Tour de Berne World Cup, Switzerland

23 April 2006 – 120km (6 laps x 20km)

The Tour de Berne world cup course consisted of a 20km circuit that we did 6 times. The only major climb was 5km from the start so I did a few fast intervals to make sure my legs were ready to go hard from the start. I felt tired all over as I warmed up which I tried to ignore. I still don’t think I was fully adjusted to the time zone change.

The entire race was fast and aggressive. Within 1 minute of the start, the field was racing at 50km/hr as everyone tried to get to the front by the base of the climb. The climb wound its way up through a little village for 1.5km and was approximately 8% in steepness. Points were awarded to the first 3 riders to reach the summit each lap so the pace was on as the climbers fought for points.

Tmobile’s objective was to protect Ina Teutenberg, the leader of the world cup series, however Swiss based team, Bigla were looking for their first win in the their own backyard, and launched countless attacks all day. The fast pace saw many riders struggling after 3 laps. Amber Neben (Buitenpoort Flexpoint) attacked after three and a half laps and held a significant gap which forced Tmobile and Univega teams to chase.

I was gapped from the main field on lap 4 and as I chased through the cars, the convoy of team cars came to an abrupt stop, completely blocking the road. I narrowly avoided rear ending a car and had to unclip and wait. I couldn’t get through anywhere. Once the cars moved, I resumed my chase for the next 5km but ahead of me, on a fast technical descent, there had been a crash so when I got there, the road was again blocked with team cars and I was forced to a stop.

I looked beyond the crash and saw the main field about 1km ahead stretched out into a single line. I knew my race was over. A group of 8 of us chased hard but we never made it back. We caught many other dropped riders and rode to the finish in a group of 40 riders. Unfortunately we were all time cut as we finished outside the 5% allowance of the winners time.

The Univega team caught Neben (Buitenpoort Flexpoint) on the fifth time up the climb. The strong climbers including my teammate Annette Beutler (Elk Haus) and Nicole Brandli (Bigla Cycling Team) continued to power up the climb splitting the field with only 20 girls making it over in the front group. Left behind was World Cup leader Ina Teutenberg (T-Mobile). The T-Mobile team chased after the climb and got Teutenberg back as they reached the finish line with one lap to go.

On the final climb, the climbers attacked hard again with Beutler (Elk Haus) earning enough points to win the mountains jersey. Only 17 girls made it over the top and the Bigla team continued their attacks. One by one they went making the pace really fast until the finish. Nicole Cooke (Univega) was responsible from chasing a lot of the Bigla attacks and also attacked herself, but it was the attack from Zoulfia Zabirova (Team Bigla) that worked.

Zabirova did another successful last minute attack that has seen her win many races this way. With 1km to go, she found picked the right moment and rode solo to the finish, taking out the fifth round of the Women’s World Cup Series. Coming in the take the sprint for second was Wood, followed by Olga Slyusareva (Rus) Russian National Team and team mate, Annette Beutler finished 8th to now move up to 6th position in the overall world cup series.

But the big news is that Nicole Cooke managed to win enough points to take the lead in the World Cup series with Oenone Wood moving into second place and Teutenberg slipping back to third.

Round 6 – Castilla y Leon World Cup, Spain is scheduled for 7 May 2006.