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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.
Emakumen Saria & 17th Emakumeen Bira, June 8-13, 2004
Spanish Sensations
I have been in the Netherlands for a couple of months, training and doing any races I could find: criteriums, classics and circuit races. It was great to get the chance to go to Spain for a four-day tour, with the Dutch Ton van Bemmelen team as a guest rider (Bit of green kit for the week!).
After the long drive through France, we eventually got to a Basque farmhouse, with a sort of guest apartment-style setup, which was to be the base for the week. Cows being milked each morning, and from my room I could hear them moo-ing along to the car stereo playing Metallica.
We were in the town of Ibarranagleu, between Lekeitio and Gernika-Lumo, in the very north of Spain, on the coast near Bilbao (45kms away). Enough Basque flags around to ensure you know you are in Somarriba's home territory, and that not even French or Italian will be of any use in trying to communicate with the farming locals! The yoghurt we had one night had four languages for nutritional info on it, but no English, French or Italian - just lots of Spanish, Catalonian and Basque varieties!
The countryside was really beautiful. There was a cliff dropping down to the water just across the road from where we were staying. Nice coastal roads, and all very hilly terrain. It was incredibly green, with pine forests and sections of eucalyptus plantations to make me feel at home. The area had a bizarre mist-thing going on. We were in a permanent cloud layer! You would think it was a fairly cool cloudy day, but just down the hill, and into the valleys it was over 30 degrees and sunny! Only problem was trying to get clothes to dry!
Emakumen Saria - 1.9.2, Durango, Spain, June 8, 2004
The first race was a one day race in Durango. It was very hot, and after a bit of a wander around town we got ourselves ready for 115kms, with a couple 5km climbs at the end. I was hoping to do well, but aware that I had not been racing hills for a while. The first part of the race was uneventful, but the two climbs at the end had enough potential to blow it apart. I started the climb with good position, and followed the early moves, but about halfway up the climb I was obviously going to have to settle with a pace a little slower than that of the best climbers pulling away from me. Over the top of the first climb, my little bunch caught a few riders to form a decent-sized group, and a few came up with the convoy from behind. There were 10 riders up the road as our group descended and approached the final climb. I struggled at the top of the second climb, and ended up with a group of five straggling behind the main group. Somarriba won, a good indication of what we should expect in the four day tour. I was happy with my effort for the day, and hopeful that I would climb a little better in the tour.
17th Emakumeen Bira - 2.9.1, Spain, June 10-13, 2004
Stage 1 - June 10: Iurreta - Arrasate, 79.5 km
I was feeling comfortable in the bunch and finding it all quite easy and smooth. I helped Kate Bates (Ton van Bemmelen) for the first sprint, just moving into a good position and then riding fairly steady on the front into the last corner. Kate did all the rest, winning the sprint ahead of Adrie Visser (Farm Frites) and Rosa Bravo (Gruas Tinlohi). We had known exactly where the sprint was from the last right hand corner, and it worked smoothly with teams not contesting it too fiercely. For the second sprint the team tried to do a big lead-out. We got on the front with about 10 kilometres to go! We were uncertain about where the sprint was, and got conflicting information from every angle about when it might be. Each of us rode hard for a bit, together at first which looked good for the cameras, but as the speed hotted up, our numbers had dwindled. We got swamped, and just as I tried to get back to a decent position, shortly after a call of "two kilometres to the sprint", we saw the flag ahead for the sprint! I called out to Kate, but it was way too late to react. None of us had seen the 500m to go sign, and it had caught us all out. It was pretty disappointing but a good experience for the team to try. We can certainly improve!
The big climb for the day was pretty much straight after the sprint. I had thought it was a long climb, and that pacing myself would be the best way to get to the top with the best group I could. I settled into a pace I could maintain, not trying to smash myself too early. A moment later I saw 500m to go on the climb! I tried to claw back a bit of the gap I had let open up, but over the top of the climb the descent was really fast. The girls in the group ahead flew away from us. I was in a small bunch chasing back, with more riders joining us as the convoy caught up. We settled into a slower pace. The final climb was way easier than I expected - especially now the front group was up the road. I tried to help Kornelia, one of the girls in our team in the young rider classification. She finished at the front of our group, but two other young riders were in the groups ahead. We had lost four minutes. A disappointing start to the tour for me. Chantal Beltman (Dutch National team) showed her strength and great form, winning the sprint for the front group of about 40 riders, and taking the leader's jersey.
Stage 2 - June 11: Lekeitio - Lekeitio, 103.4 km
The stage started and finished in the town of Lekeitio - on the coast, and really beautiful! There was a gorgeous island with pine trees on it just outside the sheltered harbour with high stone walls (where they must get big tides), and strong coloured apartments - some painted dark pink and with flowers on the balconies, truly picturesque. The backdrop for the densely clustered houses and buildings of town is mountainous, forested hillside. It looks great with strong green colour of the pine trees, and rocky outcrops almost shadowing the town. (Sorry my camera was in the car 3km away, and yes, I would love to have got a photo of Lekeitio!). It was a welcome change from location for the stage start on the first day in Durango - where the teams were set up in a car park next to some industrial factory. It was pumping thick, hot fumes from a short makeshift chimney, blowing across the street as we lined up to start - and into the people's apartments opposite! I much prefer the seaside!
