SRS-Pemberton Road Race-Sunday 2nd March, 2008

Pemberton, WA.
Race Report- Davina Summers

It was a pretty humid weekend in Pemberton and there had been threats of rain but thankfully nothing became of it. The positive support and atmosphere for the event in Pemberton was great and there had been some good racing in the Criteriums on Saturday. This race was the first of the 2008 State Road Series races, Open Women had an 8:15 start, and I nearly missed it as I was too busy trying to warm up- I am not very good in the mornings. The road race was 67kms (two laps of a figure-8 course), with about 1000m of ascending (it was pretty hilly). We had about ten starters; myself, Clare Morgan, Holly McClellan, Melissa Hoskins, Camille Pallett, Cherie Bonasera, Danielle Longworth, Linda Evans and Rebecca Armstrong. It was an average turnout for one of these types of races- hopefully we can increase this number over the 2008 season.

After signing on and our start line race briefing from the Commissaire, we were off, straight up the hill through the town of Pemberton. The first lap was fairly steady; a few of us (mainly Clare Morgan, Rebecca Armstrong, Camille Pallett and I) tried to keep the pace high. The Peleton banter consisted of the usual; “you go, no you go” to encourage each other to work on the front of the bunch. We discussed the merits of not littering carboshotz wrappers into the bush, dropping your bike chain in the race, the big cow that gave us all a loud “MMMOOOO” out of the blue and the group of cute ducks that we nearly ran over and had to shoo off the road.

The last few kms of the (first) lap included the infamous ‘Pump Hill’. From last years’ race I recalled how much this hill (really) hurt and the lesson that I learnt about doing too much work in the downhill sections prior to the hill (NB: I came last in this race last year). A couple of the women are pretty handy in the hills so I am sure I was not alone in hoping that they were not going to go too fast up it. From what I can remember, Rebecca attacked from the bottom of the hill until about the S-bend; Danielle, Cherie, Holly and Linda fell behind the bunch. Cherie and Linda got back on and Danielle time trialed (still in sight for the next ½ a lap). We completed the first lap mostly still bunched together.

Lap two was where the race really started, Melissa and Camille were hanging at the back making some small talk (I can only assume coming up with an attack plan). I was trying to stay near the front of the pack to make sure I was ready to go with any move, surely a couple of these girls didn’t want it to finish in a downhill bunch kick. I was impressed with the strength and improvement in riding from Linda Evans, Cherie Bonasera and Clare Morgan; Linda was pushing some big gears and Clare was marking every change of pace I made from the front. Cherie’s intense training in the last few months seems to have reward her with great improvements in her racing. With about 5kms left of the first loop before town I wanted to see how Camille and Melissa were traveling down the back so I swung off and slowed down. Within seconds they both moved up in the bunch and Camille launched a great attack, no one reacted and she got about 30m away. Melissa made an effort to catch her, I assume to go with her rather than bring her back to the group, but this was heavily marked by the Peleton. I had decided not to chase at this stage, leaving Camille to time trial on her own worked to my advantage in the criterium a day earlier, so I thought I would try it again. There were some strong riders with me in the group and we could work together quite easily to bring her back. No one else seemed all that interested in chasing her down at this stage either. Camille stayed out the front for a few kms, her lead growing, we were nearly back in town and I decided that I needed to chase her down, or she would get the roll of the course for the final 10km small loop and we would not be able to catch her. I really started to panic when we all did not seem to want/be able to roll through. In the end we sort of got it together as we came into Pemberton. The main group got caught up behind a slow-traveling car down the hill through town, we could see the break (so close, yet so far away) and then a little bit of confusion about which red flag was being pointed down which street. Melissa and Rebecca seemed to know what was going on and put the pace on very well through the back streets of Pemberton before Pump Hill. At the base of the Hill we were all strung out, Camille (first), Melissa (second), Rebecca (third), then the rest of us. I climbed with Melissa and Rebecca, and I gave the last ¼ of the hill everything I had, Melissa came with me and I encouraged her to work with me to catch Camille, but she was very fatigued. With Mel still on my wheel, we caught Camille after about 1km on the undulating section prior to the descent. With about 6kms to go Melissa and Camille maximised their recovery for the finish, I went for a longer sprint, picking it up from 500m out and kicked with 150m to go and somehow managed to hang on out in front.

All in all a great weekend.