Saturday, 12 January 2002   Women’s Road Race – 100km

Conditions: 19ºC sunny, cool southerly winds

I woke up Saturday morning feeling tired and achy.  I had been awake most of the night sneezing and trying to clear my blocked nostrils.  I was hoping I only had hay fever that can be easily fixed but somehow knew I had just landed a cold.  Perfect timing – NOT!

I decided to warm up anyway and hope that I felt better by 11am – race start.  My stomach was churning and I felt light-headed and I knew it wasn’t just a product of adrenalin and pre-race nerves.

About 50 girls lined up at the start of the road race, in the hope of becoming the Australian Road Champion for 2002.  The course was a 10km loop that we had to ride 10 times.  It started and finished in Warrenhiep street, Buninyong.  I could only describe this course as really tough.  After riding down the main street, we were confronted with the same hill that we had in the time trial, a long steep drag up the Midland highway, however towards to the top, we turned left onto a secondary road and climbed another 1km that kicked more steeply near the top.  The rest of course was undulating and had two steep descents to the finish, one down a narrow and twisting road and the other out on a main road that headed into the township of Buninyong and took us to the start / finish line.

The first lap was very sedate with the peleton intact as we faced 9 laps to go.  On lap two, the pace up the climb lifted.  At the second part of the climb, Olivia Gollan attacked and the peleton splintered as everyone chased her.

I found myself in the 2^nd bunch that chased hard and regrouped with the main bunch at the base of the climb on lap 3.  My head ached and my stomach was cramping and churning and I knew I had to pull out.  I did 2 more laps before withdrawing from the race.

The toughness of the climb took its toll on a number of noted riders with only 25 or so left in the race with 3 laps to go.  This number dwindled further as the climb shelled more and more riders in the final laps.

Towards the end of the lap 9, Margaret Hemsley jumped on Lorrain Graham’s wheel as they headed down the hill towards the start / finish line to hear the bell.  They had a lead of 30sec on the remainder of the peleton.  Up the climb for the last time, Hemsley dropped Graham and headed to the finish in a solo effort.

Four riders, Anna Millward, Sara Carragan, Hayley Rutherford and Emma James broke away from the peleton on the final lap and swept up Lorrain Graham in their pursuit of Hemsley.  Millward pulled long turns to try and bring back Hemsley but they had left their chase too late.

Hemsley’s lead was gradually reduced from 36sec to 24sec by the 5 chasers, however she won comfortably and had time to give the crowd a long victory salute as she crossed the line.  In the chasing group, Hayley Rutherford won the sprint to claim 2^nd overall while Emma James took 3^rd.  In the main peleton, Emma Rickards finished 2^nd to claim 8^th overall while Katie Mactier finished 10^th.

I watched the finish from the sidelines and hoped that next year I would time my cold at a more convenient time.  After weeks of hard training it was a frustrating Australian Open for me, but it is only the start of the season, and now it is time to do an endurance block in preparation for 6 months of racing in the US.