nicknamed ‘Moose’ (I spend a lot of time on there, so it’s good to have a good relationship!!). I’m now doing some more time trial style training (shock horror :O) because to be a good tour rider you need to be able to climb hills fast and have a strong time trial in you. I’ve come to terms that in time trialling, pain is the key. You just have to swallow the hard cold fact that it is going to hurt, bad.
Canberra Tour has also been and gone and overall I was happy with my performances on the Saturday (getting 3rd in both stages) albeit a little disappointed with my efforts in the Sunday race. I was part of the decisive break on the road and at one point was virtual race leader but I got too preoccupied with the race and as a consequence my nutrition suffered and there is no worse feeling then seeing the race ride away from you 100m from the top of the last climb…I was left to ride the last 7km to the finish line with a big mushroom cloud over my head praying that I wasn’t going to get swallowed and spat out by the rapidly approaching pack. I managed to hold on and pick up 5th, making me 5th on GC. I learnt a lot from that tour and I think I’m a better rider having had experienced that. It has highlighted an issue that I have tried to overlook for too long and I am now more determined then ever to settle the issue once and for all. Unfortunately I didn’t have the legs but maybe with a bit more work I’ll get there and crack a podium finish!
Off the bike, I’ve been working up a storm at Aerofit gym owned by Commonwealth and Olympic Games representative in the 20km walk (now if that isn’t a tough sport…)Nick A’Hern and his wife Jen and have recently completed my Cert III in Fitness. I also started my degree of a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Laws at the University of Canberra but chose to defer it until next year when I am in a better mindset to give it 100%, even though it means I’ll still be at Uni when I’m old and wrinkly….
So that’s pretty much all that’s been happening in my bubble over the last few months since coming back from the Women’s Tour of New Zealand. I depart for the AIS base in Varese on Saturday the 20th June where I’m told I will be greeted with close to 30 degree weather and sunshine (thank goodness!!!) and I’ll be arriving on my Birthday, the 22nd June. Last year I arrived in the US on my 18th Birthday and this year I will be celebrating my 19th in Italy…Boy life’s tough :P
I’ll be racing the Giro with a relatively young team comprising of Shara Gillow, Carlee Taylor, Amber Halliday, Lauren Kitchen, Tiffany Cromwell and fellow Canberran Chloe Hosking who has definitely making a name for herself riding with the Dutch Moving Ladies team!!! It’ll be great to catch up and be able to share this experience with her! Under the watchful eye of Martin Barras and with the support of Beth Duryea and Dave McPartland it’s going to be a tremendous experience. I can’t believe that I’m one step closer to living the dream…I’m super motivated and can’t wait for it all to come about!
And so another chapter in my life as a cyclist is about to begin, and something tells me it’s going to be a long but invaluable one :)
Stay tuned
xx
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
NZCT Women's Tour of New Zealand
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
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
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Bay Crit Day 5: Ritchie Boulevard
My 5th and final day in sunny Geelong and my time at Bay Crits is rapidly coming to an end. The Ritchie Boulevard crit is the last crit of the series and is run down on the waterfront in a car park. This course is probably one of the fastest and it is not uncommon to see the whole peloton strung out from one end of the course to the other. It is a hot dog circuit at it’s best and the men do approximately 60 laps which means that they do around 120 standing starts during the whole crit! The straights are only 300-400m long which doesn’t leave much opportunity to move up in the pack, so it’s best to make it easy for yourself and be up the front on the start line and stay there. Easier said than done mind you. This crit far from suited me and I unfortunately got stuck towards the back at the start line and things didn’t get much better from there on. I lasted for a grand total of 10-15min, my worst effort so far. Not the best way to finish! There were again a few crashes during the race, however fortunately no one appeared to be seriously injured. I think in total there were 3-4 crashes? Kirsty Broun hit the deck twice whilst Chloe also came tumbling down. The crashes all happened on the first hot dog corner and were partly due to the combination of sand and dirt on the course and the speed at which the riders travel! So there were a lot of laps out and it all got a little bit confusing! Lauren and the NSWIS crew did a lot of work chasing down dangerous attacks in the closing stages of the race noticeably by Nikki Butterfield and Peta Mullens which meant that the race came down to a blistering bunch sprint. Chloe had to finish several places ahead of Josie Tomic to get the 2 points she needed to move herself up into 2nd place however a well ridden ride saw here claim 4th whilst Chloe picked up 3rd in the sprint behind Kirsty and Rochelle. Rochelle placed in the first sprint, securing her overall victory in the sprinter’s competition whilst Kirsty extended her lead on GC to take out the crown for the series.
