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Rider diary: Racing in the land of the vikings

August 16, 2011 - Filed under: Team Garmin-Barracuda

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Sharon Laws continues her diary of adventures with the women's team, this time from the TTT World Cup in Sweden.

With Thuringen completed we sent Emma home to Switzerland, to do some more baking as provisions were running low and Noemi, Trine, Iris and I headed for Sweden via Copenhagen. Lizzie headed back to Belgium care of the Juvederm-Specialised team who, despite having begun their trip home, came back to collect her after an unfortunately long anti-doping control episode. It’s always a problem when the anti-doping lady finds you after you have been to the toilet post race.

With a late arrival at the Hotel Cabin-Metro in Copenhagen we caused great confusion trying to check in to two rooms, one triple and one double, with only three people (as Trine had decided on a night in her own bed). After some insistence that, ‘yes, we were only 3 people for 7 beds but since both rooms were paid for we were going to spread out’ – we headed to bed.

The next morning after little sleep (the mattress was bigger than the bed so I kept rolling too far and nearly falling out of bed several times) we renamed the amusing slogan, ‘sleep cheap in luxury’ to ‘sleep expensive in cheapery’. At 1,200 kroners it was hardly cheap.

We used the opportunity of travelling through Denmark to check out the World Championship 2011 courses. With Italian National Time Trial Champion in the car we battled through the Copenhagen traffic trying to work out the route. Despite only being 14km it took nearly 2 hours and we never did see the famous little mermaid. I think it has to be the flattest time trial course I have ever seen.

Very spectator friendly, however, there should be a great atmosphere. The winner will be strong, fast and able to take corners at speed. We headed out of town to check out the Road Race course … just as it began to rain. We only rode one lap of 14km and back to the hotel. It rained consistently the whole time and I wasn’t very inspired – but maybe the weather didn’t help. Having taken part in the last 3 World Championships of Varese, Mendrisio and Geelong all either very hilly or pretty hilly this is something completely different.

More akin to the Swedish World Cup route I think the race will be very different this year. Teams will be able to play a bigger role and riders at the front will have a greater advantage. The Geelong like finish, on a gradient of 4% will definitely influence the sprinters result and I think it will be an exciting race. Recce’s completed we boarded a ferry the next day Sweden bound!

Emma came up trumps arriving armed with proper English scones and raspberry chocolate brownie muffins. Intended to last the week (after all there were three boxes of them) they were polished off within two days! She shouldn’t make them taste so good. Lizzie thought she had scored the last brownie only to be trumped by smug, mechanic Alex who saved his. He produced it the day of the time trial – much to our consternation.

Team now complete we had a two days to practice for the team time trial. We tried different orders to see which worked best – particularly important in a team with so many different heights! I had a last minute change to my time trial position which wasn’t ideal the day before the race. It hasn’t felt good all season but with so few time trials there have been limited opportunities to get it right.

All too soon it was Friday. Now being a part of a team trial is good and bad. The performance of every member of the team is integral to the team’s success. This means it can be incredibly fulfilling (and as my coach insists ‘fun’) but, on the other hand, often means everyone is really nervous as they don’t want to let other team members down.

My first team trial experience in 2008 has left me scarred for life. Having only been on the time trial bike once before (in the prologue!) I was totally clueless, struggled to ride on the ski’s, spent too much time in the wind and was promptly dropped – disappointing as I was high on G.C. I was mortified and so it was with some trepidation that I lined up – this time for a much more important World Cup with one of the best teams in the World. Yikes.

We were off. Lizzie led us through the start well and from then on it was a train of pain. With some of the stronger riders taking longer turns on the front we made good time to the turning point. The tail wind return, a fast, flatter section, was where we lost the most time to the winners, before we hit a more technical finishing circuit of 11km where we lost little time – we finished 3rd, an agonizing 7 seconds behind AA drinks, but 1 min 44 behind clear winners HTC Columbia.

I was sick at the finish and I think everyone on the team also suffered. All of us had raced Thuringen and there were some tired legs in the team. Lizzie and I compared notes – is it breathing or legs that give up first? For me the former – for her the latter.

Emma was incredibly strong and pulled so many long, hard turns – but, then again, she is World Time Trial Champion for a reason. There was a big sense of relief when it was over. Now we just had to rest up for the World Cup Road Race on Sunday.

A coffee ride on Saturday saw HTC beat us again – this time to the cakes. We relaxed in the sun enjoying the incredible weather that Sweden provided.

The World Cup road race was fast and furious, the roads narrow and with lots of turns the bunch often seemed strung out for nearly a kilometre. Getting to the front was a constant battle. Trine and Emma covered the first part of the race, creating and following moves and Lizzie also put in some good attacks.

The Dutch riders were particularly active in the race as this was the penultimate World Cup and important for their World’s team selection. It was ‘our’ Iris who caused the decisive move of the race attacking on the approach before the climb. She escaped with Bruins, Cooke, Van Vleuten, Van Dijk, van den Broek and Kozonchuck.

With just over three laps to go and not all the break working, their advantage remained quite small. On the final lap it looked as though they would be caught several times. As we crossed the airfield they were so close but, in fact, stayed away only to be caught with about 500m to go. Van Vleuten, Cooke and Van Dyjk managed to remain in front and completed the podium.

Iris finished a very commendable 7th position. Van Vleuten moved into the World Cup leader’s jersey, ahead of team mate Marianne Vos, who is now second. Emma Johansson is third. With only one World Cup to go it will be hard for Netherland Bloit to lose.