The Eildon Junior & Women's tour was a two day race that comprised of three stages. A time trial and two road races (one with a hill top finish).
Warming up for the TT.
Stage 1
First up was the time trial which is something I'm usually not that good at. I have been getting better though so it was a good opportunity to see how I was going only a few weeks out from states. The TT was 11. 6 km and almost completely flat. Going into it my aim was to hold 90% of my max Heart Rate (185.4 BPM) until the turn around and the go as hard as I could on the way back. On the way out I averaged 89.6% (184.6 BPM) which is close enough to 90% that it doesn't make a difference, so by the halfway point I was right where I wanted to be. On the way back I was still going really well but coming into the last kilometer I faded a little bit. It wasn't to bad and I still finished with a good average speed of 41.3 km/h and a time of 17 minutes. Even better I finished 7th out of my grade which I was really happy with.
My heart rate for the TT. You can see where it dips at the turn around and where I fade a little bit near the end.
Stage 2
Stage 2 was a 77 km road race that comprised of two laps of the 'pondage loop' and then a 1.9 km hill with the finish atop the dam wall. The race started under control which meant we had to sit behind the lead car until we got out of the main part of town. As soon as the lead car pulled away people started attacking but no one was going to be allowed to escape off the front. After a while people stopped attacking and the group started rolling turns at around 40 km/h. After about 50 km we came through the town and some of the stronger riders picked up the pace. I'm not sure why they tried to force the pace through the town but maybe they thought some people would struggle with the corners or something. Anyway I just tried to keep near the front and out of trouble.
After we got through the town the strong riders stopped trying to force the pace and then expected everyone to start rolling through again but they didn't. This meant the group slowed down and therefore people started attacking. Again no one was allowed to get much of a gap off the front and after awhile the attacks stopped and everyone rolled turns again. This continued for another lap until we got to the town again where the same thing happened as the previous lap. The strong riders picked up the pace and then sat up once we got through the town again. But this time no one attacked after the town as everyone was just trying to save their energy for the climb at the end.
As we got closer to the climb the pace began to slow as know one wanted to be on the front. I just tried to make sure I had a good position by following Thomas Slingsby. I chose to follow Slingsby because he usually beats me in races with hills so I thought if I followed him I wouldn't get stuck behind any slow riders. As we hit the bottom of the climb the group was four wide across the road and I was in the second row which is exactly where I wanted to be. At about 500m to go the strongest rider attacked and got a big gap. 3 other riders tried to go with him and were slightly ahead of me as we got to about 250m to go. As we went around the final corner and the road flattened out I started sprinting around the outside of the other riders. In the last 30-50m I could see a rider coming past me but I could do nothing about it. As we went across the line another rider tried to come past me as well but I wasn't sure if they made it around me or not.
It turns out the other rider hadn't got around me because the judges gave me third which is way higher than I ever expected to finish. I was really happy with this result as I thought I would struggle to get top 10.
As we got closer to the climb the pace began to slow as know one wanted to be on the front. I just tried to make sure I had a good position by following Thomas Slingsby. I chose to follow Slingsby because he usually beats me in races with hills so I thought if I followed him I wouldn't get stuck behind any slow riders. As we hit the bottom of the climb the group was four wide across the road and I was in the second row which is exactly where I wanted to be. At about 500m to go the strongest rider attacked and got a big gap. 3 other riders tried to go with him and were slightly ahead of me as we got to about 250m to go. As we went around the final corner and the road flattened out I started sprinting around the outside of the other riders. In the last 30-50m I could see a rider coming past me but I could do nothing about it. As we went across the line another rider tried to come past me as well but I wasn't sure if they made it around me or not.
It turns out the other rider hadn't got around me because the judges gave me third which is way higher than I ever expected to finish. I was really happy with this result as I thought I would struggle to get top 10.
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