So that is another Jayco Bay Crit Series done and dusted and overall I’m very pleased with how it all turned out. It was a vast improvement on last year and I enjoyed being able to be part of the NSWIS team. Olivia Gollan, our team manager, was awesome. Having ridden the crits on numerous occasions, she was able to provide us with lots of useful advice and tell us what each of us could do to use our strengths. I felt very privileged to have been able to work with her and it was a definitely a very enriching experience! Looking after our team was Olivia’s first experience as a manager and I’m sure it felt unusual being on the other side of the fence, however she did an awesome job looking after us and making sure we were well fed and taken care of! So a big thanks to Liv!
I’m a little bit shattered after the crits so I don’t think I will ride the Nationals TT tomorrow in Ballarat. After discussing it with my coach, we both believe that I am well under prepared for it and it would do me best to rest up and put everything into the road race on Saturday! I can’t wait! Hopefully the bay crits will give me the volume I need in order to come off into a successful Nationals campaign! So Ballarat, here I come!
accelerating out of the corner for probably the 60th time that race ha ha
Take care
xo
So that is another Jayco Bay Crit Series done and dusted and overall I’m very pleased with how it all turned out. It was a vast improvement on last year and I enjoyed being able to be part of the NSWIS team. Olivia Gollan, our team manager, was awesome. Having ridden the crits on numerous occasions, she was able to provide us with lots of useful advice and tell us what each of us could do to use our strengths. I felt very privileged to have been able to work with her and it was a definitely a very enriching experience! Looking after our team was Olivia’s first experience as a manager and I’m sure it felt unusual being on the other side of the fence, however she did an awesome job looking after us and making sure we were well fed and taken care of! So a big thanks to Liv!
I’m a little bit shattered after the crits so I don’t think I will ride the Nationals TT tomorrow in Ballarat. After discussing it with my coach, we both believe that I am well under prepared for it and it would do me best to rest up and put everything into the road race on Saturday! I can’t wait! Hopefully the bay crits will give me the volume I need in order to come off into a successful Nationals campaign! So Ballarat, here I come!
Take care
xo
Bay Crits Day 4: Portarlington
Today’s race was on the waterfront at Portarlington, about 30km from Geelong. It is described as the toughest circuit of the series with a leg snapping climb on the back straight with a slight uphill drag to the finish. Like yesterday’s stage, it was survival of the fittest, and a course more suited to the roadies in the pack. Lauren Kitchen from the NSWIS squad is a very talent hill climber and is defending champion on this course and was looking to impress again today. This race saw numerous riders launching early attacks to try and stretch the pack. First to attack was Peta Mullens but she was seen as a dangerous attack and quickly chased down by the bunch. Next to attack was team mate Jess Griffiths, a first year U/19 rider who is improving every time she races and is definitely a rider to watch out for! As soon as she was brought back by the pack, another attack by an MBC rider saw her gain maximum points for the first intermediate sprint whilst Rochelle took 2nd over her team mate Lauren. When the MBC rider was swallowed by the pack, a gap opened up in front of me on the climb and I saw my chance to attack. Without even thinking I kicked out of the pack and started riding away from them. No one came with me and the pack was slow to react so it saw me ride away solo. I was away for 4 laps and managed to gain a lead of around 17sec, but I began to feel the impact of the wind blowing in off the water and the climb on the back straight started to take its toll. I was caught by the bunch and managed to slot myself in the pack out of the wind. With around 6 laps remaining, the pack started to fracture and feeling the impact of my earlier efforts, I was unable to stick with the lead group. A group of 10 managed to sneak away containing the majority of the top 10 riders on GC (including Chloe and Lauren) and so there was no real need for me to bring them back. In my group was NSWIS rider Ashlee Ankudinoff and we were starting to line things up to try and win the bunch kick as there were still places to be claimed when a crash involving Belinda Goss saw our chase group be given the red flag just as we were about to launch our attack. Kirsty, Chloe and Nikki Butterfield managed to avoid the crash and ended up finishing the race in that order respectively. It was a fantastic result for Chloe who is proving she is one of the most consistent riders of the competiton! Lauren was also looking good for the finish however the crash happened right in front of her and so she missed the break. I was please with my efforts today, I managed to launch a pretty significant attack and also finish what people call one of the most toughest circuits of the series. Not a bad day in the office if I don’t say so myself! I was a little tired on the ride home and got dropped by my team mates on the climbs, but hey, I worked my butt off! Ha ha and it felt good. Chloe has moved herself up into 3rd on GC with her result today and hopefully we can try slide her up in front of Josie Tomic on tomorrow’s decisive stage. Fingers crossed!
