We got there with two days to spear so we settled into the Copthorne Hotel in Masterton and went for a few cruisy rides with the GMC Christmas tree (Gordon McCauley). On Tuesday we spent most of the day glued to the T.V, completely shocked with the news of the Christchurch earthquake. Unfortunately one of the newly made Christchurch teams, Thule/Orbea, had a short trip where they had to return back home straight after they arrived to deal with the devastating Quake.
As bad as it felt we had to switch our minds to racing and continue with the tour ahead. Day one was a 98km road stage from Martinborough to Masterton which included a very steep 1.5 km climb about 20km from the finish. My job was to chase down attacks and try to keep as far up as I could. The race seemed pretty chilled in the first part of the race, no major breaks. Then on the first climb a bunch of about 15 of us got away over the hill, no-one in the bunch seemed to want to do anything so the main bunch caught us pretty fast. On the climb Linda and Cath got in a break away with about 7 others, Mel and I went over the top shortly after along with 3 or 4 others. We did not do any work as we didn’t want to catch Linda and Cath’s bunch, so we cruised along, eventually the main bunch caught us and we rolled into the finish, sitting somewhere in the bunch. Cath got 2nd in the sprint finish with Linda 7th, finishing 35seconds in front of the main bunch.
Tactics Talk.
Getting ready for stage one.
In quit a bit of pain going over the last (big) climb.The next day was a 114km road stage from Masterton to Palmerston North (via Pahiatua track). Today I had a similar job, to chase down as many breaks as possible. Right from the start there was attack after attack, I followed most of them and about 10km into the race I was pretty stuffed. After a bit of recovery in the bunch another break went. I was a bit late to react so had to jump across to the group of about 6. We stayed away for a few k’s and then got caught. With about 20km to go there was a pretty hard 3km hill to go up, with a stretch of loose gravel 2km before the hill. We got neutralised across the gravel and the minute the flag went down Mel sat on the front and time trialled it while the rest of the bunch held on for dear life. Then we went straight into the hill. I went up relatively comfortably, about 100 metres behind Lindas group, with Cath in a bunch of 3 further in front. On the way down the hill I had a few ‘wimp’ issues thanks to Ina Toutenburg (from HTC team) as she sped around the corners at top speed. I momentarily lost her group but caught back on soon after (thanks to the group behind). Cath finished 2nd to Judith Arnt again with me in the bunch behind, in I think 11th.
Wrtting down the distances for some important parts of the race. With Dad observing.
Christmas tree (Gordon McCayley) giving us the team tactics before the start of stage 2.
Mel driving it at the front, just before the last hill.
Stage 3 was an 85km rolling to flat lap race. Again my job was to chase breaks and position well. It was a real on and off race and I got in a few little breaks. Other then that it was not very exciting; I felt pretty crap. At the end two people in front rode into each other but luckily stayed on their bikes, I finished somewhere in the bunch and Cath got 3rd.
That afternoon was the crit around the streets of Palmerston North. Linda, Ina (Toutenburg) and a couple of others broke away so all we had to do was sit in the bunch and chase down breaks. It wasn’t too fast at all, I finished somewhere in the top 10 (I think).
Stage 5 was the last road race, going the opposite direction as stage 2. I felt really comfortable on the hill, then going down not so compfortable, had to chase for abit, then when I caught we went over a very dodgy gravel section. The person in front dropped the wheel by quit a lot, so we had to chase for quit a bit. When getting back on I noticed the bunch had split up substantially so we did some even more chasing, by the time I was back on the bunch I was stuffed! Next thing we know there were 5 people up ahead in a breakaway which were big GC contenders. So Mel, Linda, Kate and I headed straight to the front and lapped it through for the next 15-20. When we caught the group I did an attack bringing along a few others, unfortunately a couple were reasonably high on GC so I did not do anything (after about 5 km). When the bunch caught, Kate attacked ( team tactics =) ) and a group followed her. Now all we had to do was sit in the bunch, hoping HTC would sit on the front and chase them. With 10km to go Linda, Mel and I went to the front and repeated our chase (passing HTC’s train on the way), at this stage Kate’s small group was still ahead and then there would have been about 20 of us left in the main bunch. With about 3km to go I completely blew up, legs started to cramp and I could hardly pedal. After dropping off the back of the bunch I got a second wind and used the cars to get back onto the bunch. We were a bit guttered we couldn’t catch the front group but we got bloody close! At the finish I was just in the bunch.
That was basically the tour finished. Cath finished in second place with Judith Arnt 1st and Ruth Corsett 3rd. The last day was a criterium, which was not part of the tour; instead it was just a separate race. It started off fast, with Kate doing a spectacular crash half way through the first lap bending her front wheel in half. The rest of the race I went hard, it didn’t finish how I wanted but lasted about half of the race. It ended up being only 4 riders left, Cath, Judith, Amanda Miller and a Jayco rider, with Amanda wining and Cath finishing second.
Another great experience with some awesome people!
Mel driving it at the front, just before the last hill.Stage 3 was an 85km rolling to flat lap race. Again my job was to chase breaks and position well. It was a real on and off race and I got in a few little breaks. Other then that it was not very exciting; I felt pretty crap. At the end two people in front rode into each other but luckily stayed on their bikes, I finished somewhere in the bunch and Cath got 3rd.
That afternoon was the crit around the streets of Palmerston North. Linda, Ina (Toutenburg) and a couple of others broke away so all we had to do was sit in the bunch and chase down breaks. It wasn’t too fast at all, I finished somewhere in the top 10 (I think).
Stage 5 was the last road race, going the opposite direction as stage 2. I felt really comfortable on the hill, then going down not so compfortable, had to chase for abit, then when I caught we went over a very dodgy gravel section. The person in front dropped the wheel by quit a lot, so we had to chase for quit a bit. When getting back on I noticed the bunch had split up substantially so we did some even more chasing, by the time I was back on the bunch I was stuffed! Next thing we know there were 5 people up ahead in a breakaway which were big GC contenders. So Mel, Linda, Kate and I headed straight to the front and lapped it through for the next 15-20. When we caught the group I did an attack bringing along a few others, unfortunately a couple were reasonably high on GC so I did not do anything (after about 5 km). When the bunch caught, Kate attacked ( team tactics =) ) and a group followed her. Now all we had to do was sit in the bunch, hoping HTC would sit on the front and chase them. With 10km to go Linda, Mel and I went to the front and repeated our chase (passing HTC’s train on the way), at this stage Kate’s small group was still ahead and then there would have been about 20 of us left in the main bunch. With about 3km to go I completely blew up, legs started to cramp and I could hardly pedal. After dropping off the back of the bunch I got a second wind and used the cars to get back onto the bunch. We were a bit guttered we couldn’t catch the front group but we got bloody close! At the finish I was just in the bunch.
That was basically the tour finished. Cath finished in second place with Judith Arnt 1st and Ruth Corsett 3rd. The last day was a criterium, which was not part of the tour; instead it was just a separate race. It started off fast, with Kate doing a spectacular crash half way through the first lap bending her front wheel in half. The rest of the race I went hard, it didn’t finish how I wanted but lasted about half of the race. It ended up being only 4 riders left, Cath, Judith, Amanda Miller and a Jayco rider, with Amanda wining and Cath finishing second.
Another great experience with some awesome people!
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