Courteney Lowe: Tour De Grove

On Thursday the 12th Rachel, KC, Kate and I left for a 9.5 hour drive to St Louis to race the Tour De Grove Criterium series and NRC race. There were 50 starters with most of the top teams there including a full Tibco and Colavita team. The first race was a 55 minute plus 3 lap Criterium in a rectangle shape. We started just before 9pm so it was very dark! Dark clouds were hanging around but luckily we did not get wet. The race was full of attacks, with nothing sticking, finishing with a bunch sprint. Kate and I were hoping to have some sort of lead out but it was pretty hard to actually see who anyone was so we ended up just going for it, finishing pretty much next to each other on opposite sides of the road, with Kate 8th and me 9th. We then warmed down while watching 150 odd pro men racing round the circuit, was insane to watch, with Pure Black totally dominating the race.

The next race was the NRC Criterium around a very sketchy circuit, with lots of corners and metal plates on the road. To make it even better it was raining and the course was very slippery. People were falling off left right and centre, it was more a finish in one piece sort of race. Coming up to a prime I got in a break away of 3 but the Tibco girl had a lot more balls around the last corner then I did, going around it about 5kmh faster. Around the final corner the girl at the front took it too wide and came off, wiping out quite a few people. I rolled over the line some where in the bunch happy to be in one piece. Was not the best day on the bike but was good for my mental toughness! We were not able to stay around to watch the guys as we were completely frozen but got home to find that Pure Black Racing had helped Mike Northey pull of an awesome win in the pro race!

The final day of racing was very action packed! It was on another corner filled, slippery course with a nice up hill to the finish. Again it was raining which added to the fun! 5 minutes to start Kate and I were attempting to de-attach Kate’s wheel from the wind trainer, as it got stuck and we could not get her bike out. I rode to the start line to ask the starter to hold the race for a minute. Luckily we still had time to find the closest male spectator and get him to have a go at getting it off. 2 minutes to go we were all on the start line, to find Kate’s back break was rubbing.. I waved over a mechanic looking person and he fixed it (the wheel was not on properly thanks to the wind trainer incident). We were exhausted with 30 seconds to go, feeling like we had already raced! Next thing we were racing and it was wet! Kate and I both got in almost every break, as that was the safest place to be in the bunch. There was a break away of 2 riders up the road, Kate bridged across to them then another girl goes and I got straight on her wheel. Next thing we were in a break away of 7, including 3 Tibco girls, a Colavita, Kate, myself and another rider. Coming up to one of the primes I went early on the hill, and managed to (finally) win it! The rest of the race was just Tibco, Kate and I working hard to keep the break away. With one lap to go we had over a minute on the field, I took a drink and started to choke on it, not being able to breathe. I was a bout to stop but luckily something cleared and I could breathe again! So I chased back on. One corner to go before the finish the Colavita rider came off in front, I had 2 choices; one was to ride over her and fall off, or jump the curb. I went for option 2 and managed to get a puncture and crack my back racing wheel in the process. With 200 odd meters to go I rode the puncture until the wheel would not go around any more. I then jumped off my bike and ran across the finish line, getting 6th just ahead of the main peleton. I was pretty annoyed as uphill finishes are my strength and I was feeling good.. but that’s bike racing! Kate did awesome finishing second in a Tibco sandwich, a well deserved podium finish!