attacking up the back straight
Take care
xo
Take care
xo
Bay Crits Day 3: Geelong Botanic Gardens (short course)
Today’s race was again held right outside our door step in the Botanic Gardens. It was held on a 2km course over the other side of the gardens with a couple of tight corners at both ends and a slight rise out of the back one just to mix things up a little bit. From the time the race started, the pressure was on. This crit is basically the survival of the fittest and within the first few laps the peloton was strung out and the elastic band showed signs of snapping. I was clinging to the pack for dear life as the hammer was being thrown down and one by one riders started dropping off. It was hard to see who was causing most of the damage, but whoever it was, was doing an awesome job at it! Unfortunately this race was scared by a crash involving our NSWIS team mate Meagan Dunn. Meagan’s front wheel slipped out as she was driving it around the first bend and she crashed, breaking her collar bone. It was a very unlucky thing to happen, and she was lucky that no other major damage was caused! Meagan has now had an operation to fix her shoulder and hopefully she will be on the bike fighting fit in no time, I wish her a speedy recovery! The crash meant that the race stopped for around 18min whilst the riders were being attended too. The clock continued to run due to TV commitments and so we started the race with around 15min remaining. The bunch had regrouped (which most of the girls weren’t too happy with) and so the pressure was on again to regain the advantage that they had but into the bunch. As soon as we rolled out, I felt my legs. The lactic acid that had been building up over the last half of the race had accumulated in my legs and so I was struggling big time and I think so were the other girls. I managed to stay in the race until just under 5min remaining when my bunch of 5 other riders got pulled out. I was a bit disappointed not to be able to make it to the end of the race, but looking back on last year I think I lasted less than 10min? So that in itself is something to be proud of! The stage got taken out by surprise winner Rowena Fry, a mountain biker from Tasmania. It was a tactfully well timed sprint and a well deserved win. She attacked right as the peloton swerved left and no one was expecting her to go! Peta Mullens rolled across the line to pick up 2nd and Kirsty Broun rounded out the podium for 3rd. Chloe Hosking rode another brilliant race to finish 5th and so has moved herself into 5th on GC whilst Rochelle Gilmore scored herself a few more sprint points to extend her lead in the Sprint Classification! Tomorrow’s stage is one I have been looking forward to all week, Portarlington. Can’t wait! Hopefully I’ll be able to report back with some good news from the team!
Warming up before the crit
Take care
xo
Take care
xo
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Jayco Bay Crit Day 2: Botanic Gardens (long course)
After having probably one of the best night sleeps ever, I wearily scrambled out of bed to attend a meeting with the entire squad at 7am. With a squad as large as ours, its hard to get everyone in the same place at once but you can almost guarantee you’ll find us all at a buffet breakfast so it was as good a time as any to get us all together to have a chat. I’ve never been away with the NSWIS team before, but I have often admired the way which they conduct themselves both on and off the bike and I was excited and felt privileged to be a part of such a reputable squad! After our briefing, it was simply a case of eating ourselves silly before heading out for a 30km rec ride. When we came back, we had a couple of hours to chill and do our own thing before it was time for lunch and to start getting our stuff together! The Geelong Conference Centre is located inside the Botanic Gardens which is convenient as the start line for today’s and tomorrow’s races are literally less than 500m up the road! The NSWIS and Mazda girls all rode over together as a squad and cut a few laps of the course, sussing out potholes and strategically placed islands in the middle of the course before parting ways to do our own warm ups. This course was more of a roadie’s course, with only one real significant corner and a slight uphill on the back and finishing straights. Just as we were heading over to the start line, the men’s support race was on their final lap and unfortunately there was a crash less than 200m from the finish line which looked pretty nasty, one guy’s carbon wheel was bent clean in half whilst there was another broken carbon fibre frame. Some of the guys were seen by the ambo’s but I don’t think there was any really significant damage which is always good! Not the best thing to see just as your about to commence your race though.
