Femme Vitesse Richmond Round 2 - Kosdown Performance Cycling

8:42 am Unknown 0 Comments

The sun was shining on us today after a cloudy morning that was threatening the final round of Femme Vitesse in Richmond today.

(c) JXP Photography

We had another full line-up of riders with Tessa Fabry, Sarah Knights, Grace Phang and Dale Maizels to race along side me in the Kosdown Performance Cycling team.

To say I was a little nervous was an understatement, and I had a good idea what to expect! Hot off the start line, I missed my pedal twice and had to regain my position on the front. The hot-dog course was right hand hair pin turns and my Zipp wheels were singing.




I pushed my way up towards the front and the usual headwind that smacks me when training on this circuit was shielded by the bunch. As we approached the other hair pin right hand turn I was in a great position and made it around safely. The wide road was well suited to the large bunch travelling fast and a few echelons.

Trying to catch my breath! (c) JXP Photography

The race ripped apart into smaller groups and breakaways. Chase downs and sprints out of every corner slowly cooked the bunch. It was a pretty fluid tactically, but big mention to Verita Stewart who broke away solo early and stayed out front for almost all the race, sweeping up all the intermediate sprints as well! Also congratulations to my old team mate Lauretta Hanson who came second in the Bendigo round and first in this round. Her team, the Building Champions Squad won the teams event.



My team mates for this race had success with Grace and Tessa coming in 6th and 7th in the final sprint. Along side a solid result last weekend from Teagan, and all of us clocking up points in each race we were consistent enough to win 3rd place in the teams event.



I don't often get a chance to race in teams events, but it has been great to share the experience with these ladies in the well organised and stress free events of the Femme Vitesse series. I hope it runs again next year. Thanks to Rob Carson for his support of Women's racing!

Femme Vitesse Bendigo Round 1 - Kosdown Performance Cycling

3:39 pm Unknown 0 Comments

In Bendigo town centre they shut down a few main roads for the ladies to race the first of 2 rounds of the Femme Vitesse criterium series.

This year I pulled together a team of like minded ladies to race for Kosdown Performance Cycling(KPC). Tessa Fabry, Dale Maizels, Sarah Knights, and new KPC scholarship rider Teagan Westendorf joined me for the 1 hour race.



The weather was warm and the course superb. From the start line the course turned left to a slight incline up Williamson St and left into the back straight on Myers St that had a bit of a headwind. The left hand turn into Mundy St was open for riders to take it 4-5 wide and it was a fast rolling pace each lap back onto Lyttleton Terrace.



There was no neutral first lap in Division 1/A-Grade, and I was pretty sure they were going to hit the incline hard to catch out a few riders. Afterwards, I spoke to a few ladies coming up from a B-Grade field who were surprised at the initial pace. A good warmup is essential!

The race progressed with 3 intermediate sprints and my KPC team were positioned well in the bunch with Tessa and Teagan attacking, Dale and Sarah closing down breaks, and myself hanging on for dear life!

Unfortunately there was a crash in the last 10-15mins that took down 4 riders on the wide fast top corner. All riders walked away ok and the race was able to be restarted to finish off the last four laps - FAST.


It was great to race in the sun on a great course outside of Melbourne that I later found out on Strava is used for the Victorian Elite Criterium Championships. It certainly has some character, and was worthwhile racing to recon for the Champs later in the year.

The final round is Sun 2nd March on Richmond Boulevard hot-dog circuit. It is going to be a tough race that will definitely be ripped apart over 1 hour of racing for Division 1. Come and join us from 3:40pm.