Bay Criterium No 4 – Portarlington – 5^th January 2002

Conditions: Sunny, 25ºC

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 right 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.  Less than half the girls managed to finish today’s race, which shows how tough the course was, and that many of the girls are feeling the impact of the week of racing.

Shortly after the last sprint, an attack went along the back straight that strung out the remainder of the field.  Liz Tadich, Katie Mactier and I all tried to get across but a 20m gap soon developed with 5 girls up the road.  I tried to launch an attack to get a Victorian up the road but the legs didn’t have anything left.  The break soon had 60m on us which remained until the finish.

The results of day 4 were 1^st Rochelle Gilmore, 2^nd Hayley Rutherford and 3^rd Naomi Williams.  I finished in the chasing bunch in about 13^th position, whilst Emma Rickards (Caufield Carnegie CC) took out the bunch sprint for 6^th.