Based upon yesterday’s results, we started on the 2nd and 3rd rows from the front, meaning that we had a bit of work to get up the front! The race was pretty solid for the most part, with several riders keen to have a dig however, nothing was going to be left unmarked as it was yesterday and all moves were soon brought back by the pack. There were quite a few moments though were the bunch would ease up and things started to get a bit sketchy in the bunch and with people doing everything they can jut to survive, there were moments where I got a bit scared! But I didn’t crash, and I was able to get out of those situations, so that in itself is a bit of a confidence booster! One of NSWIS’s goals for the race today was to protect Rochelle’s sprinter’s jersey and in the 1st of 2 intermediate sprints, they had a textbook lead out which ended up in a break of all the NSWIS riders up the road, taking the pressure of Rochelle who was then just able to get towed across by the bunch. Like the girls’ said in the debriefing after the race, it is not often that plans work but today it did and it was great! To be honest, I’m not too sure how things went in the 2nd sprint, all I know is that the girls did their job and Rochelle is still leading the sprinter’s competition. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned for the girls in the closing stages of the race and a slow in the pace with less than 1km to go caused the pack to congest, making it difficult for the girls to move up and get their trains sorted. In the end, Kirsty Broun edge off Rochelle for the win. Chloe rode another awesome race to finish in the top 10 again along with Meagan Dunn.
I was very please with my race, it was the first Bay Crit that I’ve finished so that in itself was an achievement for me! I also managed to chase down a few attacks as well as launch a few of my own which I was quite pleased about. I like to be able to contribute to races, I’m not a fan of sitting back and watching everyone else control the race. The main thing I believe lets me down is my bunch skills, well lack of. Or maybe it’s just my confidence? I generally found myself on the outside of the pack, either in the dirt or the wind. I would occasionally be able to find some gaps and work my way up the middle of the back but I was a bit nervous. Meagan made a good point in the debriefing when she said that ‘you can’t be afraid of crashing, otherwise you’ll go nowhere’. I think she is dead right. I’ve crashed a lot in my time ha ha and sure you get a bit battered and worn but you walk it off and your good to go! So that is one goal for tomorrow, to try and stay in the mix with the pack as well as try and survive! We are racing mid-arvo basically on the waterfront so it will be very windy! We also have Amy’s Ride tomorrow and it is great that we are able to support such a great cause and help make the roads we train on safer for everyone!
getting underway
Until next time
xo
Based upon yesterday’s results, we started on the 2nd and 3rd rows from the front, meaning that we had a bit of work to get up the front! The race was pretty solid for the most part, with several riders keen to have a dig however, nothing was going to be left unmarked as it was yesterday and all moves were soon brought back by the pack. There were quite a few moments though were the bunch would ease up and things started to get a bit sketchy in the bunch and with people doing everything they can jut to survive, there were moments where I got a bit scared! But I didn’t crash, and I was able to get out of those situations, so that in itself is a bit of a confidence booster! One of NSWIS’s goals for the race today was to protect Rochelle’s sprinter’s jersey and in the 1st of 2 intermediate sprints, they had a textbook lead out which ended up in a break of all the NSWIS riders up the road, taking the pressure of Rochelle who was then just able to get towed across by the bunch. Like the girls’ said in the debriefing after the race, it is not often that plans work but today it did and it was great! To be honest, I’m not too sure how things went in the 2nd sprint, all I know is that the girls did their job and Rochelle is still leading the sprinter’s competition. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned for the girls in the closing stages of the race and a slow in the pace with less than 1km to go caused the pack to congest, making it difficult for the girls to move up and get their trains sorted. In the end, Kirsty Broun edge off Rochelle for the win. Chloe rode another awesome race to finish in the top 10 again along with Meagan Dunn.
I was very please with my race, it was the first Bay Crit that I’ve finished so that in itself was an achievement for me! I also managed to chase down a few attacks as well as launch a few of my own which I was quite pleased about. I like to be able to contribute to races, I’m not a fan of sitting back and watching everyone else control the race. The main thing I believe lets me down is my bunch skills, well lack of. Or maybe it’s just my confidence? I generally found myself on the outside of the pack, either in the dirt or the wind. I would occasionally be able to find some gaps and work my way up the middle of the back but I was a bit nervous. Meagan made a good point in the debriefing when she said that ‘you can’t be afraid of crashing, otherwise you’ll go nowhere’. I think she is dead right. I’ve crashed a lot in my time ha ha and sure you get a bit battered and worn but you walk it off and your good to go! So that is one goal for tomorrow, to try and stay in the mix with the pack as well as try and survive! We are racing mid-arvo basically on the waterfront so it will be very windy! We also have Amy’s Ride tomorrow and it is great that we are able to support such a great cause and help make the roads we train on safer for everyone!
