Tour de White Rock – 13-15 July 2001

Friday 13^th July Stage 4 – 800m 16% Hill Climb

Conditions: 21°C, 8.00am start – no wind.

This hill was really nasty to sprint up.  It steepened after 300m, steepened again for another 300m, kicked really steeply for another 100m before flattening out for a final 100m to the finish line.  It was a true leg burner.  I was the first to climb so my plan was to just go as hard as I could and hope not to lose by less than a second again.  I ended up winning the climb by over 4secs which I was really pleased with.  This put me 2^nd in points with the criterium and road race to go.

Saturday 14^th July Stage 5 – 30km Criterium

Conditions: 23°C, 4.00pm start – slight wind.

Before the criterium started, I was introduced to the podium and presented with the WhiteRock tour leaders jersey and announced as being in 2^nd position in the omnium points for the combined tours.  This certainly made me a target for the criterium.  The circuit was 1km long with an 800m gradual climb followed by a strong headwind along the top straight before turning sharply left into a downhill finish.

My plan was to conserve energy, not go for the primes and just sit in for a good finish.  Snow Valley and Speed Queen tried repeatedly to work me over, by attacking and counterattacking, causing me to chase.  I created several breaks but they just sat on and wouldn’t work, so I decided to stay in the bunch for a sprint finish.  It was a downhill sprint so positioning on the final corner was critical.  I came into the corner 4^th and that’s where I finished.

This gave me enough points to move into 1^st place in points.  I sat on the windtrainer for 40mins to try and alleviate as much soreness as possible.  Bob massaged me after dinner and I was in bed by 9.30pm, left to contemplate my plan for the last stage tomorrow.  My plan was to win the overall omnium points, the final stage and the Queen of the mountain competition.  Despite my expectations I slept well.

Sunday 16^th July Stage 6 – 82km Road Race

Conditions: 15°C, 8.00am start – windy and raining solidly.

I woke at 5.30am and was pleased to find it raining steadily this morning.  I knew it would put a lot of the girls off and I wanted any advantage I could get.  It was quite cool so I got onto the windtrainer at 7.20am to do a good 35-40mins of spinning.  My legs felt reasonable but my heartrate was lower than usual.

The road race consisted of an 11.6km circuit which we rode 7 times.  The start/finish line was right on Marine drive, a coastal road consisting of restaurants, cafes and surf shops.  It was a hilly road with a 200m uphill climb to the finish line.  Once past the start/finish line, the next 2km contained two small rises but mostly flat terrain into a solid headwind.  We turned 90° left up a steep 200m climb before turning left again, coming back parallel with Marine Drive.  We had 800m of flat terrain into a crosswind before the hill for the QOM.  I attacked here on the first lap but was caught on the climb.  It was about 600m and steep enough that I needed the 21 to crunch up it.

Over the hill, I went to the front and attacked again.  We descended for 800m down a narrow slippery road, reaching 60km/hr.  After dodging two badly located metal manholes, we had a 90° left turn followed immediately by a 90° right turn to come back onto Marine Drive, but heading away from the start/finish line.  There was a pedestrian crossing on this second corner, and the white lines were treacherously slippery.  This was a dangerous area so the best place to be was in the front.  The bunch went through this S quite slowly, so I attacked again and had 20m on the bunch as they came out of the second corner.  The road went slowly uphill for the next 800m before turning 140° right up the final climb of the circuit.  This climb was horrendously steep and required a 23 or 24.  It climbed for about 1km with a hard left turn half way up it.

The bunch caught me by the top of the climb, (which was where the feed zone was located), and I threw it straight into the big ring and attacked.  The bunch strung out as I weaved all over the road.  Only one girl got onto my wheel and soon we had a 10sec gap.  The road did 5 90° left and right turns through some back streets and was the perfect area to get away.  Within a few minutes were out of sight and had extended our lead to 30sec.  It was raining solidly now and the roads were horrendous.  We came back onto Marine Drive and had a strong headwind to contend with.  We worked well together and lengthened our lead to 40sec by the time we came around to the QOM hill for the 2^nd time.  The girl I was with struggled on the climb, so I went on alone, hoping someone would bridge across to me.  I rode alone and once over the feed zone for the 2^nd time, looked back and saw someone bridging across.  Darnelle is a solid rider, who finished 2^nd in the Delta road race.  We worked well together and lengthened our lead to 2mins by lap 4.  On lap 6 a 3^rd girl bridged across to us, (it took her 2 laps to catch us) so I knew she had ridden really hard to get to us.  I didn’t think she had much left.

We continued to lengthen our lead and had 5mins on the bunch as we hit the headwind on Marine drive for our final 3km to the finish line.  We slowed to a crawl in the final 1km as we eyed each other off and I pushed in behind Darnelle, anticipating that she was the stronger of the two riders.  She immediately attacked but I jumped easily onto her wheel..  She slowed for a few hundred metres before attacking again.  I stayed on her wheel out of the wind up enjoying her leadout.  With about 40m to go I kicked around her, winning comfortably by 3 bike lengths.  What an incredibly sweet victory.

This gave me the stage win, tour win (omnium points) and Queen of the Mountains jersey.  Two news cameramen were suddenly in my face, followed by 6 journalists.  I totally absorbed the moment.  I enjoyed and soaked up the attention and then went up on stage to chat with the commentator.  Next came the presentations, jersey awards and all the merchandise I’d won by passing the start/finish line first each lap.

What a fairytale finish to my first visit to North America to experience tour racing, after 16 months of riding.  Now I am going to enjoy a rest week and have a few days off.