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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.
Chrono Champenois - 1.9.2, France, September 12, 2004
An (almost) champenois performance
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I had a week recovering from the Holland Ladies Tour. My cuts and grazes from being hit by a car during the tour started to heal, slowly. A bit of food poisoning from old kwark slowed me up big time and has cured me of my addiction to this Dutch dairy experience. My boyfriend, Adrian, has joined me for the last month of racing, and we had my friend Margreet's apartment to ourselves after a week of hotel rooms through the tour. I enjoyed three days catching up with relatives from the UK (Kinnersley family) and my father in my local area in Nijmegen / Groesbeek. Dutch town bikes are seriously fun for the whole family!
In amongst it all, I managed to arrange a start at Chrono Champenois, a time trial held near Reims, northeast of Paris. I then found transport (thank you Debby and Marcel), and another day of racing in Europe was then on the cards! A bit of epic equipment logistics then had us all set for the drive south. It all went smoothly, with accommodation and meals arranged by the race organisation. The morning of the time trial, I did a lap of the 33k circuit with the Canadian U23 men who were racing after us. It was a windy day and I was glad for the shelter in the group while we checked out the course.
A race meal and few coffees had me fuelled up and ready to go. In the search for additional pads for the ITT bars, Adrian sacrificed his traditional Australian footwear ($1.43 rubber-sole thongs from Coles, Manly). Worked a treat - much better than the normal thin foam-things! We had a cross-tailwind at the start, and then some serious block headwind for long stretches on the way home. I started off well, catching a young French local rider who started two minutes ahead of me after about three kilometres! By the halfway mark (if the time keeper got the times right) I had the second fastest time. Pity about the second half of the race! I must have gone slower than almost every other rider in the headwind (or the intermediate time was wrong!). I didn't think I went out too hard. I know I went for a small gear in the headwind to try and keep on top of the gear, and I was in too small a gear on the one solid climb with just over 10k to go, but I gave it everything and felt how you should at the end - trashed, satisfied that I gave all I had on the day. I know there are things to improve: carrying my momentum better and getting my speed up as quickly as possible for fast sections and over the crest of rises when you have slowed. I finished up 9th, with a time of 50:21.
The winning time was 45.12 (44.3 km/h) with the Swiss rider Karin Thurig. It was impressive, not just because of the margin to the other women riders, but because there were only five men (in the U23 category) faster than her on the same circuit! Another Swiss rider, Priska Doppmann, was second in 46.23 and Italian Giovanna Troldi third with 48.08 (41.6 km/h).
In the Under 23 men's race over the same course, the Belarussian Andrei Kunitski won in 43.10 (46.4 km/h) ahead of the French U23 ITT champion Florian Morizot 43.46 and Canadian Jeff Sherstobitoff with 44.13 (45.3 km/h).
Who knows what is next on the cards? Season planning and women's racing must be incompatible! My team had planned to do the Giro della Toscana, but costs and logistics meant that our team opted out. All the hill training you can do in the Pyrenees won't guarantee you the chance to race when you have form. Even when guest spots are available with other teams, it isn't always enough! This has been one incredibly long year! I still have a few more possibilities for one last race in France, but the end of season location for relaxation is calling...
