The Tracey Gaudry Diary 2000The Local East Coast Australian Time is
World Championships, Plouay, France, October 11-14World Championship Individual Time Trial Wednesday, October 11, 2000 Less than two weeks after the Olympics I was eagerly lining up again, this time for the World Championships. It was easy to think that the Olympics were the 'be-all and end-all' of elite sporting competitions, that is until you arrive at the World Cycling Championships where hordes of enthusiasts have been camping out in their mobile homes for days to secure prime viewing position in this most cycling crazy region of France, Bretagne. The elite women's field was quite open, including Mari Holden and Jeannie Longo, medallists in Sydney, several recent Olympic competitors and riders who were fresh into the Worlds. True to form the weather was abysmal when I arrived 3 days ago and the day of the Time Trial was no different. Rain poured down until 15 minutes to the start but then miraculously cleared up to provide breezy conditions on very wet roads. I warmed up steadily after having felt good in the morning 'pre-start'. Ten minutes from my start time my heartrate was flying, but not coming down once I finished my warmup. Not a good sign - my blood sugar was running on a high which wasn't good at this point in time. I rode up to the start and launched down the ramp, winding up smoothly into time trial pace. Already I felt that I was going flat, being able to maintain a steady rhythm but the legs felt empty not totally unlike my experience in Sydney only recently. This was not going to be the pearler that I knew I was capable of. I knew that a decent ride should have put me in the Top 10 and a 'good' day would be Top 5. I was finding the going hard, into a slight headwind most of the way though the road was undulating downward for most part. Even where I could potentially make up time on the long drag and two climbs I was riding several gears lighter than I should have been able to push. I gave it everything up the final climb and moved from a steady position of 13th during the course of the race to 11th overall. Mari Holden won in fine form from Longo to cap off a superb end to her year. Sara Carrigan rode superbly to finish 13th in her first World Championship Time Trial. Well, being back in the Top dozen in the World Championships after such a long year is nothing to sneeze at! I'm really looking forward to the Road Race on Saturday and believe that my body will be firing again, given a few more days to get over the jetlag from the journey half way around the world.
World Championship Individual Road Race, 126km (9 x 14.km circuits) Saturday, October 14, 2000 Three days later I was feeling much better and really fired up for the Road Race, along with all the girls in the Australian National Team. The team is relatively new in terms of World Championship experience with only Lizzie and myself having competed more than once before. Alison, Sara and Kim raced in Verona last year, and Margie and Hayley were both buzzing in anticipation at their first World's campaign. Well, again the weather was absolutely disgusting for our event (like Sydney, the Women's Road Race endured the worst weather of the whole championships) and we knew that the rate of attrition would be very high very early on. It was already starting to pour on the start line and only got worse as the race progressed throughout the afternoon. I was ready, and relished the conditions knowing that it would phase many of the strong field. We were fortunate to line up at the front of the grid and this proved to be the key in the first lap, as crashes within less than 5km of the start had half of the field either dealing with mangled bikes, trying to avoid being caught up in the demolition or chasing to get back to the bunch. We were all still there after the first lap, but then the call came through during the second lap that Kym had been caught up in a crash. Hayley and Alison were called back to assist and most unfortunately that was the last time the three of them saw the front of the race. Kim had needed a bike change due to a damage rear derailleur and received a massively oversized replacement! She and her helpers lost too much time to the field and their chase was fruitless. Kim and Alison withdrew a couple of laps later while Hayley valiantly continued in the freezing wet conditions to finish her first World Championships. Meanwhile things were very active up in the main field which had already been literally cut in half after the first two laps! Only 55 left already. Longo and the Russians were putting on the pace and I was sticking right on Longo's wheel feeling really good. Now was not the time to overdo it. Several attempts at getting away were launched in the early laps with nothing sticking, but the effect adding to the attrition. The rate of accidents had rapidly decreased despite the twisty, technical and hilly course with quite a select group emerging. It was a great circuit with two 1.2km climbs a few pinches, a long