As soon as I crossed the finish line at nationals I jumped straight in the car and drove for about 5 hours to Auckland (From Hastings). Arriving at about 10pm, I packed my bike (well Dad packed my bike, I directed) and then got to sleep at about 11. Three hours later I was up and off to the airport.
The racing consisted of a three stage flat tour called ‘the Tour of Chongming Island’ and the UCI World Cup road race, which took place in Chongming Island - about an hours drive from Shanghai. This was my first proper overseas race with the elite women and I was both exited and nervous.
The first stage was called the “Shanghai Fusheng Cup” and was 72.5km long. We woke up to rain, cold and wind, which slightly lowered my excitement levels. The whole race I was concentrating on positioning near the front and keeping out of trouble, which was highly likely with the rain and narrow roads. There were many attacks with some people dropping off in the first km. At times the bunch would be strung out, single file and other times we would be cruising along all bunched up. The sprint started very early, just before the last corner 4 girls came off right in front of me and I managed to bunny hop over one of their back wheels, only just staying on my bike. The last km seemed very long as I tried to chase back up to the front part of the peleton, along with 40 others. Cath Cheatley was the best placed rider in 10th place with Emma and Rachel in 14th and 15th.
Finish of Stage 1, when it rains in Chongming, you get quit muddy.
The second stage was called the “Industrial Zone Cup” and was 80km long. The weather was a lot kinder to us with sun and warmth. Today I felt a lot more confident in the bunch; I started off near the front, feeling good. However when it got to the more narrow roads I spent a bit of time in the last half of the bunch, here I need to be more aggressive and push my way into gaps.. One thing I learnt is that cyclists are not polite when racing, you don’t let people in where you want to go (unless they are your team mate). Once again there were many attacks and surging but the bunch managed to stay relatively together (dropping a few). In the last 20 km I got to the front of the bunch thanks to Meshy Holt helping me out, she blocked the wind for me and sat in a position that no-body could push me around. She was basically teaching me how to hold my place and how important it is to stay at the front when coming close to the finish. On the last corner the speed went up dramatically, there was a big head wind to the finish and everyone took off, I went as hard as I could finishing about mid bunch. Cath was best placed Kiwi again finishing in 18th.
The third and last stage was called the “Chongming Xincheng Cup” which was again 80km long. This was a circuit race where we did laps of the city. The weather was again nice to us with some sun. It started off pretty fast, with lots of corners and attacks, luckily only one minor crash which the team managed to miss. Throughout the race I attempted a few attacks, one I got a small lead on the field with a few coming with me, but then no-body pulled through so the bunch caught us pretty fast, the other times also being unsuccessful. In the last 5km the pace was on, with the Cervelo team and HTC Columbia driving at the front (Ina Teutenberg from HTC Columbia and Kirsten Wild from Cervelo were almost on identical points so this was the deciding sprint to see which one would win the tour). I again finished in the bunch with Cath finishing 10th and Ina winning overall.
End of stage 3, last stage.
After the race we rode back to the Hotel and Cath managed to get hit by one of the crazy drivers. (I don’t know how the rest of us managed to stay on our bikes, the driving from China was insane). At the time she was by herself and ended up in the bush, luckily she was ok though, except for being knocked.
Just before start of World Cup, was freezing!! Getting some warm stuff rubbed on from Justin.
The next day was the UCI World Cup which was a 140km out and back race over this massive bridge. The majority of the race was pretty flat, until half way where we climbed just over 2 km on the bridge, then descended, turned at the bottom of the decent and went back up. The conditions were terrible, it was freezing, pouring down and windy. The whole race was extremely dodgy, I couldn’t see a thing through my glasses, they were covered in dirt, but I could not take them off because I would be able to see less. So I spent the whole race following outlines of people, I’m not too sure how I didn’t fall off. There were again many attacks and a few breakaways. Mesh got in a break away on the way back where she stayed away for a very long time, the bunch got caught with about 20km to go and from there the pace went on. At the finish Emma and Mesh got an awesome 8th and 9th place, with the rest of us finishing safely in the bunch.
Freezing cold after the race, sheltering infront of the van from the wind with about 20 layers on.
The next day we went for a trip to Shanghai, where we had a look around the shops and Rachel went up to the top of the tallest tower (it was a bit high for me). We then came back to the Hotel, packed our stuff and drove to the airport to come home.
Another amazing experience to add to my 2010 year, and a lot more learning completed.
Until next time
Courteney
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