Bress Mega Criterium and St Kilda Crits
It's raining crits! Officially October is the start of the criterium season. We are spoilt for choice with weekly club crits from Hawthorn, Coburg, Carnegie, Southern Masters, and my own Club St Kilda.More often there is a feature crit that pops up and the Bress Mega Twilight Criterium filled a spot on the calendar where the Femme Vitesse would have been. I hope that the Women's only crit series comes back in full force next year.
It was a squeeze to get out of Melbourne, warmed up and ready to race for a 6pm start on the Friday, but it was worth it.
Harcourt pulled out all stops with a jumping castle/slide, BBQ and the Tavern refurbished and opened up with a beer garden overlooking the circuit. To top it off the weather was warm and the pear ciders were flowing! MAGIC
With equal prize money for men and women, the $3-4000 for first place would be hotly contested. I was pretty comfortable riding the course as it was the same that I had raced on for the Masters Crit Champs that I had won in April.
The race was fast and furious up the small incline each lap. There were attacks and counter attacks that were enjoyed by the Tour de Bress riders that had finished their fundraising ride from Macedon to Harcourt earlier that day.
Eventually a breakaway of Miranda Griffiths, Nicole Whitburn, Georgina Beech, Liz Doueal got away and the remainder of Bike Bug team closed anything down that tried to upset the chase. I overworked myself on the front trying to close the gap and spent the rest of the weekend coughing up a lung!
Overall I really enjoyed the race and it was a great atmosphere and turnout. I'm super proud that Victoria can offer equal prize money in new events like this and I can't wait to see an up and coming chick walk away with a big novelty cheque that I know could cover a big portion of bike racing expenses for the year. Awesome stuff!!
| Women's Results | |||
| 1st | 37 | Nicole Whitburn | Carnegie Caulfield |
| 2nd | 35 | Elizabeth Doueal | St Kilda |
| 3rd | 31 | Miranda Griffiths | St Kilda |
| 4th | 34 | Georgina Beech | St Kilda |
| 5th | 42 | Jessica Lane | Carnegie Caulfield |
| 6th | 43 | Prudence Rothwell | St Kilda |
| 7th | 40 | Elizabeth Hall | Hawthorn |
| 8th | 41 | Ruby Greig-Hurtig | Carnegie Caulfield |
SKCC Crits
There are many things I like about crits. They are:
- an awesome workout,
- mentally challenging-tactical,
- most often technical,
- over before you know it.
Our first 10 minutes were pretty cruisy, then it was a combination of surge attacking or high paced rolling and counter attacks for the remainder of the 50 minutes plus 3 laps.
The amazing weather continued and without too much wind we had a great morning out to battle to a bunch sprint finish. The podium was:
1st Nicole Whitburn
2nd Amy Bradley
3rd Josie Simpson
