The Tracey Gaudry Diary 2000The Local East Coast Australian Time is
Fitchburg-Longsjo ClassicMassachusetts, USA, June 29-July 2, 2000 Stage 1 - June 29: Royal Plaza Time Trial, 21 km In the past week, our team has been visiting our major sponsors Timex and Cannondale and doing publicity appearances for Timex during the break between HP and this tour. It was a lot of fun and we had a ball with our sponsor corporations but we were pretty bushed when arrived at the race hotel. With only three Timex riders - Kim, myself and Lara Ruthven (our latest recruit) we would have our hands full. Mari fell ill during HP, Sanna sliced her finger open on the weekend, Erin is preparing for track competitions and Odessa's back is requiring a good dose of rest and rehab. The good doctor of health certainly hasn't been on our side this season. Even so I was looking forward to this race which draws the largest field of riders in the US. Last night I nearly went to bed assuming that the time trial was the same as it had been last time I competed in this event. Something made me look at the race bible as I was nodding off to sleep. What!?!?! It was a brand new course! I dragged myself out of bed early the next morning to ride over the course, finding it to be a good mix of everything. Uphill drags, fast sections, variable wind directions, a few tricky corners and an uphill finish. That afternoon I selected 42, 54 chain rings with an 11-21 rear cassette, and I used every single gear! I had a bad start, being so tired that I mis-timed my warmup, couldn't fit my time trial helmet and getting to the start ramp as the rider in front of me was already setting off. I readied myself and launched from the ramp just on time. The first sharp drag rose to greet me before I had even settled into a decent rhythm. I was out of the saddle trying to hold momentum, it was agony already. At least I was healthy enough to push myself to feel pain today! I resolved to settle in and try to regain what I thought was valuable time already lost. It was hard, with the constantly changing gradient but I got into the groove, hurting with every pedal stroke. The traffic played havoc with me, with the roads being open and vehicles slowing, stopping and turning directly in my path. After a very narrow downhill chicane with a sharp right at the bottom it was only 3km of upward undulations before the 500m heavy drag to the finish. I suffered all the way having no idea whether I had put in a good ride or a 'shocker', but knew that I had given it everything. It was almost an hour before the last rider finished. I was out cooling down in the luscious New England countryside getting lost and came back to find that I had won very convincingly, beating the Saturn trio of Anna Wilson, Lyne Bessette and Dede Demet by 46 seconds apiece. If I hadn't seen Anna out on the road you could have sworn that they must have ridden a team's time trial! Stage 2 - June 30: Aubuchon/Gudden Circuit Race - 50 km This was a tough 5km circuit with a steep two-stepped climb turning onto a hard back straight and a very fast front straight before the turn up the climb to the finish line. With sprint primes on every other lap it was going to be raced hard and fast. As expected Saturn and Elita blasted from the gun and my two teammates had a hard time keeping things under control. We were completely outnumbered. I jumped from Kim's chase to bring the first attack back to regain control before the climb. Then Dede launched from the bunch, swinging out sharply and took out Lara in the process. Oh my! What is this? Lara's down with hopefully no serious damage and there was only Kim and I left. The field showed no mercy and kept dishing it out, with most attacks coming from Saturn and Elita and most chasing from Kim and myself. If there was a break with me in it no other teams would work even though they would benefit from gaining time. That was the frustrating part. We were in damage control, but we knew it would be tough. As other teams got into the attacking process it became clear that we couldn't cover everything for much longer. Kim went to the front and rode tempo to be in a good position to keep watch over things. Another attack went and a few girls went away. Kim latched onto it. I let it go as the numbers were small. Then a few more riders went across and that was the break. Kim was one of the higher ranked riders, though Lyne Bessette and Sarah Ulmer were a threat. I hoped she could put time into them at the end. Meanwhile I had to try to keep the break at a manageable distance for the remaining three laps. On the climb and the back straight I drove hard and on the fast front straight I recovered so as not to get dropped if others attacked me up the climb. Nobody else did a tap. For three laps I did this and with less than a lap to go the break had 1 minute. The jersey was gone. I drove hard down the back straight and recovered for the finish while others streamed past me. The gap was 44 seconds. I was still in the lead from Lyne Bessette by two whole seconds! A very tough way to defend the jersey. I was happy to hear than Kim had taken 3rd for the stage, beaten in the final sprint by Sarah Ulmer and Julie Young. Any 'fresh legs' donations for tomorrow will be seriously considered! Stage 3 - July 1: Unitil/FG&E Road Race, 93 km Starting the day with a two second buffer and only three riders is definitely not the ideal way to defend a jersey. We found that the time gap yesterday was actually 29 seconds, not 46, but the commissaire was too busy dealing with a major issue in the Pro Men's division to look at our case. So the results stood at the beginning of the stage. It was pretty clear that the race would come down to the severe 4 km climb to the Wassachusett Ski Resort at the end, but we had to deal with five laps of a very mountainous circuit in the meantime. As far as the peloton was concerned, the race was between Saturn