National Club Road Race Championships – 3^rd

Location: Yandina, Queensland

Conditions: windy, light scattered showers, 22C

Course: 100km – 10 laps of a 10km circuit

The road course consisted of 10 laps of a 10km circuit.  The majority of the course was slightly undulating, with the exception of two climbs.  The first climb with a gradient of 9% was a 400m straight climb.  The feedzone was situated on this hill with Bob was positioned at the base of the hill, to feed Emma and I.  After this climb, we turned off to the right to tackle a 500m 13% climb that curved around to the right before flattening out on a false flat for another 200m.  It was an unforgiving climb that I did in the 39 x 24 gearing for the first 7 laps before dropping to the 39 x 27 gearing for the remaining 3 climbs.

The pace up the climb was fast from the first lap as Claire Baxter (Hawthorn) set a solid pace.  I climbed quite easily and sat on her wheel.  A number of girls struggled on the climb and I predicted the race would be a natural attrition affair.  Unfortunately, most of the girls who got dropped chased and managed to get back to us after the descent, so the peloton remained intact for a number of laps.  Baxter continued to attack, however most of her attacks were off the front of the peloton and she didn’t succeed in getting a good gap on the field.  The pace was aggressive during the ascents on every lap, and gradually the field started to thin out.  With 2 laps to go, only 11 girls remained in the lead group.

Over the climb for the last time, 6 of us went hard and got a clear lead on the remainder of the field.  This group included Zoe Southwell (NSW), Lorian Graham (QLD), Claire Baxter (VIC), Christine Riakos (NSW) and Natasha Harrigan (NSW).  Amongst the 5 girls chasing us included Natalie Bates (NSW), Jennifer Manefield (NSW) and Amy Safe (SA).  Our group of 6 weren’t working well, and with 2km to go, the girls that had been dropped rejoined us.

The field started to string out in the final kilometre in preparation for a sprint finish.  I was sitting about 10^th wheel and moved up to 4^th wheel as we swept through a sharp left hand corner.  The road immediately turned through a sharp right hand corner and then it was a straight drag of 300m to the finish.  I kicked hard with about 100m to go and took the lead.  With about 30m to go, Manefield edged past me by half a wheel and just before the line Riakos also nudged her tyre in front of mine, leaving me with 3^rd position.

Results:

1^st Jennifer Manefield   Paramatta cycling club, NSW                3.07.13
2^nd Christine Riakos       St George cycling club, NSW                same time
3^rd Helen Kelly              Carnegie Caulfield / KPMG                   same time