Maarkedal – 1.15 Elite Women PK Ontario

Phew today was a long day! – Started the 3 hour drive to Belgium at 11.30 in the lovely heat of the day. A few pit stops at the petrol station and a drop off on the way (Sofie’s boyfriend was racing in a different part of Belgium).
Eventually we got there only to find out that we may not even be able to ride as it was the Belgium provincial champs and there were already a lot of outside riders entered from other countries – Great Britain etc.
Oh dear – I would not have been happy after coming all that way! – Luckily they allowed Tracy and me to race…just.

Race Report; Wednesday July 21, 2010: Maarkedal – 1.15 Elite Women PK Ontario
by: Emily Collins

The race was in total 87km and was a kermis with a 6.7km lap. The excitement of the day was that there was a nice tough little hill at the end of the lap! – A very nice change to the Holland flats and hopefully good prep for the Holland Ladies Hill Classic coming up in August. The lap was quite technical with lots of corners, dodgy pavement and some nice head winds. And to top it off we had a lovely fast decent after the climb into the finishing straight. This was a tad worrying for me as descending isn’t my strongest point…am working on it though There were 77 starters on the line and at 3.45 we were off.

For the first few laps I was focussed on getting to know the course – where attacks may go etc and getting a good feel for the roads. The legs also needed a good warm-up! The pace was on. On about the 3rd lap – a group of 3 riders suddenly just rode off the front. The group consisted of Nathalie Lamborelle (Lux), Kim Schoonbaert (Lotto Ladies) and Catherine Williamson (GBR).

To be honest, I didn’t really think much of the break and assumed that the peloton would act on it and chase them down. I was clearly wrong, however as the vast majority of the girls just sat up and waited for someone else to ‘do the work’. This was a bit surprising seeing it was their provincial champs!
For the next few laps, the 3 in front continued to extend their lead as the peloton mucked around – with short attacks and chases; nothing much happening.
By this point my legs were starting to feel pretty fired up and I was beginning to get very frustrated with the race – nothing was happening and there were 3 riders to chase!

So in the 5th lap when riders; Monique Van De Ree (Ned) and Sarah Reynolds (GBR) attacked on the corner following the finishing straight I waited for a bit and then attacked to bridge the gap across to them. We had only done 30km at this stage but I decided to take the chance. The bunch didn’t retaliate at first so this gave us a good chance to create a gap.We started working hard in team time trial format and managed to gain a significant gap. After one lap together, Sarah really began to tire and she wasn’t able to continue working with us. This was a bit frustrating as it was pretty windy out there and we needed all the help possible if we were to maintain our lead on the peloton.

On our second lap together, two girls; Katrien Van Loy (Topsport) and Katie Colclough (GBR) were able to escape the peloton and reach us. This was quite beneficial as it enabled us to really up the pace as we could share the workload with two more riders. Sarah wasn’t able to hang in there so we now had 4 of us working hard together with two key aims; to stay away from the peloton and to catch the 3 leaders.

Unfortunately for us, the 3 leading girls gained a significant lead in the beginning stages of the race before we had reacted and done something to chase them. Being 3 strong riders, they were able to hold this gap. We gained a bit of time on them (about 30 seconds) but they still had 1minute 36 over us at the end. We worked hard and well together for the last 6 or 7 laps and by the last few laps I was really starting to burn out! The legs were beginning to feel it…especially up the last climb right into a headwind followed by the decent – where I probably worked harder than up the hill Thankfully, the other girls were hurting too.

Nevertheless, I dug deep and we kept the speed up. With one lap to go it was all on. We knew we were not going to catch the leaders and it was unlikely at this stage that we would be caught; so basically the 4 of us were now focussing on holding it together and on the final sprint for 4th place.
Coming into the final straight I didn’t feel too bad. I had a good position at the back of the train of 4 and was ready to give it my all. Unfortunately for me, the sprint was into a headwind (much prefer the old tailwind)!
At the 200 meter to go sign I was pumped and ready to go so thought what the heck…I went for it at 150 meters. This was a major error as I wasn’t in the best gear and my legs clearly didn’t have the strength at this stage to take me that far.

