The day started with a 45 minute crit on a nice and simple four corner circuit. Conditions were perfect, and a field of 35, with no team flooding it with numbers, made for a nice hard race. The pace was good from the start, and the attacks came instantly. Coach Dan's instructions were heeded, and there was always a flash of green in any break of 2 or more. We animated the race well and put in two of the longer solo attacks of the day, giving the massive Madera crowd their moneys worth. A sneaky preme bonus win, a solid 2nd overall and all our skin in tact with zero crashes in the whole race (after the 6 or 7 last week) made for some positive vibes heading into the TT.
*note: positive vibes at the beginning of a TT are invaluable, as by the end, as you cross the line sweating spinal fluid and getting a second helping of your breakfast, it's hard to conjure any kind of vibe, let alone a positive one!
Hayley smashed it in the TT, so I'll leave it to her to spill the secrets on the race of truth.
Stage 3 was a 68 mile (thats about 108km for all those 21st century participants out there!) road race in the beautiful surrounds of Hensley Lake. It was another course stolen from the classics, with a teeth chattering back section, and a nice goup of power climbs to keep things interesting.
We rolled off on our neutral 2 mile start, but apparently neutral starts here here aren't just a chance to get the field together, but more a bunch 'getting to know you' sesh, as half the field prepared for the bumpy road ahead with a communal squat on the side of the road. No worries! If only Mary had had such a group of willing particpants to hold her hand last week! Once everyone felt suitably relieved and better aquainted, we continued on to get down to the real business.
In a short stage race like this, the TT had pretty much set the GC standings, so something big had to be done to shake things up at all. As this was the case, things on the first lap played out as one would expect. The top few on GC watched each other like hawks, while the remainder of the field peppered the race with attacks, testing out the legs, and the reaction of the field.
We approached the 'Belgian Backblocks' with some hesitation. With reports of craters, and core breaking cracks, I could be forgiven for momentarily entertaining the thought that I may have just bought a free ticket down a big black hole heading back down under. I don't want to go home just yet, so with a test of the bike skills, strength of carbon and quality of those tooth fillings we made it through the first time, to discover that it wasn't quite as life threatening as first thought, but definitely an interesting added element to the race. We continued over the rollers and got a good view of the finishing section and stretched the field out a little. After passing through the feed zone, Hayley's chain mistakenly decided it could relax after holding on through all those bumps, and dropped, dropping her chances of what was looking like a solid ride in the process.
Not far into the seond lap, a 2 rider break got away. Containing a Metromint and Missing Link girl who were both a fair way back on GC, and being so early in the race, noone was too concerned. Another Missing Link girl bridged across and they let her go. 'They' in this case are Metromint (with a rider 2nd on GC) and the leader on GC, who had the much trickier job of riding as a lone ranger. I missed this move, and as Coach Dan had pointed out the night before, the break you want to be in is the last one. This ended up being the last one! Wise words.
The rest of the race was extremely frustrating to say the least. It broke up on the rollers over the next couple laps until there was a main bunch of about 20 left. Noone wanted to let a chase group go, yet neither did they want to ride the bunch at a reasonable pace. We then got our just desserts when we were neutralised to let a mens field pass, all the while letting the break extend their time gap even further.
Everyone was obviously happy to watch GC go to the break. Going from the 2nd lap is a gutsy effort and well deserving of a win, but the field did everything short of polishing their cutlery as they handed it to them on a plate.
So now the rest of us were racing for 4th place. A Red Racing girl made a solo break and held on as she just held her gap to the line. Webcor accidently rolled off the front on the second to last climb and pushed on home for 5th just in front of the main field.
Then it was on to stage 4. The promoters had mistaknely left this penultimate stage off the program, so as the rest of the competition packed up, Webcor packed the car ready for the final race of truth. Dan and Andy may be veterans, but they raced with the speed and cunning of youth. Holly had her race face on and pulled out all the tactics in the book, and was always threatning and close on their tail in the hired Nissan (pronounced knee-saarn in your best Asian accent please). Jane and Hayley were at an unfair weight advantage and along with Ethan had possibly also missed the memo about stage 4. There's no real need to name the winners... but lets just say they were cutting all the corners, and at a definte advantage with aero helmets. That's a DQ in a road race, right??
I saw this on a t-shirt at the race today and am going to try and remind myself of this next time I'm boxing it in a time trial -
Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional
Till next time, take it easy
Bec
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