The Tour De Tweed 2011 (aka. battle on the Border)

My second road race ever (not counting local club races which would make it my forth) and to say I had NO IDEA what was involved was an understatement. The Tour De Tweed is an annual road event held near the QLD/NSW border (hence the title Battle on the Border). The race includes a 5.5km TT, 72ish KM RR, 84ish KM RR and Crit, this would be my first ever TT and my very first Crit so I entered Womens A.. how hard can it be?... Note to self: the race number does NOT go on your bike, both plates are meant for your jersey...

I rang Andy after the TT to tell him that I maybe home earlier than expected, I anticipated a massive arse kicking from my female competitors and neglected to wear a teardrop helmet/skin suite and bring my TT bike to stage 1.. I lost 20 very crucial seconds...4th in category
Oh well, I thought, with no expectations for the rest of the weekend I may as well continue racing..at the start of the road race I noticed that I seemed to be the only rider with pockets full of tools, gas, spares...there must be something I missed in the briefing?.. game on!.. Womens A started with the Elite C guys.. they were a great bunch to ride with and I was stoked when the course headed uphill almost immediately as the hills are known to sort the bunch fairly smartly. Over the other side and the womens field very rapidly reduced to two riders (Corissa and me). We rode 2 laps crossing the same hill from front and back each lap and each time Corissa managed to sneak past just in time to get the KOM points.. Note to self: burn yourself at the top of any hill as there maybe KOM points there. Anyway over the top of the last climb the boys started racing and Corissa and I were left to finish the womens race.
Day 1 and two stages down I was in second place.. surprise.. with a 10+ minute margin to 3rd.. super surprise... so one of the officials suggest I find myself a spare set of wheels for the next stage as it seems riders do not change flats in road races, they get spare wheels handed to them from a support vehicle.. that explains why no-one carries any tools.. clear as mud...



Day 2 and in the pink spotted jersey (by default as Corissa is not able to wear the pink leader and the spotty KOM jersey) my plan was to burn little miss pink on the hills (except there was only really one hill per lap) so this is what happened...I earned my spots for sure.. I was KOM over the first climb and seemingly clear of the other girls for a bit. I stayed with the bunch and tucked in through transition and onto the second lap.. then much to my dismay I glance back to see the pink jersey taped to my wheel... damn.. the same hill came around again on the second lap and a few guys bolted, I had only so many climbing legs but tagged to top ahead of Corissa. Down the other side and on the flats to home there was no shaking the pink... shame.. still in second with a 30+ second gap to first and 14+ minute gap to third.. comfortable with a crit to go...

Day 3 and my very first Crit race ever.. fortunately the ladies field was small and the overall places were pretty much fixed so we agreed to ride together for 30 minutes + 3 laps and spring for places. I placed third and learned how to pedal around corners on my road bike.. woohoo..



All done and dusted and I placed second overall (down by a mere 34.7 seconds, 20 seconds of which was lost in the 5.5km TT Hmmmm)... more road races to come..:)