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The Emma James Diary 2004
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Welcome to one of Cyclingnews' up-and-coming female talents, Australian Emma James. Emma has spent the past two years with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) team based in Italy, and in 2004, she has graduated to a full professional contract, firstly with Team S.A.T.S. and now with Bik Gios. She's a gutsy rider who's decided that she'd rather be testing the waters of professional cycling than testing the salinity of the Sydney's waterways as an environmental scientist - which used to be her previous occupation before Emma decided to take the plunge.
Interesting times
Novilon Internationale Damesronde van Drenthe, Netherlands, April 9-11
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This three day tour in the north of the Netherlands was an interesting race. It must be in the nature of the Dutch to create challenges to make cycling in their flat land tougher. Wind and cold conditions are not enough!
Cobble or pave sections are the easiest way to make a flat race hard, split the group and introduce an element of luck (avoiding punctures), and the Dutch do it well. Seeing the Paris-Roubaix on TV on Sunday makes anything I say about our cobbles pretty lame. We had no roads that are opened just once a year for this race! It is such a classic cycling tradition in this part of the world, quite an experience. We only had one 2km section on the first day, but four sections on the second day. It had rained the morning of the second day so the 4km section of slippery cobbles with mud as deep as my bottom bracket on the side path was incredible! It is all about positioning in the bunch going on to the cobbles, and having enough energy in your legs to keep the momentum as the bike slows with every bump. It is energy-zapping in an incredible way! If you attack it, you can ride it fast. If you are held up by other riders or begin to fatigue, you will creep and can lose as much time as on a climb! I was lucky avoiding crashes during the tour, and only one puncture later in the race on the second day when I had been dropped from the front group. Nothing like Museeuw puncturing in the last ten kilometers of Paris Roubaix when he was in the front group! Marion Clignet recorded an amazing four punctures on the second day in our race.
The other man-made challenge that the Dutch had introduced for this race was a climb over an old rubbish dump. It was incredible. Short, steep and I reckon designed just for cycling rather than having been a former access road or something. It just went the steepest way up, flattened off for a GPM sprint and dropped down the other side. We rode it twice on the first day with Tania Hennes (Next125) taking the GPM points and a few times in different directions on the following day!
The results for our team of four riders were not impressive. Susanne Ljungskog was hurt in a crash in the first 10 km of the race on the first day. She continued, but at the 50 km mark was caught up in another crash, with someone's handlebars through her rear wheel. I waited with her as the tangled mess slowly came apart. Other groups of riders dropped in the cobbled sections came past us, but my team mates in these groups did not realize Susanne was caught up and would need help getting back to the group. Then bad luck turned to something else as Susanne could not get her foot into the pedal - the cleats on her shoes had moved! Bunches of riders continued to pass and finally I could see the sag wagon coming down the road (voiture balai - sweeping up the last riders on the course and following the last riders in to the finish). Susanne and I set off just ahead of it!
We chased for at least ten to fifteen kilometers with the gap to the caravan of following cars ahead seemingly possible. It was good training anyway so we drove it hard together. After what seemed forever we caught the group with our other two team mates, and they helped with the chase for the last 40 kilometres of the race. Our team car had to go ahead to the front group as we were sharing the car with the T-Mobile riders. It felt strange with our team driving it over the second half of the race, but with our team car up the road! It was futile in the end, losing five minutes to the front group. Any GC chance for any of us was gone. Susanne was sore from the first crash of the day and returned to Sweden to recover and prepare for the next race (the Fleche Wallone World Cup). It was not entirely futile. It was important for the team to experience these situations and get confidence from working together, and understand how the direction of the team can operate. We can learn from it.
I needed a massage that night! I was smashed. I was looked after well and slept solidly on a beautiful soft bed and did not feel too bad the next day. It was a bit surprising after a fairly solid 60km time trial in the 112km race the day before. I was too far back as we went onto the first cobbled section on the second day. I was still in contact with the front group as we approached the second section, but now way too far back in the strung out line of riders. I should have given everything to improve position between the cobble sections, but I knew I would need energy for the four kilometers of rough road ahead! Bogging down in mud overwhelmed me, and I was relegated to the second group. I am feeling like I have some strength so my day is coming for a good result and solid work for the team!
In the front group a small number of riders got away in the last 25 kilometres, and Sissy van Allbeck (Farm Frites) won the race in a sprint and took the yellow leader's jersey.
The last day of the race was on a motorcycle racing track (TT Assen). The Farm Frites team controlled it well and it was a rather uneventful, fast race. The team deserved the win, with all of them controlling the race from the front each day.
It was great to have the Dutch family who are looking after me, (the De Haan's from De Horst, Nijmegen) at Assen to pick me up (on Easter Sunday!). I have been soaking up the attention with my feet up in front of the TV to recover after solid training rides in a big three day block after the race! Next up is Fleche Wallone in about a week. A report from 'rice tartje' land soon.