and Timex, while Elita and Autotrader concentrated on the sprint primes every lap. It was in our interests to get Kim or I in a break with anyone, but of course nobody wanted to work with me, because of the climb at the end. A pretty negative attitude in my opinion because it seemed that nobody gave themselves a real chance to move up on GC. If they couldn't win, they didn't want to take any risks. For the whole of the five laps Saturn whipped us left, right and centre while Lyne Bessette sat in, reacting only when I went down the road. We couldn't let any of them go because there was literally no time between the first dozen or so riders, and we knew that any of Anna, Dede or Julie Hansen could ride the climb well at tempo if they had a decent break. Lara and Kim turned themselves inside out covering just about everything, while I caught the counterattacks or attacked at opportune times or covered moves when my two comrades couldn't go any further. It was very messy and for most part the three of us were suffering. Elita were helpful when we were coming up to the sprint zone so that things could be set up for Sarah Ulmer, but even they weren't keen to seriously work a break. I knew that Lyne was getting an easy ride while she had all her teammates inflicting damage upon us. I was taking in liquid carbo's and Clif shots faster than my stomach would digest and was at risk of exploding, but I needed the energy for the climb. We turned onto the climb with around 30 left in the field. There were a flurry of attacks, one after another and they were brought back. Lyne and I were side by side. Then Julie Hansen went, then Dede went. Kim got to her. The Charles Schwab climber got to Kim, Lyne launched off Kim and there was nobody left to cover the move. I jumped as hard as I could and we were gone from the field, me about 25 metres behind Lyne for the next excruciatingly steep kilometre. The lactic acid was burning. There have been many times in our respective careers where Lyne and I have met in this uphill one-on-one battle. It has been pretty much even-stevens in outcomes, even though Saturn have usually had the advantage in the manpower numbers game. She had the fresh legs today, but that wasn't going to get me. I knew there were three steep pinches. We were on the last one and she hadn't drawn away. I gained on her and had just about regained contact on the false flat section before the final turn to the finish. The left hander turned into a wicked steep 300m pinch to the line and I blew up completely. The gap went from one second to probably about ten! I crossed the line completely in bits, knowing that the leader's jersey had changed hands by a small margin but that every member of our small team had ridden the race of their lives today. I was by far prouder of the efforts of the team than I was disappointed in the outcome. I know my time will come. I don't know the overall outcome of the race at this stage.
Stage 4 - July 2: Downtown Criterium, 44 km With the circuit being just under a mile long consisting basically of two long straights, it was like doing a drag race on the uphill straight and using the downhill straight to try to recover and wind up for the next drag race. I very nearly didn't get off the starting line, with my shoe getting caught in my pedal awkwardly so the peloton patiently waited while a 'mechanical' was performed before the race had even begun. Anyway, off we went and as has been par for the course it was on like cats and dogs right from the gun. To give you an idea of the frenetic pace at which this field has been racing, we completed the 44.6km in one hour two minutes, even including the two sharp turnarounds at each end. Riders from all teams were attacking to try to take final stage honours while the battle for overall GC and the sprint/QOM jersey was nowhere near decided. Kim and Lara carefully watched the moves and jumped where necessary, but it was really up to Saturn to keep things under control for Lyne who held the leaders jersey by 15 seconds over me. We looked for opportune moments to catch them off guard and launched attacks to try to tire out their strong team. There was not a time where one of us was not in a break or in control of our position. Saturn launched a few attacks to try to set up a small break which would nullify the field, but this never happened. Twice I was able to attack clear of the field with Kim's help, but there was no way I could do it solo with all of Saturn prepared for the chase. It would take a concerted effort from a small group to do this. Sarah Ulmer was riding as strong as ever but it was clear that she was looking closely at the sprint/QOM jersey, and keeping an eye on her rival Julie Young which in the end was decided on a countback. I resolved to try to take a flyer on the final back straight, launching from Kim's wheel before the corner. The field bunched up on the top corner and was then strung out with me at third wheel. Kim was coming up on the right but Dede jumped first. There was a mad dash from Nicole Reinhart and Sarah and a Charles Schwab rider to get to her. I tacked on before the corner in a handy position until the Schwab rider balked. I got around her and sprinted to get back up. Tina Mayolo came past me halfway up the long straight and so the stage result was Sarah Ulmer, Nicole, Tina and then me. Sarah's win had also earned her enough time bonus points to move up into 3rd overall, behind Lyne Bessette and myself. So I didn't win the tour. That's a bummer, but I am in significantly better shape than I was a few weeks ago and the team rode extremely well together, having achieved 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th placings in only 4 stages and 2nd and 5th overall on the overall classification with only 3 riders. That can't be scoffed at. Now for me, I am off to scoff down some great authentic gelati in the Italian Alps for a couple of weeks! |
