|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
The Emma James Diary 2004
 |
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.
Geelong World Cup, Australia, February 29, 2004
All together for the sprinters
The course was much tougher than the previous year with a sweeping descent leading down to the Barwon River and to the base of a solid little climb of just under one kilometer. From there we had a brief flat section before about three kilometers of fast open, straight, gradually descending road to take us back to the Geelong waterfront.
Eight laps of the 15 km loop (120 km); just under 100 starters. The strongest teams included Team SATS, Nurnberger, AIS, T-Mobile, and New Zealand with strong individual riders represented in the composite world team and the teams from Japan, the Ukraine, and some of the Australian state-based teams. With a strong wind about I was expecting that the course would see the field reduced significantly over the race, and with strong attacks going over the climb in the final few laps to leave the better climbers in a small group at the finish. My prediction was no where near the mark!
Our team had strength for a bunch sprint with Rochelle Gilmore, and we knew the team would need to protect her if the pressure went on up the climb and splits opened up in the group. We took a defensive role, and planned to work off the other teams if a break looked likely, and ensure we were represented.
The actual race report is a short story. Eight laps, with a few solo attacks never getting a gap of more than 30 seconds. The momentum of a strong peloton ate up any gap as riders battled up the false flat. Winds leading away from town, and the speed of the group (easily 70 km/h) on the three km downhill section back to the beach annihilated any chance of attacks succeeding after the climb. Plenty of strong riders tried to get away, but enough teams had more motivation to keep the bunch together - wanting a showdown between the strong sprinters like Oenone Wood (AIS), Petra Rossner (Nurnberger), Miho Oki (Japan), Rochelle Gilmore (Team SATS), Alison Wright (Nobili) and Sarah Ulmer (New Zealand).
That was how it happened. Fifty riders left to push and shove along the foreshore road leading in to the final couple corners and the last 500m of a long tough finishing straight. Oenone timed it beautifully to steal position, flying in amongst the traffic islands with a kilometer to go and then sliding up the barriers on the right to gap the other sprinters and win by lengths! Rochelle gave our team a solid representation finishing fifth despite puncturing her front wheel in the final two kilometers and sprinting of a flat tyre! She remains the dark horse - great form but with victory eluding her and our team in Geelong in both stages of the Geelong Tour and the World Cup.
I would have liked to see T-mobile smash it from the base of the climb, with a strong lead down the descent to string it out for some of their good climbers to then blow the bunch to pieces. It would have possibly made it quite interesting! As it was - a day for the sprinters, and proof of the growing strength of Australian women in road cycling.
