Geelong Tour and World Cup, 2006

I was very excited to be racing with an Austrian Team, Elk Haus No, until I heard that my inclusion in the team, as a guest rider, would prevent the team from earning team UCI points, so instead I joined a mixed team with Susanne Ljunskog (former Road World Champion).
Susanne and her partner Klas, together with Bob and I, stayed with friends in Geelong during the Geelong tour and Geelong world cup. Here is what happened during the week.

Stage 1 – Portarlington Individual time trial
After tapering too much, my legs felt horrible as I warmed up for the time trial. I race better when I have had a good ride the day before, and so I suffered terribly in the time trial, finishing about 1min 20sec down on the winner. Christiane Soeder (Univega) from Switzerland rode fastest to claim the yellow jersey.

Stage 2 – Portarlington Criterium
After lunch and a nap, it was back on the bike in the afternoon to contest a hilly 30km criterium. I usually love criteriums but my legs were still dead. Instead of riding in a good position at the front, I found myself hovering on the back of the peleton. The field shattered with every lap and only 30 of the 160 riders finished the race. Rochelle Gilmore (Safi Pasta) outsprinted the field to win the stage, while Christine Soeder, safely retained the leaders jersey. I finished safely in the front group.

Stage 3 – Barwon Heads Circuit race
Today’s course was scarred with crashes. All breaks were reeled in as the dominant teams kept the peleton together for a sprint finish. I conserved today, stayed out of the wind, and had a relatively easy day following wheels. A nasty crash with 200m to go, saw Rochelle Gilmore (Safi Pasta) hit the pavement, along with Priska Doppmann and her team mate, the tour leader. I narrowly avoided bodies and bikes, remained upright and finished safely, without losing any time. My team mate from 2005, Tina Pic (USA) won the stage, with a convincing display of speed. Christine Soeder retired due to injuries from the race, while intermediate bonus seconds put Oenone Wood (Nuernberg) in the yellow jersey.

Stage 4 – Lara Road Race
Today I was worried about the 25% wall that we had to climb. The race started aggressively with many riders keen to sneak up the road on the final stage, however Wood’s Nuernberg team worked hard to chase down every break before the climb. A group of 8 crested the 1.8km climb ahead of the field. I climbed in a 27 tooth chainring but wished I’d had a 29. The break was caught within 5km and all attacks, were shut down as the Nuernberg team successfully defended Wood’s jersey. My final placing for the Geelong tour was 38th, 1min 33 behind the winner, Oenone Wood.

Geelong World Cup
Over 140 women contested the first world cup event, all keen to finish in the top 20 and earn world cup UCI points. The race was 120km, consisting of 8 laps with a 1km climb per lap. My legs felt ordinary during the first 4 laps and gradually felt worse over the remainder of the race. I had really bad lower back pain and no power for climbing. I got gapped from the front group on the final climb and finished 1 minute behind the winner in 58th place.

I was concerned with my back pain, had a post race massage, but didn’t have an opportunity to see a physio and get it checked out properly. I rushed back to Melbourne, packed my bike and headed to the airport – bound for New Zealand, for the next world cup race.