Kristen Sweetland.
I’ve had many questions regarding my DNF yesterday so I thought I would send a quick update before we drive off.
Paula Findlay.
So needless to say, this was definitely the hardest course I’ve ever raced on. I’m happy with where I finished for this time of year, although never completely satisfied with 4th place! It was my first race since Budapest last September, so it was good to go through the motions and put in a good effort before the WCS starter in Sydney in a few weeks.
the rest here
Kathy Tremblay
J’ai vraiment aimé mon retour sur le circuit. Ça n’a pas été facile, j’ai eu quelques pépins à la nage, mais bon, je suis de retour! La glace est brisée après presque neuf mois sans compétition. La confiance est au rendez-vous, a-t-elle poursuivi. Je suis en forme et rapide en ce moment. J’ai hâte de retourner à l’entraînement pour continuer mon bon travail. Jusqu’ici, je suis très choyée d’avoir l’équipe que j’ai. Je suis sur la bonne voie et Sydney est la prochaine étape!
Propos récolté par Sportcom.
Kyla Coates
Sitting in the recovery zone post race, I was feeling pretty happy. There were a lot of things that could have gone better, so I wasn’t entirely sure what I was happy about.. but then Paula summed it up, » we lived! » she said. I finished with the exact same placing as my other world cup, which is fine, but now it’s time to start improving.
…
When I wasn’t sprinting as hard as I could to bridge back up, I was attempting different ways to get myself to the front of the pack, before the U-turns, to avoid the inevitable back of the pack gap.
I tried killing it up the massive never-ending- hill-into- head- wind. I pulled everyone the whole way up Big Hill, and then proceeded to get passed by EVERY SINGLE GIRL over the crest of the hill/downhilll.
Once again I was dead last into the U-turn and had to sprint my ass off on the way back up the hill to close the gap.
4th lap, I ditched the hero tactic and waited until way later up the hill to push to the front. I succeeded in being about 5th into the downhill- chicany- turn-around section, only to find that the leaders were taking it SOOO freaking fast! I seriously thought they were attacking we went so fast. No wonder I was gapped off the back all the other times! the back girls weren’t going half as fast. Somehow I stuck it out. I tried really hard to stay up front, but then the hurricane hit (seriously it was like a wall of rain/wind) and I found myself slowing up into the incoming turns as the sound of race wheels skidding, and girls unclipping into the turnaround freaked me out.. only to end up back at the back.
Needless to say I am very excited that it will soon be Crit season back home, and I’ll be able to get back some pack-riding/cornering practice in. I knew what I had to do, but wasn’t quite able to be as aggressive as I need to be at this level of racing.
I even managed to lose a good 30 seconds from the leaders of my pack onto the run by being DFL of my group coming into T2. Not proud of that at all.
The rest here.
Lauren Campbell (from twitter)
I’d say delighted is the word to describe how I feel right now! So happy to be back & to finish 9th. Thanks for all the nice notes
At the airport, back to Canberra for final prep. Can’t believe only 2 weeks until Sydney…. and then I’m HOME! 🙂
ahaha Kyla Coates blog post is really entertaining! And i think she’s right, bike pack is an organized chaos, you need to be used to it to feel confortable in it!