Kelly Cycle Coaching athlete Carley McKay won stage 3 of Tour of the Murray today.  Carley swapped from rowing to cycling at the beginning of 2012.  She came to KCC with plenty of horsepower but she needed to spend time learning the skills and technique to enable her to progress. 

And to her credit, she has persisted with each skill until she’s mastered them and today she backed herself and had ‘a crack’.  Well done Carley.

Carley after her stage win

Below is a report from the National Road Series Website.

McKay claims ‘best career win’ in Echuca

6 September 2013, by Staff Writer

Carley McKay (Bicycle Superstore) clinched the greatest win of her career in Echuca. / Mark Gunter

Carley McKay (Bicycle Superstore) has enjoyed the greatest win of her career, taking out today’s Echuca road race – the third stage in the women’s Tour of the Murray River, part of the Subaru National Road Series.

McKay was part of a 10 strong breakaway which to hold on until the finish, allowing the team’s guest rider to clinch a sprint finish ahead of Crystal Wemyss (Team Breeze) and Chloe McIntosh (Suzuki Bontrager).

“I’m just in disbelief,” McKay said. “It just wasn’t what I expected. I’m here guest riding with the Bicycle Superstore Team, so I’m just so ecstatic to have a win on the board.”

The break formed 35 kilometres into the 92 kilometre journey, and also included tour sprint jersey leader Judith Betts (Team Bikebug), Zoe Watters (Pensar SPM), Sophie Mackay (BOSS Racing) and Cassandra Dodd (Specialized).

The group gained a maximum advantage of two-and-a-half minutes and worked together for 55 kilometres with the peloton, including the yellow jersey leader, leaving the chase until too late.

“I was concerned about my GC riders that stayed in the bunch,” McKay said of her teammate Felicity Wardlaw, who currently sits second on general classification.

“I spent most of the time on the back of the breakaway and with 50 metres to go I just thought I’m feeling fresh, I’m going to gun it.

Carley celebrating on the podium

“I think I was in fourth place but ended up coming up with the win. I just couldn’t be any more excited about it.”

Katrin Garfoot (Pensar SPM) retains the Tour lead with two stages remaining. Garfoot is 24 seconds ahead of second placed Felicity Wardlaw (BSS) and Betts.

“We worked really hard to close the gap but that was just impossible,” Garfoot explained.

“My thanks goes to the Bicycle Superstore girls who helped us keep the GC in order. The break slipped out of our hands a few times and we clicked too late, we probably should have tried to chase the break earlier than we did,” said Garfoot who at one stage had lost the virtual tour lead to breakaway rider Betts.

The women’s Tour of the Murray River continues tomorrow with a 69 kilometre road race from Nathalia to Cobram.

Kelly Cycle Coaching athlete, Carol Cooke became a dueal World Champion yesterday with a win in the Para Road World Championships for her classification.  Congratulations Carol on another outstanding performance.

Carol - Road and TT World Champion

Carol’s blog explains how the race unfolded:

Wow I keep pinching myself to see if I am awake and this has really happened. After last weekends racing in Matane at the World Cup I assumed the Canadian Marie-Eve would be with me for the entire 3 laps.

The weather was fabulous (finally), a lovely 21 degrees but felt much warmer in the sun. Most of the course was in the sunshine and at one point I thought it may be to my detriment as my body doesn’t handle heat at all! But I had my support staff spraying me with water each lap which helped a lot!

Marie-Eve and I dropped the rest of the riders about 3km into the race and for the entire first lap worked together. She is extremely fast on corners so I let her take most of them. She also scares the bejesus out of me so I am happy for her to go through them first, but I knew I was a better climber, so was testing her on the hills.

We came through the start/finish line and started the second lap and the climb. Halfway up the hill I tried to get her to take a turn on the front, but no matter which side I went to she followed. At one point I slowed right down and tried to slip in behind her. I had a look at her and she was really struggling, so with advice from a number of people before the race I decided to really test her. I told her I wasn’t dragging her up the hill and with that I surged. As I turned the next corner I looked back and couldn’t see her! I had broken away with still 2 laps to complete!

I decided I just needed to try and pull even farther away from her, so I was fairly cautious on the corners but climbed every hill like she was on my tail. About halfway around the 2nd lap I was advised that I was 33secs ahead of her and 2:25 ahead of the others. To me 33 wasn’t enough because I know how good she is technically, so I kept doing what I had been doing. Halfway through the last lap our head coach Peter Day was on one of the corners yelling at me to be safe on the corners as I had a huge lead…that still didn’t tell me how much, but I did as I was told. However it is not in my nature to take it easy and for everything else I gunned it, even sprinting to the finish line!

By the time I finished I was spent and it felt like I had just done a full on time trial! But I couldn’t believe that I had just won, to be honest I don’t know if I was as confident coming into this race as the Time Trial, however I am happy to say that once out there my confidence grew with every kilometre!

Carol setting the pace on lap 1

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that after last year and the Paralympics, I would still be racing at this level, let alone winning.

This morning I read an email that I get daily and it fit so well, part of it read:

“Instead of avoiding the challenges, embrace them. Instead of being intimidated by the limitations, be inspired to find new ways around them. You don’t have to settle for just getting by or merely making it through the day. You are capable of so very much more, so go for it. Realise what a magnificent opportunity you have, right here and now. And fully live the grand adventure that is your life.”

So thank you Ralph Marston, these words fit my day perfectly