As we arrived at our accomodation the night before the race, it started to rain. Now for most people, this would be a bad thing, but not me...for some reason I always seem to race well in the rain- maybe a result of all those rainy saturdays I spent racing out at Counties Manukau club during the winter when I first started riding! Anyway it was a great relief after the horrible heatwave at Trophee d'Or!!
The world cup was held on a hard, hilly circuit in Plouay, Bretagne, and due to it being the final of the world cup series, all the best riders in the world were there. Lining up on the start line among all the big riders from AA drink, rabobank, specialized-lululemon etc was a bit scary! Out of all the teams at the race, our team was ranked last, so we knew that it was going to be a tough race!The race started off at a quite easy, and I was having no trouble staying up the front. Then on the 2nd lap of 5, there were a few attacks on one of the difficult hills of the course. Due to good positioning, I initially made the front selection of around 35 riders. However, after being caught behind another rider who crashed on the next hill, just as the bunch was all lined out, I dropped back to the 2nd bunch. Over the next 2.5 laps, our bunch kept going at a good pace, and I felt really strong and was able to contribute a lot to the pace making, especially on the hills. I had a bit of an average sprint, to finish 46th in the race, a result I am very happy with as only the first 2 bunches ended up being allowed to finish the race! The race was won by the unbeatable Marianne Vos, who arrived at the finish alone after breaking away from her 2 breakaway companions on the last lap.
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