It was a windy day for racing. Thankfully the rain mostly held off. This was a rolling course with some short uphill sections to test the legs. The biggest challenge of the day, however, was the 18mph head/cross-wind for 2/3 of the course.
The bunch split after the first lap. Iona was clearly in the break. Sarah chased for 2.5 miles or so to catch the break. Steph was racing with her head and intelligently decided to let the break go, so that she could try to control the bunch and keep her team-mates away. Iona stayed firmly in the break to the end of the race, finishing in 6th place. Sarah managed to hang on for 2 laps before sliding off the back.
Back in the main bunch, passers by probably thought we were out for a leisurely Sunday ride. Only two or three girls were really doing any of the work and there was not much racing going on. Disappointing. It was a bit of a challenge to know whether to push the pace up and do some hard work or conserve our energy for the final climb and sprint for the finish.
Despite riding on the front for the final five miles, Sarah managed to find the energy to tank it up the final climb, distancing herself from the rest of the field, and sprint for the finish line. However, having let the break go earlier on, Steph was even more determined to win the bunch sprint and she just pipped Sarah to the line with Tracy not far behind.
I think we were all a bit surprised to find that we'd won the team competition. What a great end to the Team Race Series season. Now for Ireland...
1 comment:
Turns out the results have been changed overnight - see report on velouk.net. (They must have been miscalculated at the end of the race). We'll have to settle for second place...
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