TDU, CEGORR, SunTour: A Month Of Top Level UCI Racing - bmwcycling
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31 Jan TDU, CEGORR, SunTour: A Month Of Top Level UCI Racing

Posted at 01:39h in Featured, Racing by

I spent the month of January in Australia racing the Women’s Santos Tour Down Under, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and Herald Sun Tour as part of the New Zealand National Team. This was an awesome opportunity, I learnt a lot, notched up some good results and had a lot of fun with some cool team mates. The trip certainly exceeded my expectations not only in terms of results, but it was awesome to see how competitive the NZ National team was when faced against some of the best women in the world.

Going into TDU this year I felt like a completely different rider to when I first competed in it back in 2016. I learnt a lot in 2016 but being my first international race, it was fair to say I was definitely thrown in the deep end. With a bit more experience under my belt I was looking forward to giving it another shot and redeeming myself. This year coming off a successful nationals I had a lot of confidence in my form and was much more experienced at riding in bigger pelotons. TDU certainly threw everything at us, we had cross winds, rain, heat, hill top finishes, everything really. Comprising of three road races (two which had hill top finishes) and a criterium we were in for a challenging few days.

I managed to ride myself into the young rider’s jerseys on stage 2 after a brutal stage which consisted on Mitchelton- SCOTT putting everyone in the gutter for the majority of the day and then a cheeky hill top finish. Everyone was pretty exhausted before we even got to the climb where the race finished, I got dropped in the cross winds leading into the climb but rode the climb as hard as I could. I managed to get the white jersey and a 12sec lead going into the final 2 stages. It was such a cool experience racing in the jersey and doing everything that came with wearing it from going on stage, to interviews.

The team really came together to protect the jersey and the experience was something I really enjoyed and kept the team on their toes throughout the entire tour. To come away with the young rider jersey along with 9th on the GC was also a bonus. Everyone learnt a lot from racing TDU and came away with results individually to be proud of and as a team.

Competing in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race last year I knew what the course was like and had a bit of an idea of how the race can plays out. The key aspect of the race is usually the cross winds however this year with little to no wind these weren’t to be the deciding factor. Due to this it was pretty cruisy for the first 90km then 20km flat out coming into Geelong where the hills began. Lydia, Ella and I managed to make the 2nd group after the race split to pieces on Challambra climb. It was a solid day out for the team and once again proved to ourselves how strong we all actually are.

Herald Sun tour was a new race for everyone it’s the first time its existed as a women’s tour but it’s cool to see Australia add another UCI race to the women’s calendar. Stage 1 consisted of a 123km road race in Heaseville, it was a very undulating course with a 6km climb and 8km climb thrown in there. I managed to finish in very small front bunch in 23rd and was in the young rider’s jersey.

Only comprising of 2 stages and with the 2nd rider in the young rider classification on the same time, the jersey would all come down to the 1.6km TT in Melbourne. TT’s aren’t usually my forte but I was looking forward to giving in my best effort. I couldn’t manage to keep the jersey, but I was still happy with my performance at the Herald Sun Tour.

I can’t complain with the start I’ve had to 2018 winning the U23 Elite Nationals Road Race and TDU young rider classification. It has given me a lot of confidence as a rider and proven to myself I can mix it up with some of the best in the world. I’m definitely looking forward to continuing this momentum when I join up with Team Illuminate and can’t wait for what the rest of the year holds. Big thanks go to Patrick, Tammy, Jordan and John, your help is much appreciated as always.

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