Tour of Margaret River - November 2015

One of the things that makes the Tour of Margaret River a special event is that everyone has their own stories to tell. Four stages over three days, with 71 riders in the women's category and 448 in the open category - it is an epic event. And with each rider busy trying to recover and prepare for the next stage, many of these individual race stories don't come to light.

This is my story.

I had chosen not to register for the Tour of Margaret River, as it was close to the end of my road race season for the year, and I knew I would be ready for a rest by that stage. I was going to go and support my good friends in the Roues Chaudes Cycling Club, helping them out by cooking meals and anything else that was needed. Then two of their team members were hit by a car when participating in a charity bike ride in Esperance. They were unable to compete - this was less than two weeks before the race. So I decided to step up and fill in one of the places in their team. We had a team of five in the end (the teams are supposed to be six).

Finbar RCCC Women's Team, with RCCC President Dan O'Donoghue

Stage 1

The first stage was a prologue, a very short individual time trial. It was only 7.5km long, but included a lot of climbing up to the golf course at Augusta. It was an unusual format for an individual time trial - it was actually more like a team time trial, as each team started together, but each rider would be given an individual finishing time. It was a good format to start the race, as our team could suss out who was where in terms of climbing ability. One of the strengths of our team was that we were quite well matched. However, as I expected, I was the weakest in climbing ability. As soon as we hit the climb, I dropped off the back of our team and watched them ride away. I knew I would have to ride the climb at my own pace. 

I kept climbing, and about halfway up the climb I caught up with one of my teammates, Annie. We are fairly well matched - today, she stuck on my wheel as best she could up the climb. I just kept going at the fastest pace I could sustain. Then as it flattened out I eased off a touch to let her catch her breath, and she then took over some of the pace making. We also caught up to our teammate Jen not far from the finish, she had had some trouble breathing or we never would have caught her. The three of us finished close together. 

I was very happy with my efforts for Stage 1, and also pleasantly surprised to see that I was ranked third in my age category after the first stage. 

Stage 2

Stage 2 was the team time trial proper. It was 50km, undulating along Caves Rd from Augusta to Witchcliff. The team time was taken from the 5th rider to cross the finish line - so with only five riders in our team, we had to stick together. Stage 2 was held in the afternoon after Stage 1 in the morning, so it was a tough day. 

We agreed on some call words: "ease" if the pace was too fast, "up" if the pace was too slow, "on" - every rider to call when they got back onto the back of the paceline, and "off" if a rider dropped off. We also agreed on the order of riders in the paceline, to protect the slower riders from surges after they had done their turn, and try to position people behind riders they were comfortable to follow. This worked really well, as we all stayed together for the whole stage. I was one of the slower riders, so I did have to call out "ease" a few times, but the ladies were really good and kept a nice consistent pace up the hills. I also did shorter turns that the other ladies to protect myself and so that they could keep the pace up. 

One of the things that I took away from this stage is that I can push myself harder up hills that I think I can. It was really great training to force myself to stick to the wheel in front of me going up the hills, to manage my effort so that I could still recover but push myself harder than I normally would. I got to know Leila's rear wheel very well, as sometimes that was all I could focus on. 

Towards the end of the Stage, we turned into Redgate Rd. There was one hill on this road, it was tough work to stay with them up this hill. After the hill, I was third rider in the line. Then Margot pulled off and it was only Leila in front of me. I was thinking "please stay there Leila" - I didn't know if I would have any energy to do another turn on the front. Then Leila pulled off, and it was my turn. We still had 2km to go, but I knew I couldn't pull off the front as I would never be able to get back on. Leila had picked up the pace, so I just kept going as hard as I could. I know there was a motorbike cameraman taking photos at this point, but I couldn't even lift my head to glance at him. 

We were very happy with the outcome of this stage, as we finished 4th fastest women's team. 

Me leading our team (briefly) in the team time trial 

Stage 3

Stage 3 was the longest and hardest stage of the tour. It was a little over 100km, a circuit starting in Nannup, heading southeast to Greenbushes, Marrinup Ford, Balingup then back to Nannup. It was very undulating, with two long and challenging climbs. The first climb was only 2km into the race, but luckily for me the women didn't race up it too fast, so I could stay within contact of the peloton. However, they punched out the last 200m and over the top of the climb, so me and a couple of other women had to work together to chase back onto the peloton. 

The race organisers set off the women's teams first, in two groups with 30 sec gap between groups. Then the men's teams set off, with only 30 sec between the slower women's group and the fastest men's group. As expected, it became somewhat of a handicap race - when the fastest men's group came past our peloton, less than 10km into the race, the women's peloton merged with the men's and those that could hang on, did. 

I stayed with this group for only a couple of kilometres. I was towards the back of the group, which makes it harder as the pace fluctuates more. Plus, every time they went up a climb it was a hard effort for me to maintain their pace. Keeping pace with my team in the team time trial in Stage 2 was good training for what I had to do in Stage 3! 

So about 10km into the race, I dropped off the back of the women's peloton. I was then riding solo for a while, trying to catch my breath and happy to be riding at a strong but consistent pace, rather than the surges I was experiencing in the peloton. Then the next fastest men's group came past. They were too fast for me to catch onto solo, so I let them go. But when the third group came past, I was ready and I got into their group. Unfortunately, after I'd been in this group for a little while, a couple of the guys to my right and in the front of the peloton when down. I could see it happen and I braked hard and looked for an exit to the left. But by that time guys behind me had come around me and crashed in front of me and I had nowhere to go. I tumbled sideways, but luckily I didn't have any serious injuries or bike damage. My knee was a bit grazed and I was a bit shaken, but after a couple of deep breaths and a quick check that my bike was in one piece, I jumped back on and took off, to minimise my time losses. 

