So I decided the easiest way to keep people at home updated on what I am doing overseas would be to make a blog! Will try to keep it updated as much as possible, but can't guarantee I will be very good at it!!!
This year I am in my 4th season of racing in Europe, and after suffering on the flat lands of Holland for the last 3 years, I am finally based in an area which suits me better...Dijon, France, where I am riding for a UCI women's team, ASPTT Dijon Bourgogne. While here I am living with my team manager and her 3 kids in a little town called Domois, about 8km from the city of Dijon. So far I have been here for 3 weeks and done 3 races.
I left NZ just after the Tour of NZ, where I had a race full of ups and downs. I started off the race badly, picking up a stomach bug on the 2nd day, and spending the night throwing up, not ideal when there was a 140km stage the next day! The next day I suffered pretty badly and was lucky to make it to the finish. However, to my surprise when I woke up the next day, I felt fine, and was ready to race again!! About 40km into the 4th stage, there was a QOM, which caused the peloton to split, and I found myself in a group of around 15 riders at the top of the climb. Over the next few kilometres, there were several attacks, resulting in a breakaway of 7 forming, which had all the big teams represented in it. We were then joined by Pip Sutton and Amy Bradley who rode across the gap from the main peleton which had regrouped behind us. However, although the peloton had sat up and decided not to chase us, the breakaway was not keen to work together. I had lost 6 minutes the day before, so was keen to stay away and try and go for the stage win. I decided to attack on a section which had several corners, and was joined by Amy Bradley from the wheelworks team. We started lapping out together, and soon had a gap of around 2 minutes on the breakaway, with a further 8 minutes back to the peloton. However, I was convinced that the second time up the QOM, the girls behind us would start to chase...they didn't and we got to the 20km to go mark still with 1.5-2 minutes. After this point, the chase began, and the time gap started to decrease rapidly. I could hear the team managers in the cars behind us yelling at us to go faster, as we were making them nervous!! But.. in the end we got to the finish with 20 seconds to spare and I outsprinted Amy to take my first win in a UCI race!!! Definately the highlight of my cycling career so far! The last day of the tour was pretty uneventful for me as I was pretty tired from the day before, and could only sit in the bunch. Luckily, only one rider was allowed to stay away from the bunch, so I maintained my top 10 position on GC, finishing in 10th place.
3 days later I was on a plane headed to France! I arrived at the airport, expecting to have a few days recovery before getting into training again...but the team had other plans!! We drove straight from the airport to Wanze, Belgium, where I competed in a race the next day! Luckily the race was not too hard, and I was able to sit in the bunch, finishing in 20th place in the sprint.
After that, I spent a week in Belgium with my team mate Claire Thomas, and competed in a Belgium kermesse the next weekend. For those who have never seen a kermesse, they are basically a 7-8km circuit, consisting of as many corners and narrow roads that the organisers can find, and you go around it lots of times (usually 80-100km). This race finished in a typical Belgian bunch sprint, with girls flying up the side of the bunch on the footpath, elbows everywhere etc. I decided to play it safe and just rolled in with the middle of the group.
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| Team presentation |
The next day I caught the train to Dijon where I am going to be based for the season. The family I am staying with is really nice, and Dijon is great for training, lots of hills, and so far good weather! During the weekend just gone, I competed in the first race of the French Cup series- Cholet pays de Loire, which also had the status of a UCI 1.2 race. The race was held on an undulating circuit which we did 4 times, with a slight uphill finish. Unfortunately at the end of the first lap, I crashed quite hard on a downhill corner, and had to chase for quite a while in the convoy to get back to the peleton. Luckily I was able to get back, and recover for the next lap. During the race, the peleton was slowly whittled down as the hills took their toll on many of the riders, and at the finish there was a group of 35, with one breakaway rider about 45 seconds in front. I had a pretty good sprint, finishing in 15th place out of 150 starters. Even better was that our team finished in 2nd place, in front of some bigger UCI teams like Hitec, Dolmans-Boels and Sengers, and our young rider Alexia Muffat finished as the first U23 rider, so will wear the white jersey in the next french cup race. So the team was all very happy!
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| Riding in the convoy on my way back to the bunch after crashing |
This week I will be doing some training in the hills before heading back to the flat and cobbles of Belgium for the weekend to compete in the race Ghent-wevelgem.
