27 May SwissEver GP Cham-Hagendorn Ticks All the Boxes
The team loved our first race on European soil on a very technical and challenging 9 km circuit for a total of 111km. With plenty of technical challenges and a gnarly power climb after a sharp turn we knew this race would be tough, especially with the quality of the field assembled including 2 highly ranked World Tour UCI teams.
Although pumped and excited to take on our first Euro race the nerves where definitely a little on edge. With no pressure on the team for results this first race was all about ‘plunging’ into the ‘real’ world of cycling and learning as much as we could.
Our expectations where for a fast start with the big teams keen to string it out which is exactly what happened with a few nervous crashes in the first few laps and plenty of action across the field.
The two big name teams Bigla and Valcar were going head to head which made for an exciting race with the Bigla girls taking control of the race and putting us all under the pump. It was exciting for the girls to see their #mentortosucced mentor Mikayla right amongst the action.
Jenna got straight into the business working hard and staying in contention, making a late break and then making the final split of the day and coming in with an impressive 10th place! The effort of concentrating in a race like this was new to Jenna and is hard to describe how exhausting it can be, but she was pumped for more and to take it up a notch in later races.
Libby did a superb job early on with positioning close to the front keeping out of harms way with Jenna also settling into this new style of racing. Holding position was hard and moving up even harder so staying alert and taking every opportunity was what it was about.
Connie impressed after taking a tumble during our pre race rides adding an extra element of nerves, but she put this aside and did a great job especially in the first half of the race.
Both Libby and Connie were right amongst the main peloton until just after ½ way when the peloton was split to pieces with some big attacks on the climb and across the top. Libby and Connie worked hard in their group and were happy to finish in the third group – way to go girls.
Hannah and Emma gave it their all but the technical nature of the course and the size of the field definitely took its toll with both struggling to position and having to do far to much work to fight it out. Still super impressed by what they both accomplished.
Amelia had some scary moments early on which she struggled to recover from. For her this step up is the biggest for all our riders as it was her first taste of UCI racing and in a large field. She is keen to work on how to focus on the process and we will work on this over the coming races.
Happy to say the support team didn’t have a lot to do with Tammy working the hardest getting to the feed zone and making sure our riders where feed and fueled in a very hectic feeding zone – she needed more arms.
Thanks to the awesome support provided by Watersley Sports and Talent Park, Patrick and Steffan could easily negotiate the course, somewhat easier than the other teams in their stylish and sporty mini – the smaller size coming in handy on single lanes!
So our first race was a success, accomplishing our goal of getting our first Euro race under the belt. One thing is for sure, Euro racing is a step above everything else in the World and is where we need to be to develop our girls. It will be hard at first but with good support and a growth mindset this WILL produce a higher calibre on NZ Women.
A massive shout out to Fabian for believing in us and inviting a NZ team to such a great European race. We will definitely be back!