The other riders immediately reacted and out sprint me to the line. It was a great ride from Katrien who won the sprint and took 4th. This was a tad disappointing for me to come in 4th of the 4 riders but hey; we learn from our mistakes. Now, I know for next time what to do differently! – The best thing would’ve been to go a bit later…who knows though – I was pretty buggered!

Tracy and Sofie rode also and had good rides. After being sick in hospital, Tracy is still gaining back her confidence and fitness. She proved she is really getting back to her old self today as she hit the front from the word go and was right up there for the first 3 laps. Great to see she’s bouncing back well! Sofie rode well too but she’s really not a fan of the hills! – So she says. She still managed to stay with the top peloton for 5 laps so was a solid effort. She must’ve been fairly worn out too after a long 3 hour drive. Thanks Sofie 

It was a tough day out there and I am pretty happy with the final outcome.
Of course, I would’ve much preferred to have been with the top 3 but that was our mistake for letting them go so early on. Well done to Nathalie Lamborelle (Lux) who took out first place.

Overall, I am happy to say that I have now successfully been part of a breakaway over in Europe – hopefully many more to come! As we are racing so often, I am constantly learning from my mistakes, gaining confidence and becoming a better rider. I hope to keep improving while I’m over here and really hope that this shows in my results. We now have lots of racing coming up in the next few weeks – so let’s hope the Swabo girls really get stuck in!

A full list of results from Maarkedal can be found at: http://cyclingnews.nu/uitslagen/2010/MaarkedalDE21-07-2010.pdf

And the official race report with photos at: http://cyclingnews.nu/Dames%202010/Maarkedal21-07-2010.htm#Woensdag

Sliced bread still goes mouldy

The SwaboLadies cyclingteam were present at the first time UCI 1.2 course “Dwars door de Westhoek” in Belgium om July 18th.
I managed to find my way to Swift (our cycling club house) with my Leiden road map placed firmly on my handlebars (it is times like these that I wished I had of spent more money on the bigger/better Garmin to get me around). The Team Director; Hans and Stella were picking me up from Swift for the 3 hr trek in the car to the little remote corner of Belgium, known as de Westhoek (it is almost in France). Today we had a UCI 1.2 one day race complete with bergs and small narrow dangerous descents, some wind and some cobbles..err…rocks. A little bit of something for everyone!

Dwars door de Westhoek – UCI1.2 Belgium, July 18th
by: Davina Summers
fotografie: Bart Hazen

I was keen to see fellow Aussie, Miffy Galloway today. It was going to be great to see a smiling Aussie face! The Dutch are really nice, but everyone loves an Australian.
All the usual pre-race prep and team presentation were completed. We had a seven SwaboLadies racing today: Guusje Vrehen (NED), Sofie Horik (NED), Stella Blom-Visser (NED), Emily Collins (NZL), Tracy Best (NZL), Davina Summers (AUS), Miffy Galloway (AUS). The field of 140 riders was solid.

The first hill (and biggest) started about 15k in, I was not looking forward to it. I expected that the race would start really fast, but it was fairly steady into the start of the climb and there was a few twitchy wheels. The five climbs were consecutive from about 15k to 50k. We were warned of a narrow and technical descent after the first climb, even still, girls took chances and as expected came off.

I remember riding past this one girl who was screaming (in a language that I could not understand), so I am not sure if she was letting us know that she was there (as the path was so narrow) or that she was very badly hurt. Girls started dropping fast, and after the final climb there was 1 girl away solo and we were a bunch of about 60. The pace dropped off a bit allowing about another bunch of about 30 behind to roll back on. I took this opportunity to feed and get some bottles for my teammate in the bunch, Emily.

We approached the circuit part of the race (~9kms round) for 7 laps and the pace was on. Another rider went off the front, I actually thought about going with her, but was actually suffering quite a bit so decided to stay put. I thought both riders away would get pulled back, but they were one each from the two dominate teams and there was not enough incentive for the bunch/remaining teams to chance.

The circuit was solid, with a massive cobbled section of about 1km (I thought my bike was going to break every time we went over it and tried my best to work out how to ride on that sort of road, cyclocross or mountain biking is really not my thing) and this cobbled section was the final section for the sprint finish…insane. A few turns into narrow streets/paths and a massive headwind section. It was awesome, love it, in a crazy sort of way.

