Tour du Gevaudan 2.NCUP

10 May Tour du Gevaudan 2.NCUP

Posted at 14:02h in Race Reports, Results by Patrick Harvey

The Black Magic squad ventured well outside our ‘new home’ in the Netherlands and headed for France. On route, we stopped at Macon and did a spin in some lovely countryside. Tour du Gevaudan for Junior Women was being held in Mende, so the team stayed in a beautiful town called Ispagnec nearby.

The team racing was Lola, Tiree, Ava, Ruby and Maia. Kirsty was our reserve for the race and had a great weekend in the team car in the convoy learning lots and assisting Mark, Pat and Ralph during the hectic couple of hours.

Stage 1, a 74km road stage, saw an average temperature of 23 degrees, which was certainly not what we had been used to after training for a few weeks in the cold Netherlands. 20km in saw the first QOM climb of the day, which was 7km in length and proved to string the peloton out. Lola was top 10 over the climb and was working well in the bunch to stay away. Ruby, Ava and Tiree joined back into main lead bunch after chasing hard and for the first lap of the smaller circuit we had all four BM girls present. Maia was a couple of minutes down and kept fighting to stay ahead of another large chasing bunch behind her. On the second lap, Lola made the race split from the repercussions of the second QOM, in the lead group which stayed together until the final mammoth climb, which was 3km of switch black corners and steep sections, one not for the faint hearted. Our resident climber, Lola, finished a seriously impressive 15th on the line, only 1 min 48 secs down on the winner from the Italian National Team. Tiree, Ruby and Ava came to the hill together in the chase group, all emptying their tanks and getting the ‘job done’. Maia fought hard and finished the stage off well, a gutsy ride indeed from our Road captain.

Stage 2, a 67km road race, consisted of an early climb to split the peloton and then rolling tough hills, with another climb to finish off the race and decide the final groups on the road. The temperature had dropped today which was a relief, however the roads were a tad slippery from early morning rainfall, so this also proved to be an added challenging factor. Maia picked up an illness so did not start Stage 2, so this just saw four riders start for us and Ava, our awesome first year rise to the task of ‘Road captain’ for the day. After just 8km of the race, Ruby unfortunately went down in a crash but got back up and safely re-enter the peloton. Lola punctured early and had to work hard in the convoy to get back onto a chase group, having to ride by herself up the QOM climb. Ava and Ruby were in the chasing groups and worked well as a team to bring the time gap back, with Lola our GC rider. Tiree dug deep and found herself join the lead riders, positioning and riding well, until the race came back together. With the next climb, fireworks up here saw a lead group of around 20 riders go clear. We had Tiree and Lola chasing hard on the switchback descent, until unfortunately Lola’s wheel slid out and she crashed. Tiree came in with the chase group with Ava, who both had great races. Ruby, despite being stiff and sore, finished only 1 min 30 secs down on this group. Lola determined more than ever to get to the finish line completed a time trial effort and crossed the line, to still finish in a great GC position. Black Magic finish 10th overall in the Teams Classification, which we are very proud of as there was 32 teams from Nations, Clubs and Regions all around the world.

Coming to the conclusion of our racing, it is safe to say the girls have so many key takeaways from their Europe campaign; from bunch positioning, learning to be aggressive, teamwork on and off the bike and their professionalism as young women in the sport. We certainly enjoyed Tour du Gevaudan and will definitely be back next year for another taste of the French bergs.