Day 2 – Portarlington – 9^th January 2003

Conditions: Sunny, 25ºC, 1.30pm

Today was a really tough hilly circuit.  It was 1km around with a short sharp hill, after the first corner.  This was followed by a longer uphill drag along the back straight, before a steep descent and then another gradual incline back to the start / finish line.  There really wasn’t any relief on the legs today.

Right from the gun, the pace was fast and after 3 laps, riders started to get shelled.  Each lap, more and more riders dropped off as the attacks continued.  Series leader, Gilmore also retired due to an illness that has been plaguing her.

Katie Mactier attacked at the 20min mark and quickly established a 15sec break.  I spent the next 15mins covering each attack, and trying to stay on the front to slow down the insistent NSW chase.  However, with 10 NSW girls chasing hard and only me to cover the attacks, Katie was eventually brought back to the field just before the 30min sprint.

With 10mins to go, Oenone Wood (ACT) attacked and surprisingly NSW let her go.  I tried to get across to her, but was quickly shut down by Wood’s ACT team mates.  I still didn’t have the legs to repeatedly attack and was resolved to sit in the bunch and survive.  I was badly positioned in 20^th wheel as we went under the finishing banner to take the bell.  I sprinted up the back straight and moved up to 10^th wheel and held on to finish in the top 10.  Katie finished again in 6^th place.

Results:

1^st Oenone Wood (ACT)
2^nd Hayley Rutherford (WAIS)
3^rd Kate Bates (NSWIS)
6^th Katie Mactier (Drapac Property / Beasley Cycles)
10^th Helen Kelly (Drapac Property / Beasley Cycles)