22 Jan Gravel And Tar: Jenna Merrick

Gravel and Tar was more than just another race. It is the only UCI women’s race in New Zealand, one of the few races with equal prize money to the men, both of which lie close to home within our women’s team, where opportunities for high level racing both in New Zealand, and as women are ones vital for our development as cyclists. Therefore it was important to support this race in its first year by giving the best show possible for ourselves, the race organisers and spectators. We wanted this race to be hard, we wanted it to push our limits and those of our competitors, and we strived for success on the day.

Success in bike racing is never purely down to physical strength, a range of other factors are always in play and contribute to a performance. The Gravel and Tar race is no exception to this, in fact, the tough nature of the course and conditions made all those lesser obvious factors more important as the race would be easy for noone. Back in december at the Mike Greer Homes preseason camp we were already thinking about this race, we dedicated one of our rides to practising our skills on the gravel in order to prepare us for race day. Our equipment would be put to the test too, ensuring we rode the correct tyres was incredibly important. The race was going to be mentally tough, and positioning into key sectors was top priority, therefore working together as a team with a clear plan would be a huge advantage.

In the first few gravel sectors the race stayed reasonably compact, we rode to team plan- disappearing into the dust leading the charge and then emerging to continue driving the pace as one Mike Greer Homes unit. It was gravel sector 3 which played on everyone’s minds, the longest, hilliest and therefore toughest part of the race was bound to splinter the peleton. It didn’t take long for gaps to open up, soon enough Brodie Chapman, an aussie from the Oceania team was solo out front and I knew that’s where the race win would be. I battled the gravel hill in hot pursuit of Brodie, always keeping her in sight and soon enough losing everyone behind us. The only thing I could focus on was putting time between me and the other riders, Brodie was riding too strong to be caught at this point and we still had around 60km remaining of the race.

Once safely back on the tar I only saw one option, to put my head down and slowly start pulling Brodie back. There was an advantage for both of us in working together but she didn’t want to lose time in waiting for me either! It was a balance to be found between catching her in enough time without using too much energy as there was a fair amount of race distance to be covered. Soon enough we joined forces and remained working together throughout the remaining two gravel sectors and manawatu winds. We had no clue what was happening in the race behind us, the time checks were a little confusing and fluctuated between 1.5 mins ahead and 5 mins, so there was no room for easing up the pace. In the final 10 km I tried my hand at going solo into the finish, knowing Brodie had a very strong sprint, but she used it to latch onto my back wheel every time I tried to get away. In the final sprint she out powered me, fair and square but there was no wiping the smile off my face regardless!!! I felt incredibly proud to finish in 2nd place in the first year of this event, with a full 8 minutes ahead of the peloton… riding with a high-risk, high-reward attitude definitely paid off today.

Thank you to my teammates and Mike Greer Homes for all the support on and off the road!!! The icing on the cake was to win the team’s classification  with all 5 riders in the top 15