Three times up a three kilometre climb of about 4%, and then a final category two climb that started at 9%, and was meant to flatten off towards the top. Kate was second in the sprint jersey and was confident she could take the jersey today. The sprints were a couple kilometres after the descent from the three kilometre climb. Kate was always in top position over the climb, taking it easy on the descent and prepared for the little pinch just before the sprint. I was hoping to help lead out, but was too far back at the top of the climb, and the sprint was just a little too close to the bottom of the descent. Luckily Kate had it all under control. She won both sprints and took the jersey.
We had an undulating and rough section of road along the coast, but the group stayed together more than I expected it to. I got in a small break, for all of about one kilometer, after 70kms of racing, but with only four teams represented it didn't take long for it to be pulled back. It started to rain a little, so the descents were a little scary. Quite good roads - one newly resurfaced, but in the wet I was not too comfortable. The girls were fairly cautious anyway so a large group approached the final climb with about 25 km of racing left. The sprinkling of rain did not last long, but the humidity and terrain ensured we finished the race drenched!
I did a little better on the climb than the previous day, but still not anything special. The climb did not seem to flatten off much, and I was glad to see the 500m to go sign, and push a little harder to latch onto the girls ahead. I was slow on the descent, but with the group at the bottom of the climb with ten kilometres to go. We rolled in to hear Joane Somarriba (Bizkaia) had taken the stage, and the leaders jersey, one second ahead of Valentina Polkhanova (Nobili) in second and Mirjam Melchers (Farm Frites) third.
Stage 3a - June 12: Elgeta - Elorrio, 63.6 km
The morning stage was really hard. I did a solid lead out for Kate before the first climb, but Adrie Visser sprinted well to beat Kate, and take the lead in the sprint competition. The climb followed shortly after, and I had to dig deep to stay with the second group. I could not believe it when our DS said, 'you are nearly halfway through the race.' It felt like we had been riding for hours!
More surprises in store when, with maybe 20k to go, we saw Melchers riding towards us with Polkhanova and a few cars following them! Mirjam had a puncture, and there were no spares cars to help her. The main convoy had been behind our group most of the time. It was not even announced on the race radio. She took the wheel from her team mate Miho Oki, but then was led the wrong way in the race!!! We all turned around, and were told we would stop and start with the same gaps between the groups. Bunches caught us from behind, and they had us all waiting for a bit, basically at the base of the final category one climb! I never saw the rest of the front group - but somehow they worked it out, Mirjam catching the front group on the climb, but Somarriba one minute up the road by the end of the stage. Our groups all started together, but separated again as soon as we started to climb. We probably all ended up in roughly the same position relatively to each other as if it had not been stopped! An unlucky stage for Melchers.
Stage 3b - June 12: Elorrio - Elgeta ITT, 5.8 km
The ITT that afternoon was flat for less than a kilometer before a monster climb, 3kms at about 9%, and then it sort of flattened off for a bit for the last couple kilometers, so on sections towards the end if you were smashed from the climb you could lose heaps of time! I did OK. 35th or thereabouts, but more than three minutes behind Somarriba. I didn't realize I could lose that much time that quickly when I am going hard! She put 40 seconds into Melchers too! Pretty amazing!
Stage 4 - June 13: Sopelana - Sopelana, 88.8 km
Final day of the tour with about 90kms of racing over what looked to be a fairly easy climb from the profile compared to the previous days. How wrong the profile can be! There were lots of sore legs and plenty of tired riders, and I was one of them! The first sprint was after 30 kilometres. It was the toughest lead up to the sprint I could have imagined! Short steep bergs five kilometers before the sprint, girls from Farm Frites attacking, and finally one of the Polikeviciute twins getting up the road. The chase was coming from the Spanish teams initially to defend for Somarriba, but the other Dutch teams hindered the chase by riding second wheel. I rode hard to pull it back with a kilometer to go before the sprint, but just managed to lessen the gap to the riders ahead. Kate had not been well (suffering from some stomach bug), and with riders in breaks taking the sprint points that day, she had no chance to wrestle the sprint jersey back from Adrie.
I lasted another 30 kilometres with the group, and then faded. I was with a few girls chasing back for a while, but feeling ordinary. We got back to the convoy and what I thought was the final climb. As the last of the convoy passed me, my front wheel felt rather soft. As soon as the cars were out of sight it was dead flat. I stood on the side of the road feeling sorry for myself. Tired, hot, wishing I had been feeling stronger, and able to ride aggressively, not just struggle to survive. I got a spare and joined the last riders on the road. Led by a big touring motorbike with music pumping, and with the other motorbikes bringing any stragglers up the hills to stay with the group. An unsatisfying way to finish the tour, but better to puncture on day when things are not working out!
We had an interesting assessment of how the tour went as we stood on the footpath before the long drive back through France. It stimulated thoughts for me about the purpose and relevance of goal-setting and external measures of success. Setting realistic but challenging expectations, with positive objectives and support. Certainly a solid week of training, and good preparation for the upcoming tour in the Netherlands (Ster van Walcheren)! Luck should be with me now - hopefully no punctures in the windy, wet and tough conditions forecast!