Until next time
xo
Jayco Bay Crit Day 1: Williamstown
Day 1 of the Jayco Bay Criterium series and Williamstown was buzzing with excitement. The place was crawling with enthusiastic cyclists keen to meet their teams and get stuck into what is a fast and intense series of racing! One of my favourite things about big races is that you get to see the rest of your cycling friends from around the country who you don’t get to see very often and it’s great to catch up and see how they are going! This year, I am racing on behalf of the Geelong Mazda team and staying at the Geelong Conference Centre with Gary Sutton and the NSWIS team. We also have the pleasure of having Olivia Gollan as our team manager and I am really looking forward to getting to know her and learning from her experiences!
The Williamstown circuit is roughly 800m in length and it is a rectangular circuit with a difficult round-a-bout corner at the end of the front straight. The wind was strong and so there was a nasty headwind going into the back straight which started to take its toll on the dropped riders. The Women’s race was run shortly after the men’s support race and we were all called up for team introductions and 45min of racing. The pace was on from the start and showed no sign of ever slowing down! He field was strung out for the majority of the race, a trend for the men’s racing as well, and it was basically a case of survival of the fittest. In the end, I think only 12 or 15 girls actually finished the first crit. I was in the last group to be pulled by the officials, with just under 15min of racing. I didn’t get to see much of what was happening in the race or who was doing the damage, but from what I herd is that Josephine Tomic launched an attack shortly after the last intermediate sprint with 15min left of racing and she slipped away from the pack, managing to hold on for a solo victory. At the race debriefing, most of the girls said that teams were relying on the other teams to chase and this hesitation and reliance on others; let a dangerous rider quickly disappear out of sight. It was a very smart and tactful way to ride the bike race and a very well deserved win! Rochelle Gilmore, riding for the NSWIS team won the bunch kick for 2nd holding of Australian Criterium Champ Kirsty Broun and Chloe Hosking who is also riding for Mazda rode an excellent race to finish 4th! Giving her a start on the front line for tomorrow’s race.
I was disappointed not to have been able to hang in there until the finish and was a bit down on myself after the race. My initial thoughts after the race were ‘what am I doing here’. But then I remembered that this is probably the hardest series of criterium races in Australia and they are more suited to power athletes, which is not my strong point. My main goals for the series is to hopefully improve my bunch skills and improve my confidence in being able to hold my own in the bunch, and stay close to the front! As well as finish at least 1 race! I think that it is possible, I just have to ride smart and look after myself.
Tomorrow’s course is in the Geelong Botanic Gardens and is the longest course of the series, about 2.5km. It is more of a Roadie’s course and has a bit of an incline in it as well as wider roads with more chances to move up! So hopefully I’ll be able to do something then!
Stay tuned
Xo
The Williamstown circuit is roughly 800m in length and it is a rectangular circuit with a difficult round-a-bout corner at the end of the front straight. The wind was strong and so there was a nasty headwind going into the back straight which started to take its toll on the dropped riders. The Women’s race was run shortly after the men’s support race and we were all called up for team introductions and 45min of racing. The pace was on from the start and showed no sign of ever slowing down! He field was strung out for the majority of the race, a trend for the men’s racing as well, and it was basically a case of survival of the fittest. In the end, I think only 12 or 15 girls actually finished the first crit. I was in the last group to be pulled by the officials, with just under 15min of racing. I didn’t get to see much of what was happening in the race or who was doing the damage, but from what I herd is that Josephine Tomic launched an attack shortly after the last intermediate sprint with 15min left of racing and she slipped away from the pack, managing to hold on for a solo victory. At the race debriefing, most of the girls said that teams were relying on the other teams to chase and this hesitation and reliance on others; let a dangerous rider quickly disappear out of sight. It was a very smart and tactful way to ride the bike race and a very well deserved win! Rochelle Gilmore, riding for the NSWIS team won the bunch kick for 2nd holding of Australian Criterium Champ Kirsty Broun and Chloe Hosking who is also riding for Mazda rode an excellent race to finish 4th! Giving her a start on the front line for tomorrow’s race.
I was disappointed not to have been able to hang in there until the finish and was a bit down on myself after the race. My initial thoughts after the race were ‘what am I doing here’. But then I remembered that this is probably the hardest series of criterium races in Australia and they are more suited to power athletes, which is not my strong point. My main goals for the series is to hopefully improve my bunch skills and improve my confidence in being able to hold my own in the bunch, and stay close to the front! As well as finish at least 1 race! I think that it is possible, I just have to ride smart and look after myself.
Tomorrow’s course is in the Geelong Botanic Gardens and is the longest course of the series, about 2.5km. It is more of a Roadie’s course and has a bit of an incline in it as well as wider roads with more chances to move up! So hopefully I’ll be able to do something then!
Stay tuned
Xo
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