A pink finish to the Riverina

After an unexpected result at today’s fifth and final handicap race of the Riverina tour, I was asked to write my very first race report. I don’t quite know where to begin. At the start maybe, which was an obscenely early one. 5.10 AM to be exact, when Lisa picked me and the Willier up to meet our Valkyrie and V-Mobile team mates. Four of us girls then loaded ourselves and our bikes into Steve’s van and after a well-deserved (and much-needed) coffee break we headed for Uranquinty, a sleepy town 10 k's from Wagga.

We arrived at Uranquinty’s only pub and public rest area with plenty of time for essential race preparations. First challenge: what to wear? Will it stay foggy? Will it warm up? How many layers are you wearing? Fortunately most of us had packed half our cycling wardrobe and after some careful deliberation we emerged comfortably dressed and ready to tackle the race.

Most of us had never done a handicap race before and it was only my second attempt at one. Recognising this, Rachel had written some helpful strategies for each of us. I was a bit concerned about the enormous faith she seemed to have in Lisa and me, writing: “You two have a strong chance of going for first female across the line (includes a prize)”. Yeah, right! Fortunately, she’d followed up with some helpful advice. “Stay together in the Limit bunch until faster bunches come through. When you hear them coming, accelerate before they get there and position yourself to jump on. Remember, once you jump on Scratch, you can just gatekeep.”

For the first half of the race, we did just that. We started off fabulously together with Rach, Verity, Franscesca, Anna, Linda and Cherrie. But after about fifteen minutes, the bunch started to break up and suddenly Lisa and I found ourselves riding with a handful of blokes. The pace was reasonably fast, but I soon found my rhythm and so did Lisa, who I had to ask a few times to slow down so she wouldn’t drop the guys ;)

About half way into the race, we got caught by the next bunch. This upped the speed, but we hung on. Unfortunately, I lost Lisa a bit further down the track. I later found out that the guy riding in front of her had snapped his chain and lost his rear derailleur, resulting in a gap too big for her to close. The rest of the race I contemplated gatekeeping, but the pace felt comfortable and I figured that, with eight of us left, we might just stay ahead of Scratch if we all pulled out weight. We did work as a team and wishful thinking started to turn into reality. As we got closer to the finish, one of the guys started counting down, saying we had just 4 k’s to go, then 3, then 2… then scratch was on our tails…

We’d progressively been picking up speed and I could see the finish in the distance. Then I remembered Rach’s advice: “The boys will most likely offer to lead you out at the end of the race, so when they do, be ready, jump on their wheel and then sprint around them at the last moments.” She wasn’t far off: two guys took the lead and I was right behind them. With 50 metres to go, I overtook number two and sprinted as hard as I could, almost lifting my front wheel from the bitumen, before a third rider overtook me just before I crossed the line.

Less than a minute later, Lisa finished and we proceeded to ‘claim’ our first ever handicap victories: first unplaced female for Lisa and third place overall for me. How exciting! An hour or so later at the pub came our biggest surprise – the points I’d earned that day were apparently enough to win the Tour de Riverina Female Champion 2011 as well, which came with a pretty pink sash.

Today’s race was great fun and a reminder that even if you’re not a strong rider in some areas (hills in my case), you can still find a race to suit your strengths (flat, foggy roads). But most of all it was great to share the experience with a team of motivated Valkyries and V-Mobile Vikings. Can’t wait for Riverina 2012!