25 February 2003 – 120km road race – Lara

Conditions: 22C, overcast and humid with morning drizzle

Today was a 120km road stage, starting and finishing in Lara.  The decisive part of the stage today was a 1.5km climb up the Anike gorge at the 60km mark.  The road was only 7ft wide, was scattered with gravel and had a gradient of 18 percent.

Katie and I got into a few moves before the climb but nothing stuck.  A small group without GC contenders snuck away about 10km before the climb but the AIS team, protecting Olivia Gollan’s (AIS) leaders jersey, reeled them in as we hit the base of the climb.  I was sitting about 30^th wheel as we started the climb and I soon realized how badly I was positioned.  I was completely caught behind slower climbers and the gradient was too steep to consider passing them in gravel.  Girls were literally falling off their bikes around me as the climb became steeper and even their smallest gear, didn’t allow them to turn the cranks fast enough to stay upright.  If the climb didn’t hurt so much it would have been a comical sight.

Our plan today was to keep Lizzie in the U23 jersey today and to get either Katie or myself over the climb and into a break.  I passed Lizzie up the climb and saw Katie crest the hill about 20 seconds in front of me.  I sat up over the top of the climb and waited for Lizzie and also radioed to Katie that we were right behind her, but later found out that the batteries in my radio had run low and she didn’t hear me.

Lizzie came over the hill with 4 others and the 5 of us quickly set about team trialling to get back to the leaders.  We had them in sight at about 30 seconds in front of us.  The road was wide open with a cross headwind but we were making steady progress and after 5km had brought the time gap down.  Unfortunately, Lizzie then touched a back wheel of the rider in front of her, lost control and crashed into the gravel.  I did a U turn and went back to help her.  Her elbow and thigh were bleeding but she seemed ok.  I got her to stay behind me and I started chasing the group we had just been in, but they were now about 50 seconds in front of us.  I radioed to our team car and explained what had happened, but didn’t know they couldn’t hear me.

I could see a large peloton behind us and I signaled to Lizzie that we should sit up and wait for it.  Fortunately there were no U23 riders in the front group and so I rode with Lizzie in the group that caught us and we successfully retained her U23 jersey for the tour.  In the final 1km, I helped lead Lizzie out to take the bunch sprint.

Meanwhile, Katie’s break of 14 split into 2 in the closing kilometers with Katie in the front group.  With 200m to go, Katie lead out the sprint and took the stage win.  The time bonus for Katie’s stage win moved her up to 2^nd in the general classification.  Miriam Melchers (Netherlands) came 2^nd in the stage while, Oliva Gollan finished 3^rd and also successfully defended her leaders jersey to win the overall tour.  We were extremely pleased with our team’s effort and hope the Victorian’s continue to dominate later in the year when we all return from our overseas season.

Overall Results – General Classification

1^st Olivia Gollan (AIS)                               6hrs38.51mins
2^nd Katie Mactier (VIS)                              0mins 53sec down
16^th Liz Williams (VIS)                              4mins 14sec down
21^st Helen Kelly (VIS)                               4mins 25sec down
46^th Emma Rickards (VIS)                         14mins 59sec down