I did my best to position for the finish, but it is still a work in progress…I finished 18th in the bunch. A great day of racing with the SwaboLadies. Unfortunately, Miffy had a bad day and crashed hard during the race, we visited her at the First Aid post and she was taken back to Holland for x-rays on her elbow.

Interview Hans Blom on Cyclingtribe.com

Op de Australische, toonaangevende website Cyclingtribe.com wordt deze week het SwaboLadies cyclingteam in de spotlights gezet middels een interview met “Directeur Sportief” (DS) Hans Blom.

Team: SwaboLadies cyclingteam (NED)

Base: SwaboLadies cyclingteam is a combination of Swift (Leiden), wv Avanti (Alphen a/d Rijn) and Bollenstreek (Lisse). The best riders from each club may represent them in the Swabo team.

Major Sponsors: CCI Leidingsystemen, TREK, Cyclon, Maxim, Schwalbe en Guerciotti.

What is your main profession? ICT projectmanager (www.dce.nl)

Ambitions for the team: Short term ambitions are to stay in the top 2 of club/regional teams in the Netherlands. Long term ambitions are to be able to compete with the professional UCI teams and to be a valuable asset for women cycling and for the participating clubs in particular.

Why did you decide to form a Women’s cycling team? When we started with SwaboLadies cyclingteam, Women’s cycling was very much still new territory however we already realised that there was huge potential. Within the last two years, teams such as Cervelo and Highroad did a great job bringing professionalism into women cycling.

On the other hand there are a lot of challenges when it comes to gaining sponsorships and getting budget. The world of female cycling can’t even stand in the shade of the male dominated cycling business, therefore there’s always a lack of money, media attention, sponsors and management, even though the number of cycling ladies is growing and growing.

Why did you choose to have riders from Australia and New Zealand? The SwaboLadies management was looking for cyclists who could be a valuable asset for team and bring the girls to a next level of performance. Due to a lack of competition for the (Female) cyclists in Australia and New Zealand the girls are really eager to ride in Western Europe in the strong (and fully filled) pelotons. Combined with a good attitude and strong personality, these ladies are really “gold” for the SwaboLadies cyclingteam. At the moment there are not only the good results, but the girls are excellent team players and fit perfect within the team ethics.

What do you look for when choosing cyclists for your team (Attitude vs. Results??): The most important thing we look at is their attitude and personality. When the ladies have the right attitude, the results will come, that promise can make. Team spirit is the most valuable asset in the Swaboteam and every member of the team has fit in.

What do you enjoy most about cycling? Apart from all difficulties the cycling sport has these days, cycling is pure and honest; riders can’t hide when the going gets tough.

What do you do when the girls aren’t looking? That’s the moment when you have to be extremely cautious, women have eyes in the back off their heads, and they notice everything… hahahaha.

What exactly do you talk about when you are following races in the team car… We analyse the moves (strong)opponents make and are strongly focussed on punctures or accidents, but most of the time the bunch or riders can’t be seen from the team car and than what happens in the cars stays in the car…

What is the most unusual thing you’ve had to do in your role as DS? To ask the mechanic to put a box of tampons in his “technical” case.

What the best part about your job? SwaboLadies gives young (age 18 – 22) cycling girls a podium where they can perform on the highest level of competition. This podium is built on passion and devotion and is free from accountability for results. The best thing in our job is to see young girls grow as human beings and cyclists and still come and hang around even when they are promoted to a big UCI team.

One of the most important things you have learnt being a DS of a cycling team: After 3 years of being a DS of a women cyclingteam, you’re a fully skilled (and should be certified and qualified) psychologist.

Best moment with the SwABoLadies team: This year SwaboLadies formed combination with Cervelo Test team in Exloo. It’s nice to look into that kitchen.

Anything else? At the moment we are planning for season 2011 and next to Myfanwy Galloway, there place for 3 more foreign riders (march-june), ask for info at SwaboLadies.nl.

zie ook: Miffy Galloway interviews her own DS, Hans Blom