Sweet As.

First Blood!

"Loop" Canberra Tour 2011- 29^th-1^st May

Race report by Loren Rowney

Round two of the National Road series (NRS) saw the Bundaburg Sugar Team making the trip down to Canberra normally renowned for it’s punishing hills and freezing weather, thankfully mother nature was kind to us and gave us blue skies with only the hills for us to battle.

The Tour kicked off with a 45minute + 3 lap criterium around the Stromlo Forest race track, a fast unforgiving 1km lap circuit. To add some extra incentive for the girls to race aggressively, the race director incorporated extremely generous time bonuses to the two road races and the crit. 30secs for first place. The team set out for an early stage win, and that we did! As well as taking out the sprinters jersey, I managed to out sprint the bunch in what was a fast and furious finish. First stage win of the year, and a great head start leading into Saturday’s 115km tough road stage.

The plan for Stage 2 was to defend our GC position, and potentially gain another stage win. Zoe being our top climber was going to have a crack at the Queen of the Mountain and it would be a bonus for me to hold onto the Sprinters jersey too. Due to some miscommunication from race officials on where the sprint and KOM points were, Zoe and the girls contesting QOM missed the first hot-spot and sprinted for the wrong line! In doing so however Zoe managed to open up gaps in the field forcing the other teams to chase and work hard to protect their GC riders. Maddi, Amy and Zoe worked hard attacking, and covered all moves to make sure no threats went up the road. This put me (Loren) in a good position for the sprint to first place. Unfortunately the sprint didn’t go my way, and I found myself boxed in by slower riders and was unable to contest the sprint as I’d hoped and ended up with 6^th and Zoe 8^th.

After only 2hours recovery we were back on the rollers warming up for the afternoon’s dreaded 20km undulating time trial. The legs were still burning from the mornings hills and we went home with 6^th and 9^th place. This put me in 7^th position on GC and Zoe 9^th.

Going into the final stage there were only a few seconds separating me from 3^rd place on GC due to the time bonus system. So we were not out of contention yet!

The plan was to try and break away and put some serious time into the other GC riders, an opportunity arose after the first 20kms for a successful breakaway, which I asked Zoe to bridge across to. In doing so the break got a minute and half advantage and stayed away for 15kms until they were unfortunately brought back on the Cotter climb. Numerous attacks were made by Zoe to split the bunch and drop the GC girls that were not as strong climbers. Maddi and Amy worked well to cover all the other attacks. Coming into the last 25kms, Grace Sulzberger (TIS) and Kendelle Hodges (VIS) launched a successful attack which no one was in a position to follow. We caught Kendelle on the last climb, and managed to drop the bulk of the peleton including the tour leader. Although Zoe and I with some other riders worked hard to pull back Grace, she’d gotten too much of an advantage and took out the stage by a minute. I was happy to win the bunch kick for second place, which moved me into 5^th place on GC and secure the Sprinters Jersey, and a top ten finish for Zoe.

Bundy Sugar proved to be a strong force among Australia’s best female riders, only narrowly missing the overall team win. This showed we can match it with the top teams week in and week out.

As the designated team leader for the tour, I was extremely happy and proud of my team mates who did everything possible to ensure I was protected, and in the right position throughout all stages. Thanks to our magnificent mechanics and soigneur’s, Wayne and Adrian Rowney for their relentless support and hard work over the past few days. We couldn’t have done it without the support of Bundaberg Sugar and our team partners.

Loren