Sunday was the third and final stage of the 'Webcor Bridge Team Stage Race - Proudly Presented by Sportvelo'. After being taken to the Beth Newell Track School on Friday night at Hellyer, then lighting it up at the Pittsburg Twilight Crit on Saturday, we arrived at Berkley Hills Road Race with the legs well and truly warm (or almost cooked in some cases) and ready to race. Today Haley, Holly and Bec took to the start line with the 30 or so other racers, ready to tackle 115km and the fabled 'Three Bears', and defend our lead on GC.*
*It's hard to say if anyone else was actually aware of this, or the fact that there was a stage race on at all, but whos fault is that right?!
Now Berkley Hills doesn't have windmills, but I'm currently in the process of writing to the Department of Energy, COS IT SHOULD!! The wind obviously didn't bother everyone though, as after leaving the pituresque lake and rolling through the neutral section to the main road to get the official race start, Jane Despas from Yahoo jumped away, never to be seen for the next 70km! Now that's some serious TT training! Respect.
This, combined with the fact that noone else really liked having the wind in their face, meant that we were strung out tip to tail fairly early on in the race, with Fremont Bank, Metromint and Webcor the main forces in keeping the pace rolling over. Annie from Metromint and Suannah from Fremont moved to the front on the climbs and kept the pace high, stringing out the bunch, but the majority of the field was still hanging on heading into the second lap.
So I'm not 100% which climb is which 'bear', but it didn't really matter. From what I hear, bears aren't all that friendy, and these were no exception. And just like in the fairytales, to get past the bears you had to venture into their cave, which in this case was a very deep pain cave. So at the end of the first lap, the prospect of passing them another 3 times made me feel more scared than Goldilocks when the bears arrived home to find her in their beds.
The second lap was much the same, as we kept the pace rolling over in pursuit of Despas. Luckily we were being given fairly regular time gaps by the moto, otherwise I think she could have easily been forgotten altogether. Coming into the third lap, the time gap was closing and we eventually reeled Jane in. I'm thinking that if the Department for Energy don't like the idea of windmills at Berkley they should definitely entertain the idea of employing Jane and Beth as the first Human Power Stations, cos those girls can put out some power! Both are always keen to keep the pace high and willing to drive on the front.
Berkley bacame a race of attrition, with no great surges in pace but a consistent and unrelenting tempo, riders were gradually gobbled up by a hungry bear, or spat out in the wind. So we entered the final lap with a lead group of around 10, including 3 Metromint, 2 Fremont Bank and an assortment of other individual riders. Everyone was being very cautious and waiting for the team with numbers to make a move, but nothing came.
After a few unconvincing attempts at getting away were made, Beth laid it on the line and made the decisive jump on the back rolling section about 15km from the finish. Two Metromint's suddenly found their legs and made the surge to latch onto her wheel, and were eventually joined by Webcor and Missing Link who scrambled to claw onto the back of the Newell train, cos once that train gets chugging you know its not stopping till the final station.
With Metromint holding the upper hand with 2 out of 5 riders, they were eventually forced to make a move, and chose to lead us to the finish at quite the comfortable pace. Cheers. On the final downhill Webcor took the lead and was left there to lead it up Papa Bear to the long awaited finish line. Trying to stay calm and not take on Papa too early, we tapped away until rounding the corner where the finish line stood, lit up in all its glory and beauty seen through the eyes of cyclists delirious from picking a fight with a bear, not once, but 12 times! Webcor got a bit excited by this sight, and went for it, jumping away. The others were quick to react and the legs and lungs were quick to realise that it was to early, sitting down and trying to keep some kind of pace while waiting for the the dreaded counter attack. It didn't come, and at this stage with all brain cells and any rational thinking having been puffed out on the side of the road, along with half a lung, Webcor went again, this time wobbling accross the line and holding on for the win and the coveted stage race GC. Anna Barensfeld from Missing Link came in for 2nd, with Beth from Fremont finishing off the podium. Holly came in a very respectble 12th in her first cat 1/2 race.
Congrats to the whole team on a great weekend of racing.
Bec
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