drag and a fast slippery descent. I was loving it and rode in the front with a lot of confidence today. Margie, Liz and Sara were all still there after three laps and when a dangerous pair of riders went down the road, Sara bridged across to keep us represented in the move. The pace was being really pushed up the climbs now and I knew something would go soon. On the 5th lap Elizabeth Brunel (Fra) attacked fiercely and was away with another rider. I sat in and protected myself and soon enough a Dutch rider attacked on the false flat before the major climb. I quickly bridge across to her and we opened up a gap by the bottom of the climb. Then she stopped working! Shit. I kept on driving up the climb, but tried to keep something in reserve as the field was only seconds behind. Then the Stahurskaia blasted from the pack and came storming up the road. I looked under my arm just in time to see her swerve across the road to attack past me forcing me to bury myself to try to tack onto her wheel. She had a smidgeon more power than me having sprung freshly from the field. I held her at about 10 metres for the length of the climb until I started to lose ground over the top. There was nothing in it but I had already used more fuel than she. The remainder of the field came streaming by in a furious chase but nobody could pull her back in. I forced my way onto the back on the chase group and recovered to wait for the next onslaught. Brunel was reeled in by Stahurskaia after a lap and was then shelled by the strong Russian with two laps to go. By now the Russian had a lead of nearly two minutes on the field and no teams were willing to sacrifice riders in a serious effort to bring her back. Also, Sarah had lost contact with us, and Liz and Margie were doing what they could to hang on. I was still feeling good and tried to gauge the efforts of Longo, thinking that she would launch a menacing attack in the final laps. I stayed near her on the climbs and also tagged the strong Ukraine rider, Stiajkina who was keen to split up the field. With two laps to go, Longo withdrew from the race! Only one thing to do now. I attacked up the second climb, on the second last lap and got a gap, before a couple of riders caught me and kept the pace on. I nearly lost contact after my effort but regained composure and recovered in the dwindling field. The riders left didn't keep the pace on past the finish line going into the last lap, and there were about 20 left to contest the final 14 km. Two climbs to go. Halfway up the first climb I felt OK still despite being frozen to the core and having cramping legs. I was starting to move into a decent position when Chantal Beltman launched a huge attack up the other side of the road. I hesitated for a moment as the call came to watch for the teams with the 'numbers' to chase and attack off them. I sat in but the next few kms passed by quickly with no teams getting a chase together. Crazy! Riders now started to try to jump across individually but this wasn't going to be tolerated by the bunch. Chantal was away on her own, with two teammates to hold the fort and I was now in no position to chase on my own. Lizzie and Margie had lost contact with the bunch and I would have dearly loved their company right now! Up the final climb, I suffered terribly as Edita Pucinskaite launched a desperate mover from the base of the hill. She committed all the way to the top and I hung on, way beyond my limits in the heavily gapped, Indian-file stream of desperate riders. She was finally reeled in at the top of the climb and immediately Dede Demet counter-attacked. Still grovelling I slotted into the chase group as she was caught with just over a kilometre to go. I recovered and instinctively moved up through the field as it regrouped on the sweeping descent to the finish line. As Catherine Marsal tried to ride off the front I tacked onto her wheel, which proved to be the fatal mistake. The bunch swarmed around us as we hit the bottom of the descent before the 300m drag to the finish. I had nowhere to go and couldn't find a line in the 20-up sprint. In my mind I should have laid off the back of the bunch and took a flier on the final part of the descent. After having a fantastic ride, I had finished unofficially 11th overall (for the second time in three days) in the World Championship Road Race. I was pleased with my regained form and performance in the race though not with the outcome, which is probably a legacy of a very long gruelling season - mentally as much as physically. Lizzie and Margie rode very well to finish just behind the front group in this most arduous World Championship race where only half of the 110 strong field completed the distance. The race was won solo by Stahurskaia, then Beltman, with the Swedish rider winning the bunch sprint for the bronze medal. Only one thing to do now - get off the bike, enjoy the local specialties of the Bretagne (culinary delights as well as beverages, of course!) and watch the men's road race before heading back to summer in Oz! |
