19 Apr Tour Of Mansfield And Oceania: A Big Week Of Racing
My trip to Australia started slightly earlier than it did for the rest of my Mike Greer Homes women teammates, as I joined Team Skoda racing for the VRS tour of Mansfield in Mansfield, Victoria. The tour consisted of three stages; a TT, and two road stages with some gruelling hilltop finishes.
With the prospect of hill top finishes looming both road stages didn’t play out too much in the rolling run up to the hills, other than sprint primes and a few kicks in the small bunch. The end of the second stage was a 7km climb up to the finish line of which the pace went on right from the bottom. Dropping off in the first 1km, holding my own, I found myself chasing back up to the front group only to catch them with about 2km to go and ending up in 5th over the top.
None the less, I did one better in the last stage finishing up the ski field, with a constant pace on from the bottom of the 15km winding climb and a few kicks by myself and a couple of other riders in the final few kilometres that split the group and left me and one other woman fighting for 3rd, just getting rolled on the line and finishing 4th ahead of my u19 competition, Sarah Gigante, while Justine Barrow took the win.
From there we faced but more travelling, as we packed our bikes up once again in pursuit for Tasmania.
As we arrived in Tasmania on the Monday, where I re-joined with the rest Mike Greer Homes Women, we had a few days of rest and preparation before our Time Trial on Friday. Throughout these days I got a taste of what it is like to live as a full time athlete, though not doing excessive riding with the prospect of racing, my days consisted of waking up, eating, riding then recovery. As much as I would like to say I, like the majority of the team hit the books and studied, the reality was us u19s tended to be more lenient to the binge Netflix side of things – but hey, recovery for the brain as well as the legs ;).
Though, Friday came around quick and before I knew it, we were in the van journeying the 1hr and a half drive to Launceston for the Time Trial. This journey not being quite as joyful as it was heading to recon the course two days earlier, as instead of a competitive game of ‘eye spy’, each of us sat with earphones in glued to our own devices – desperately trying to get in the ‘zone’ – or more so trying to distract ourselves from those pre-race nerves.
Once there, things went as usual, for me this was sticking to a pre organised prerace plan – food, drink, skinsuit, numbers, nervous pees and even leaving time to contemplate and argue the effectiveness of booties – marginal gains eh?
Next thing I’m on the start line, 20seconds to go, thinking positive thoughts, ‘its only 15km’, 1 minute later as I settle into my TT position I’m already doubting these. Yeah Time trials are just hard. While today certainly wasn’t the day for me, as I finished well down on results, we had plenty to celebrate as Phoebe and Libby took silvers, and Mikayla took gold. Was pretty cool to see my little Brother taking silver also.
In The Zone
With a load of motivation after hearing the NZ National Anthem and seeing my teammates up on the top step of the podium, I headed back to the accommodation to rest up in preparation for the road race two days later.
After pre riding the road race course, I was pretty certain it was going to be a good race, with some nice hills to mix things up and an overall unrelenting course. Though, the steep, fast descent left me feeling slightly doubtful at first, as I diced with my remaining confidence after my last crash on the descent at Herald Sun tour, I trusted that race day and the adrenaline it brings with it would mask any worries I had. It didn’t help that we woke up Sunday morning to pouring rain, thunder and lightning – which was sure to mix things up in the race.
The start flag dropped almost straight into the first climb, and wanting to split things up early I put some pressure on and saw the bunch dwindle slightly. But as we crested the top of the hill for the first time, I came to understand that it quite possibly wasn’t going to be the climb that was going to make this race after all; as entering the descent the bunch split almost immediately with the more daredevil girls streaking ahead while the more cautious riders quickly lost contact. For me I stuck well within my limits sitting mid pack, while any uncertainties I may have had of the descent left me, as my focus was cemented on the race in front of me. Where we hit the flat I realised the true destruction this descent could do as all that was left of the bunch at the bottom was a small group of around 8 riders. But frustratingly as the pace wasn’t kept up the front bunch quickly increased in size.
The remaining of the circuit saw several unsuccessful moves by a range of people, and the peloton gaining and loosing riders. It wasn’t until the second time up the hill that I made my next move, going early from the bottom of the first rise and forming a gap between me and the peloton. Unfortunately I didn’t have the juice the pull away quite enough and I re-joined the group a few km later going over the top of the last climb.
But perhaps the more frustrating than the first time down, was the descent again. As a group of seven was all that was left at the bottom, consisting solely of NZ and MGH riders, having dropped the contending Aussies, including eventual winner; Sarah Gigante, by a fair margin. While this seemed an obvious getaway it was apparent that certain riders persisted in refusing to just get a move on, and the bunch came back together on the rolling run in to the start/finish.
Descent From Hell
It was the last time up the hill that the winning move went, as Sarah Gigante kicked over the top shelling the peloton and refining the front group down to four riders, including myself. Dragging heavy legs across the false flat, we finally hit the top of the descent where the refined group split further, with a lone rider streaking off the front taking all risks on the dampened descent, and the other three of us following closely behind. On a slight rise in-between the descents Sarah kicked again, this time getting the better of Connie and I, and quickly bridging up to the Jenna. As I hit the flat I found myself chasing in ‘no mans land’ with the two front riders close in front, but with a fast chasing bunch of few remaining riders, I was swallowed up. With the leaders still well in sight we chased to the finish line. However, Sarah got the better of us and finished solo, taking the title with a classy bit of riding. As for myself I finished in the remaining peloton of around 7 riders, not being able to go with the bunch kick and snagging an 9th to the finish up the day. Though maybe not the Oceania’s I was hoping for, it was certainly a good bit of racing and well deserved win by the dominant Sarah Gigante.
That finished up a great week and a half away in Australia racing and riding my bike. Always grateful for the support of my team and Patrick and Tammy. Also big thanks to Brad and Team Skoda Racing for letting me join them for the Tour of Mansfield.