What a great weekend of racing! Thanks to Shane and Andrew for their efforts with organising our new kits for the tour and of course Triple Play for working overtime to get them completed. I got lots of comments over the weekend on how good the new kits looks, so well done on the creative design.
As for the racing - stage one did not see me have my best day in the saddle. Two very strong ‘A’ grade women (Simone and Lou) got in a breakaway early on in the race. I attempted a break away on the chase but was slowly drawn in. The remainder of the bunch worked together for a bunch finish and I placed 8th.
The time trial in the afternoon was what I was waiting for and it was a chance for me to hopefully make up some lost time. I had everything going for me in this stage, the new kit, new wheels and new TT helmet but unfortunately forgot my TT bars. Would you believe it?
Thank you to cyclingtim.com for the photo.
The only stage I thought I would do better in, I forget my TT bars! The goal was to break the 16 minute mark but could only manage 17.34 minutes with an average of 40.98 kph. This still gave me 4th place and 5th overall in the GC. If only I had my TT bars!
Day 2 and stage 3 of the tour was the unforgiving undulating kermesse. Once again the bunch saw a break away on the first climb of the second lap. If you didn’t have the legs to get up the climb at the leaders pace you were history. The bunch worked together for the remainder of the race. Eventually on the 4th lap the bunch noticed a little red and white figure in the distance. ‘Yes’ we thought to ourselves as we realised it was one of the leading girls of three that had dropped. We worked relentlessly trying to pull her in. On the last lap she was only 100-200 meters in front of us. In the end, team tactics unfortunately (for me) prevailed as the bunch kept slowing down so no distance could be gained. It all came down to a bunch finish, sprinting for 3rd place. I’m not sure my exact position as we were awarded bunch finish times. I finished 6th on the general classifications with only seconds between 4th and 5th place.
It was great to meet the other Data#3 riders and well done on their efforts over the weekend.
1 comment:
thats awesome - almost 41km/h ... without TT bars !
imagine what you could have done with them!
great effort Niki
Post a Comment