Tour de PEI - Race Report

Salut, Bonjour!
So after my stage one vlog I got too tired to lazy to post regularly.  Now I'll do it all at once (don't worry -- I'm using the same plan for my disseration so I'm a pro at this).

Stage 1: Non-technical, 10k, 10 lap, 100k circuit, some pitch change, but nothing major
See the vlog.  We did a practice lead out on the second bonus (lap 5).  Laps 7,8,9 I was in a better spot and did some attacks and bridging.  Of course I did most of these things far too close together.  There were several crashes.  Since I'm lame and had shite positioning early on I was stuck behind them.  Blah.  All in all the day ended ok.

Stage 2: Confederation Bridge TT, 14km, WINDY, 7km uphill (essentially) 7km downhill, NO aero-equipment.


This was fun.  HA.  I got interviewed before the race and used Olivia's line of putting out a "violent effort."  Everyone here is somekind of bike freak and warms up on rollers.  I begged until I got a trainer.  ahhhh.  This was a very successful day for us.
Tara Whitten - 1st
Moriah MacGreggor - 3rd
Me! - 14th
Lisa Perlmutter and Leah Krichmann both finishing in the top half of the field.
This was my best big field TT result ever.  Maybe I should do all TTs on my roadbike?

Stage 3:  Hilly (TCTC/MJ calls them super-orbitals), WINDY, guttered, 120km point to point.


We had the yellow jersey on Tara and Moriah was wearing the Blue jersey (best Canadian, even though Tara is also Canadian).  It went right from the gun.  I had no warmup, so you know how excited I was about being third wheel in a strungout mess in the first km.  Oh Joy.  There were 3 intermediate sprints, worth 3-2-1, and 4 QOMs, and 10-7-5 (I think) at the line today.  Austrialia's Bridie O'Donnell was only 4 seconds behind so we had to work.  That stage was brutal.  So much attacking and covering at the start.  We lost Lisa in a hideous crash that shattered the field and allowed the Aussie to pick up seconds.  Ugh.  Chasing back on in that ridiculous cross wind was very very annoying.  Much time spent on the front. Then the DS wanted some attacks to draw out the Aussies.  Lovely.  I did that, although my normally adqeuate jump was much less-than-adequate after 100km in the wind.  It came down to a bunch sprint.  We lost the yellow by one second.  I was cooked, but I managed to move up to 13th gc.


Stage 4:  Less hilly, less windy, 120km point to point.
We had to get the jersey back.  I felt like I was on the front the whole race.  DS wanted attacks early since the Aussies seemed hell bent on chasing everything.  These were better jumps than yesterday.  There was a crash early on.  I went into the ditch and my chain came off.  Chase chase chase through the caravan.  Back on.  Back to the front.  Two women got away, we wanted to let them dangle, but not too much.  Back at the front.  Team Canada was helping for a while but then their DS caled them off.  Joy.  Caught the two.  Tara picked up third in the bonus while those two were up the road (I think: memory is foggy) so we were back in Yellow and Aussies were using interesting tactics.  In the hills, a break got away and Tara bridged up.  This was great and finally we could sit in for a while.  But there there was a crash in the break.  Tara had to get a mechanical.  We relayed her back to the car (are you kidding me doing that in a windy hilly section?!)  The other bonus was quickly approaching.  She won it.  Yay!  More attacking, riding at the front, keeping Tara out of the wind and the pace high enough to neutralize attacks.  At one point an Aussie on the front started to accelerate.  Moriah was on her wheel and I was on Moriah's wheel.  I eased up and those two got away.   Several others bridged up.  I thought this would stick but it didn't.  The last 10k were insane and dodgy.  Stay out of the way and don't die was my motto.  It worked.  We were back in yellow and moriah was still in third.  I kept 13thgc.

Stage 5:  The crit.  Need I say more.  Oh right:  it was raining all day.
Why do they put crits at 5:30?  I had all day to freak out.  We couldn't/didn't ride outside since it was pouring, so I ahd to ride rollers inside.  I didn't crash (although I contemplated wearing my helmet). I'd never finished a big (ie NRC, etc) crit with the field so I was not particularily thrilled to do a rainy day crit with Euros (who don't race crits) and South Americans (who never see rain).  All in all I survived.  Although I didn't contribute very much on the last day, I managed to claw my way up to mid pack by about the 1/2 point of the race and get out of the way for the finish.  Tara, Moriah, and Leah did great managing the race and keeping everything where it needed to be. 

Overall
Tara -1st (and Blue)
Moriah - 3rd
Me - 13rh
Leah - 45th
Team - 2nd Team GC

Here are some post race thoughts:


The race was great (in the sick way that hurting yourself for 5 days is great) and the team was awesome.   I hope I can come back and do it again next year (and I hope it's sunny and warm.) (I also hope for world peace ;) )

Up next:  new Brunswick Provincial RR Champs.
Yay!