Only five of the women in our peloton turned up to ride the road race today, due to varying reasons. There were two fast ladies - Erin Kinnealy and Amanda Nabi. Plus myself, Margot and Leila. We had four laps of the course, a total of 71km. We mostly stayed together for the first lap, although Leila struggled on the hills. I think she gave everything she had yesterday at the crit! She was dropped early then came back, but then was dropped again before the end of lap 1.
On the second lap, Erin attached early - on the first short sharp hill. Amanda followed and I did my best to go with them. But Erin picked a really good place to attack - not only was it a hill, but the road was bumpy and slippery from the rain. I jumped out of the saddle to sprint up the hill after Erin, and my back wheel started slipping and sliding on the road like a bucking bronco! So I sat back down and powered up from a seated position, but that short pause was enough for Erin and Amanda to get a gap on me. I pushed hard for the next 3km, but couldn't quite catch them.
I looked behind me, and I had dropped Margot. She was at least 100m behind me. I decided to push on. I figured I could probably time trial better than Margot, and if I kept in front of her, I would win third place for the race. I only had another 50km to go - not much more than a 40km time trial!
So the second lap I pushed hard, at time trial pace. I figured once I got out of sight of Margot it would be harder for her to chase me. Without having a visual on her "rabbit" to chase, I thought I could probably get away.
Laps 3 and 4 I continued to try to push hard, but I was getting tired. The dead roads didn't help, my arms were sore from trying to tuck in and get aero on the descents on rough roads! However, I had the thought always that Margot would suddenly appear behind me, so that kept my pace up at a reasonable level. I kept checking behind me, and it wasn't until I was about 10km from the finish that I thought "ok, I've got this".
The last 15km I was counting down the distance to the finish. Tired arms, tired legs, sore back. But I still managed to put out a pretty respectable sprint to the finish line for the spectators!
I finished third overall, I've no idea how far behind Erin (first place) and Amanda (second place). I'm told they stayed together for the race and sprinted it out at the finish. Margot finished a few minutes behind me, and Leila was about 10min behind me. I got silver in my age group (Amanda was in my age group).
So, a weekend of three different styles of races, but I essentially did three time trials! Very happy with my one Gold National Champion medal and two silvers. Thanks to Sam Davis from Hall Cycle Training for my coaching, and to our sponsors Nicheliving, Puravida Energy, GoodEarth Hotel, Hays recruiting, The Vic Hotel and ThyssenKrupp.
A very special mention to Leila Spurgeon who won the Bill Long shield for the most meritorious performance across the whole championships. This is a huge honour as it is selected from all 165 riders who participated in the event. Leila was a well-deserved winner. In the time trial she rode so hard that we dropped her on the recovery ride back to the registration area. In the crit, she rode out of her skin to hang on for 40min with A-grade women, and then backed up to ride in the hilly road race today. Leila struggled on the hills today and was dropped on the first lap, but she continued on and finished the race. The referees followed her for the last lap, asking if she was ok - her response was yes, she would finish the race, but she was just going a bit slowly!
Leila is also a regular racer in the Perth racing scene, she races the UCI qualifying event, she races the West Coast Masters CC races often, and enjoys mixing it up with the old boys in D Grade :)
What a terrific example of a woman who enjoys the racing opportunities in Perth and works to the best of her ability with a positive attitude.
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