Most of the rest of the race way spent riding solo, getting caught from behind by groups, and sticking with them as long as I could. I felt like I did a lot of riding by myself until about halfway along South West Highway towards Ballingup. Thankfully a group caught up with me on that road, as it was quite hairy riding along the major highway by myself with only a narrow shoulder to ride off the carriageway. I stuck with this group until we left Ballingup and headed up another hill. I had been working pretty hard and I just couldn't stay with them up the hill. 

I found myself with two other guys, one of whom was riding at a perfect pace for me. We stuck together and swapped off turns as best we could, playing leapfrog with the other guy whose pace was fluctuating a lot more - he would power up a hill and then slow down. After a while, the three of us were caught up by another good-sized group of about 10 riders. This was a terrific group for me as they were riding at my pace, and there were quite a few strong guys driving the group. The terrain was also a little more forgiving, as the hills in this section were quite short, so I could power up the hills with the group, then recover a bit on the downhill. I actually found I was a stronger climber than a lot of the guys, so that was a nice change for me. 

Breathing hard uphill

It was a relief to be in a peloton that was riding at my pace, finally. However, I was getting hungry and it was hard to find a chance to eat anything on the undulating terrain, so I was getting a bit grumpy. I really wanted this stage to be over. I managed to get in a gel at about the 80km mark, which was a good move. As we got closer to Nannup the hills started getting longer and steeper. I managed to stay with the front guys from our peloton for a little way up the hills, but then I couldn't push any harder and I got dropped. I found myself in no man's land, faster than the slow climbers but not fast enough to keep up with the front guys. Riding by myself again, I couldn't see anyone else nearby so I just stuck to my pace up the hills. Some of the hills were so steep I ran out of gears, and I was mentally telling myself "just pretend it is an SE training session", with a cadence of 60rpm. Then on the downhills I would aero-descend, trying to catch my breath and give my legs a rest. 

I didn't know exactly how far this stage was, but I started to see more farmland and homesteads, so I figured we were getting closer to Nannup. Thank goodness! I finally finished, in a time of 3:20:30. To my surprise, I was only two places behind the lady who was first in my age category, and I had jumped ahead one place on the General Classification, to be second in my age category. 

I was amazed to find that I had finished only 20sec behind my teammate Leila, and my teammate Annie was only 50sec behind me. These time gaps seem so small over 100km, but I certainly didn't see these ladies on the road once we split up. I was amused to learn after the race that Annie had seen me crash, and actually stopped and asked me how I was. Quite a few people were asking me how I was, and I guess my focus was on checking myself and my bike over and getting on with finishing the stage, so I never even looked behind me to see who was asking. Maybe if I had, we could've ridden out the stage together and had a much more fun day! 

Stage 4 

Stage 4, thankfully the last stage, was a 64km road race from Yalingup to Witchcliff. This was another undulating stage, heading down Caves Rd, but thankfully there were no really long climbs like we had in Stage 3. 

The organisers had changed the start order for this stage, the women's groups started behind all the men's groups. I guess they didn't want the women drafting off the men; instead we had men drafting off the women. We passed a couple of slower groups of men and a few of the riders tagged onto the back of our peloton. 

This stage started with a climb out of Yalingup. I got tailed off the back of the peloton on the climb, but I wasn't too far back and I quickly rejoined the main group. It was such a relief to be able to ride with the main women's peloton for the majority of this stage. It was also interesting to witness some of the race tactics. There were 2-3 teams who were stronger than the rest of us, so there were a few breakaways who were then dragged back by the other strong teams in the peloton. At one point, one of the riders from the team who was leading the General Classification came down through the peloton and asked if any of us wanted to work. I thought that was pretty cheeky, considering we were working hard enough thank you very much just trying to stay with them. Everyone was pretty tired by this stage, particularly after the grueling Stage 3. 

Riding at the tail end of the peloton

The organisers had brought into the race a few pro riders, which various teams had bid to have riding on their team. On Stage 4, we ended up with Luke Durbridge riding in our peloton for about half the stage. He was riding with one of the slower men's teams so when we passed them early in the stage, he and a few guys from their team sat in with our peloton. I was thankful to have him there, as on one of the tougher climbs when I had been dropped from the back of the peloton, he towed a lady from his team back into the peloton, and I sat on her wheel and got back in as well. It's not every day that you get to sit on Luke Durbridge's wheel :) 

My legs were too tired to get out of the saddle and power up the climbs on this stage, so I was climbing in the saddle and using a high cadence to generate more power. On the last climb on Redgate Road before the finish line, the peloton pushed hard so I got out of the saddle and powered up the climb as hard as I could. I stayed with the peloton up the climb, but I didn't have anything else left to give, so they dropped me as they crested the climb. I also knew it was less than 5km before the finish, so I figured I could manage that on my own. Then a few other riders came past, and we worked together for a couple of kilometres, but as we were all so stuffed by this point, we couldn't push hard to hold the wheel in front. Our little group splintered, and I finished the stage solo, only 45sec behind the main peloton. I didn't realise I was actually the first woman in my age category across the line on this stage, beating the lady who was 1st on GC by almost 2 min. 

In the end, I finished 2nd in the General Classification for my age category, only 2:06 behind 1st place. I was very happy with this result, particularly considering I hadn't actually planned to do this event. I was in good form but I was also still a bit tired from doing Cape to Cape less than two weeks prior. Funnily enough, after the final stage, my teammate Annie and I had exactly the same time in the General Classification. She managed to stay in the peloton on the final stage, so that offset the time that I was in front of her on Stage 3. I finished 23rd overall in the women's category, out of 68 finishers. 

Podium for my age category 

Pretty chuffed with my rather large medal!