2001 Amalgamated Tours of Delta and White Rock

Each tour had an identical format: a hill climb prologue, a criterium and a road race.

Tour de Delta: 6-8 July 2001

The hill flattened slightly after 200m, then became increasingly steeper over the remaining 600m, before turning 90degrees to the left for a final 100m sprint to the line.

Riders started 30sec apart and I was 3rd last to start. I hadn't heard the previous girls times (and didn't particularly want to know) as I was busy on the windtrainer keeping the heartrate up. I rode in the small ring, starting in my 21 gearing, moving briefly to the 19 to pick up speed and then gradually shifting into smaller gears as the hill steepened. As the road flattened out at the top I tried to switch to the big ring but it wouldn't go in. I sprinted as best I could in the small ring, a little annoyed I couldn't get the chain across, and which probably cost me the win.

I finished 2nd, 0.34sec behind the winner, Clare Hall-Patch who apparently finished 3rd in the Junior World Championships last year, and is a rider of the Canadian National Team won the stage. Third place was nearly 3sec behind us. Clare received 10pts, while I had 8.

Saturday 7th July
Stage 2	40km Criterium, Ladner	Conditions: 25°C
Start 6.00pm

The plan today was to try and establish a break, (without Clare in it) and put some time (points) into her. The Snow Valley team, Speed Queen team and Clare were chasing down all attacks. Marnie Pratsky (a regional criterium champion) was also a dominant player, and no attacks lasted.

Perhaps in error, I contested a number of the primes, won 4 of them (merchandise and Canadian money), but it took the edge off my sprint. In the final laps the whole bunch was together. An attack went on the last lap and I sat 4th wheel but was unable to come around to win. Clare finished 5th. This result put me only 1pt behind Clare.

Sunday 8th July
Stage 3	84km Road Race, Tsawwassen	Conditions: 21°C, No wind
Start 8.00am

I ate at 6.30am and hoped I would feel better once I warmed up. I felt tired all over and had no energy. I spun the legs on the windtrainer for 40mins and didn't feel much better.

The course was a 7.5km loop that we did 11 times. The course had one steep 1km uphill section immediately before the finish, while the rest of the course was undulating and flat. There was a Queen of the Mountain category at the start/finish line of each lap. I struggled up the climb on the first lap, not able to obtain any points, and focusing more on staying with the bunch. I had taken the edge off my legs (in the criterium primes) and I hadn't recovered. I hoped on the next few laps I would pick up.

The next 4 laps I didn't improve. I struggled more up the hill and had to chase to get back onto the bunch each lap. As I felt so lousy climbing today, I should have used other parts of the course such as going hard on the flats to try and break up bunch up to get away, as I couldn't get away on the climb. An attack by two riders, Clare Hall-Patch and Darnelle Moore went on the hill on lap 7 and I couldn't go with it. The bunch chased relatively hard after the climb but the break remained about 20sec in front of us.

My next mistake was that I stayed in the bunch for another 2 laps thinking we'd bring them back. However, on lap 10 the men's field passed our bunch up the climb and passed by the breakaway girls over the top of the climb. They jumped into the mens bunch (and the commissaire ignored them) and as we came around for bell lap they had over 2mins on us.

I unsuccessfully tried to get away in the last lap. I suffered up the climb for the 11th time and finished 11th, receiving only 4pts. I was hugely disappointed, slipping from 2nd in points to 4th. The Omnium points after the first 3 stages were: Clare Hall-Patch 31pts, Dawn Berg 28pts, Dana Walton 24pts, Helen Kelly 21 pts, and Tania Duff-Miller 15pts. Clare was not competing in the tour de White Rock so I started the next tour, 7 points behind Dawn.

Tour de White Rock: 13-15 July 2001

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 2nd in points with the criterium and road race to go.

Saturday 14th July
Stage 5	30km Criterium	Conditions: 23°C, slight wind
Start 4.00pm

Before the criterium started, I was introduced to the podium and presented with the WhiteRock tour leaders jersey and announced as being in 2nd 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 4th and that's where I finished.

This gave me enough points to move into 1st 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 16th July
Stage 6	82km Road Race	Conditions: 15°C, windy and raining solidly
Start 8.00am

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 2nd 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 2nd time, looked back and saw someone bridging across. Darnelle is a solid rider, who finished 2nd in the Delta road race. We worked well together and lengthened our lead to 2mins by lap 4. On lap 6 a 3rd 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.

[Video: Crossing the Finish 1.2Mb]

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.

[Video: Collecting the Green Jersey 2.7Mb]

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.