It’s coming to the end of my stint with the Jayco/Ais National Women’s Road Team. I’ve been in Europe since mid March racing with the girls in World Cups and several other UCI Races. It’s been the Classic’s season, the big One Dayer’s, and I’ve been lucky enough to have gotten to experience the 2 biggest women’s Classic’s, Flanders and Fleche Wallone. These are also massive races on the Men’s Pro Tour calander. The great thing about these two events was that we raced the same day as our male counterparts. An estimated crowd of 700,000 (you read correctly) was present at Flanders and racing on the iconic cobble climbs with a massive Belgian crowd was unbelievable. Of course, being a Mountain Biker, I obviously loved the cobbles :-). Unfortunately, Spratty, our protected rider, had a crash and needed a wheel so I gave her mine and had to wait a few minutes for service (the crash was carnage across the road). Despite chasing hard and bombing the cobble sections, I never saw the bunch again and it was race over for me. Loved every minute of it though and I love the role of working for team-mates, something that doesn’t occur on the MTB.
The AIS cycling base is located in Varese, just near Milan in Italy. It is a bit of a home away from home, and we always head back there for training. After Flanders, we arrived to sunny Varese! Two solid weeks of training, sunshine and possibly some gelato and pizza, were next on the program. Varese is fantastic for training. Good weather, lots of good rides and plenty of climbs. You can whip over into Switzerland which is only 30km away from the base. During out training there I think we rode into Switzerland 5-6 times and waved to Cadel (who lives on the Swiss border) on 3-4 of those occasions. It is totally surreal to wave to you fellow compatriate as you ride along in a foreign country. Especially a yellow, pink and rainbow jersey wearer! It is also common to see Ivan Basso on training rides as well as Mick Rogers, Leigh Howard and Simon Clarke. They all live in the area too. Fair to say it’s a pretty sensational place to live and train.
Post Varese training it was off to Holland and Belgium. Thank goodness we flew rather than the 12 hour drive! The Drenthe 8 and Drenthe World Cup were up next. Holland loves its riding and is known for its flat roads, canals and strong winds (very strong). The World Cup was full on. The crosswinds were howling and although flat, there was a short steep climb (a man-made one over a rubbish tip). It was a constant battle for position on the narrow roads and trying to move team-mates up was hard work. We managed to get two riders in the front group on the last climb but the insanely talented Marianne Vos (a Track, Road and Cyclocross World Champion) won the kick.
Next was Fleche and we were all excited for this as our team-mate, Ruth Corset, is one of the World’s best climbers and the final Mur de Huy is a crazy steep hilltop finish. The whole team was working for her. We didn’t let anything go on the early rises and once on the final 25km loop we were looking good. We had Ruth and two other girls in the front group of 40. The plan was for Ruth to attack on the Mur but with 8km to go she crashed really heavily and was taken to hospital with a suspected fractured pelvis! Fortunately it ended up being bad bruising and the disappointment of the finish was replaced with relief that Ruthie was ok.
We stayed on in Belgium, training near the border with Holland in a place called Maastricht. Amazingly, the weather was great in Belgium! Training routes included the Amstel Gold course, Fleche and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Again, many pros live in this great training area and we saw the likes of Johann Van Summeren (Paris-Roubaix winner), Matt Hayman and Michael Matthews. The cycling culture in Holland and Belgium is amazing to witness.
A variety of smaller races were next on the program and a highlight for me was the Luxembourg Team Time Trial. I have never done a TTT in my life and wearing a speed suit is a first as well! Those things are tight! Six of us lined up for the Friday night Time Trial around the centre of Lux City. It was 3 laps of a 1.7km course. Short, fast and incredibly painful! Rain had made the already technical course very tricky and team cohesion was important. We got off to a good start but lost a little formation on an early corner. Regrouping we keep it tight for the remaining 2 laps and managed to post the fastest time of 7 minutes flat. We were about the midway team to head off and the big hitting teams in Garmin, Nederland Bloeit and HTC Highroad were the last teams to head off.
We were called by the race organisers to the go and sit in the hot seat. We didn’t expect to be there long (maybe 20 minutes). After an hour of sitting there we started joking about how we might finish in the top 5 teams….imagine that…. Team after team set off and we kept saying “they’ll definitely get the quickest…..look who they have in their team”. The Pro teams began to feature. But still we remained in the hot seat. The clock kept saying 7min 20sec, 7 min 15…..no team could break our 7 minutes flat. We were getting pretty excited and when there were only two teams left we celebrated that we were guaranteed a podium. Garmin began and we keep record of their splits. After the 2nd lap it was obvious they wouldn’t break the 7 minute time we’d posted. Crazy, we would finish top two and we joked “imagine if we won”. HTC were the final team to set off and they meant business. Their splits were right on our and with less than a lap to go it was impossible to call. We watched the finish straight, looking for the first sight of them. We were barely able to contain our excitement.
At this point I happened to glace behind from the hot seat area towards where we had stored our bikes and noticed there were only 5 there……when there had been 6 bikes only minutes before!!! Someone had stolen one! A couple of us ran down and tried to see if we could spot anyone with the bike but no success. Meanwhile HTC were just about to finish. I was busy running up and down the street asking spectators of they’dseen anyone steal the bike?? ….“A man walked off with it that way”…..One of us jumped on a bike and started riding after him. The police were nearby and they took off in pursuit. Police cars also gave chase. It was quite a spectacle. I rode the nearby streets (it was 10pm) at night but was unable to see the bike and we gave it up as a lost cause. On arriving back at the team car I learned HTC had won the Time Trial, besting our time by a mere 3 seconds! Exhausted from all the excitement, we headed back to the hotel.
About 30 minutes later, Marv, our coach, relays the good news that the Lux Police had located the stolen bike! A drunk man had decided it looked nice and pinched it to ride home on. The night ended well with the return of the bike and although we didn’t win the TTT we were very happy to finish 2nd behind the polished professional outfit of HTC. Not bad for a National Team….
All in all its been a great experience racing on the road in Europe. The Questa and I have done races many only dream about doing. Riding the cobbles in Flanders is something I will never forget and will dream about doing again….
For now, it’s time to jump back on the beloved mountain bike. It’s off to the UK and Germany for the MTB World Cups. My Competitor and I are looking forward to returning to the dirt and racing against the best mountain bikers in the world....