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The Anna Millward Diary
Australian Anna Millward (Wilson until her marriage in 2000) is one of the best women's cyclists in the world, and was ranked number 1 for the first part of 2000. She has won races everywhere, from time trials in France, World Cup races in Switzerland to stage races in the USA, and was the first cyclist ever to break the Hour Record under the "new" UCI rules. Anna possesses an incredible sprint and this combined with her power and determination makes her a formidable cyclist on any terrain. She is also one of the friendliest and most optimistic people you could ever meet.
The mountains take their toll
HP Women's Challenge,
Stage 5 - June 19: Shoshone to Pomerelle, 140.6km
Well today turned out to be the peloton-shattering day it had promised to be. 140kms culminating in the 15km climb to the ski resort of Pomerelle.
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The peloton started out sedately but after about 15km of steady riding, the attacks began. Cathy Marsal (Saturn) launched the first effort and took a group of about five riders with her. The Rona team immediately went to the front to bring things back under control. As soon as they caught the breakaway group, Ina Teutenberg (Saturn) launched another attack and a group of 10 riders formed. This group hovered at 15 seconds for a long time, but eventually, they broke the back of the Rona chase and began to gain time. In the group were Ina Teutenberg and Petra Rossner of Saturn, Zita Urbanaite and Diana Ziluite of Lithuania, Monica Valen (Sponsor Service), Barbara (Itera), Sara Symington (Great Britain), a couple of riders from the Boise Cascade team and Kim Anderson (T-Mobile). Everyone worked except for the Itera rider and the break got out to a maximum lead of over four minutes.
The Rona team were relentless in their chase, hoping to set the stage up for Genevieve Jeanson. As we approached the start of the climb, they picked up the pace and brought the breakaway to within three and a half minutes. That was not enough of a lead for riders who had worked all day in the breakaway to hold off the fresh climbers coming from behind. Genevieve started to put the pressure on very early in the climb and I was in trouble immediately. It wasn't too long before Genevieve was on her own on the climb, steadily passing one after another of the breakaway riders before she was in the lead. In the end, she won the stage by something around one minute.
Behind her Lyne Bessette (Canada) and Judith Arndt (Saturn) were together and Judith took out second place. A little further back was Valentina Polkanova (Itera) and a little behind her Amber Neben (T-Mobile) and Kimberley Bruckner (Saturn) finished together. I finished something like five and a half minutes behind Genevieve. The only rider from the breakaway who survived to finish inside the top 10 was the Itera rider who finished about 7th I think!
So with that result, Genevieve has moved into the overall lead of the tour by around 30 or 40 seconds from Judith Arndt. I'm not sure who is in third - possibly Kimberley Bruckner (correct - Ed) but I'll have to wait for official results to be sure. I will have dropped down a few places and I'd be something likefour minutes behind overall.
Tomorrow is a much shorter stage at 97km but it is another hill top finish so there could be more damage done!!
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Cheers
Anna
