Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2015
First of all - I am so happy to get a start my first 2015 race officially with Building Champions Women's Squad in the inaugural Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
Post by Veronica Micich.
I was very excited to ride with our guest and great athlete Rachel Neylan who had been so strong in Ballarat to come second in the National Championships and had competed strongly for our team at the Women's Tour Down Under coming in 5th overall.
It was also great to be back with my regular team mates Minda and Lydia to race along side them and share training stories from the summer.
Fitting in some long training rides and short sharp efforts in preparation for this race, I was looking forward to the awesome gruelling course.
Here are the highlights from GreenEdge:
Unfortunately I got caught up in the crash featured around 2:20 on the video about 13kms into the race. I thought that I could avoid getting caught up in the wheels that were crashing on my right, then I was forced into the grass and I thought that with a bit of CycleCross I'd be ok, until some bikes slid across the grass in front of my front wheel and I got an awesome ramp and air off a pair of Zipp wheels at 41kmph, did an epic flip over the handlebars ending up by the fence.
I picked up the bike, reseated my bottles, checked my wheels and was back on the bike in only 45 seconds. Chasing, chasing, I could see the peloton. I got a mini motor pace and could see the bunch still pulling away. How fast were they racing? My ride was gone in what seemed like an instant and I motored myself along solo to bridge the gap.
Verita Stuart who had been caught up in the crash came past me after Barwon heads and I held her for about a minute then realised I could not go the same pace and we'd lost sight of the bunch. Another 10km or so I did a check on the shoulder and realised it was not so good. The Sag Wagon caught me up and I reluctantly got in the van. My first ever Sag Wagon experience - I was initially angry and then relieved when I started to get nauseous as the waves of pain hit me.
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| Blue line indicates the original straight line of the pin. Red box shows the new fracture site. |
I made it to the finish in time to see my team mate Rachel Neylan being handed the awesome winners trophy and when I jumped the fence to give my team mates a hug I realised how bad my injury really might be. We had some welcome lunch to celebrate Rachel's win that was organised by our sponsors Feelgood Fitness Bendigo. I went home for a shower and to get out of the kit (which did not have a scratch on it) and headed in for the scan to confirm my suspicion that I'd re-broken my left clavicle.
Positive things I noted about the race:
- The team presentation the day before was awesome way to represent the sport, our sponsors and a nice public event. We felt special for those 2 minutes on stage.
- The setup and organisation was the best ever encountered in a race. Separation from the crowds, space to warm up out of the elements without having to pay for the privilege as revenue raising from race organisers.
- Great team entry, accommodation and good amenities for the athletes.
- How lucky we were to race on such prominent main roads I've trained on in high traffic and bad weather over the years.
I've got to take a different path to racing now to what I had planned for this part of the season. A few work trips in February and March with more spin classes than summer deserves, but we will see how I can mix things up for the next quarter instead.
Thanks for all the well wishes and hits on the site. Over 20k now!! You Rock!
@vonm on the big tv #CadelRoadRace pic.twitter.com/y2g6xZuHyy
— Nik Mcnamara (@nikmacca25) January 31, 2015
An interview of Rachel with us packing up in the background.
