Honda Women's Tour

It's late and I'm supposed to be packing my MTB for Langkawi, but I haven't even started and I'm here posting photos instead.

Today was the penultimate stage of the Honda Hybrid Tour, the Herald Sun Tour for ladybirds. It finished atop Arthurs Seat and, while initally I thought it would be better if we went up it 3 times like the men, I was quite happy to finish after one.

It went well. It went as well as we'd hoped, which doesn't often happen in racing.

I've really got to get this bike packed. I fly out tomorrow night after the final stage of the Honda Tour and in 3 days I'll be starting a 5 day MTB stage race. So I'll keep it brief. Today was a team win. My VIS teammates Kendelle Hodges, Chloe McConville and Katherine O'Shea worked their guts out to deliver me to the bottom of the climb in the front of the pack. I couldn't have done it without them. Or Supercoach.

Tomorrow I wear the leader's jersey and we have a tough race on our hands to keep it. If you want to come see the action, be at Lygon St, Carlton at 1.45pm on Sunday. It will come down to the wire.

An awesome shot from JXP Photography tells a better story than I can:

Ride happy

Hannmaid bicycle cufflinks

A little while ago I received these gorgeous handmade cufflinks in the mail. They are made by Hannah from Hannmaid (www.hannmaid.com). Hann is a Textile Design student at RMIT in Melbourne. Growing up in country Victoria, her days were filled with craft, sport and family: Hannmaid is a reflection of this and of her combined loves of sport and design.

These cufflinks are WAY cool. The front is material with an embroidered bicycle on each. The casing is silver coloured metal. Seriously classy.

I wear a lot of shirts that require cufflinks and these are my new favourites. If a sign of a good cufflink is that you have to fight your boyfriend for wearing rights, then these are winners.

If you love things that are unique, bikely and locally made, these are for you. You can buy online at www.hannmaid.com or at the following bike shops: Northside Wheelers, Prahran Cecil Walker Cycles, Fitzroy Crino Cycles, North Carlton

And if you're at the Herald Sun Tour final stage on Lygon St on Sunday you can pick up a pair at Borsari Cycles or Carlton Espresso (right after you cheer on the chicks, of course)

Ride happy.

The Roadie Project #3: Looking Fly

Guess what arrived in the mail today! All set for Tour of Langkawi.My Terra 30 is in Fitzroy Revolution getting its hair and nails done. I won't get a chance to ride it again before I leave as we have the Honda Women's Tour starting Wednesday and going right up to the day I fly out to Malaysia. Yikes.

Mt Gambier 100 Mile

The Mt Gambier 100 mile is such an epic race it made me wonder why I hadn't raced it before. At about the 125km mark, I began to realise why. This is a cracking hard race. It's a handicap, so you are sitting at your limit trying to catch the group in front of you, and trying to stay away from the group behind. For the 155km race, we averaged over 38kph on a windy course. I am smashed.

This race didn't suit my strengths at all. It was flat and windy, and I suffered like a small dog with a Masters degree in suffering. Despite that, it has gone to the top of my must-do races for next year. Here is why:

1. An awesome atmosphere: The whole town came to the party. The police shut down the main street; there were people dressed in costumes cheering along the side of the road; and the local paper gave the race so much attention you felt you were really part of something. At the end of the race, a bloke I'd never met before came up and told me that he'd won the race 70 years ago. How awesome is that?!
2. A weekend of racing: Like Tour of Bright, this is an event where people travel from all over to have a hard, fun weekend. You can race both days and the organisers put on a dinner on Saturday night. (And unlike Tour of Bright, you don't need to enter 6 months in advance!)
3. Excellent organisation: Everyone was friendly. The race starter had made an effort to know the riders and gave the crowds a running commentary at the start. No one yelled at me for pinning my race number 3cm to the left of centre (Victorian commissaires take note). The presentations took place quickly and with good cheer.
4. Local hospitality: If it hadn't been for Robert's pre-course briefing, feeds at each of the feed zones, and post-race assistance, Chloe and I would have been dead women walking. We were really well looked after - particularly by Rob, but by everyone we talked to. It was really touching.
5. Prize money: I don't like to give this as a reason to race, but the Mt Gambier Triathlon & Cycling Club had put an enormous effort into raising enough sponsorship to make the prize purse fricking HUGE. And they deliberately allocated significant prize money to women to encourage more chicks to enter.
6. A thrilling finish:  Scratch caught the front runners with 1km to go on a downhill finish, with SASI's Glen O'Shea taking out the win. Well done, handicapper!

Melissa McKinlay took out the women's race with a fantastic ride. My teammate Chloe McConville was fastest woman (look out Honda Tour!).

Chloe and I were sorry we had to head back to Melbourne on Saturday and miss the Kermesse racing on Sunday. Next year we want to make a weekend of it. I'd love to see more women racing next year. The race organisers have put a lot of effort into making sure that the women have a generous prize purse and get equal attention in race build-up and presentations. This is a huge demonstration of good faith - now it's up to us chicks to show that we're worth it.

The roadie project #2: Getting some skills

The Roadie Project has begun in earnest. For those not familiar to TRP, it involves taking a road rider, giving them a sh*t-hot mountain bike, and entering them in a 5 day UCI stage race in Malaysia. It's like an extremely inefficient form of Darwinism. If I'm tough enough, I'll survive. So I've got the bike sorted: an Apollo Terra 30, Apollo's top carbon dually for 2012. Unfortunately I now have no excuse for not riding properly. SCODY has very kindly made me some awesome Ride Happy kit (I'll put a pic up here soon). It looks unreal.

And now for some skills. Last week Jess Douglas took me out to the You Yangs for a 1-on-1 skills session. It was awesome. It made me wonder why it had taken me so long to do it. If you want to improve your mtb-ing, particularly if you are a girl, get hold of Jess at www.mtbskills.com.au.

I feel like an underprepared uni student about to sit their exams. I've crammed. I've drunk a lot of coffee. Now I've just got to give it a crack.

Tour of Langkawi mtb stage race: Oct 18-22. Watch this space.

Because we're worth it

Today I raced the Damian McDonald Memorial Road Race in Eildon, in memory of a champion cyclist who lost his life in the Burnley Tunnel Disaster in 2007. Blackburn Cycling Club put on a great event. The weather was brilliant, the marshalls were plentiful and helpful, the Skyline course made me suffer...  it was a fantastic day.

Presentations. Blackburn CC did a fantastic job - all by volunteers. Chapeau!

I have a lot of time for club-run events. They are the product of a lot of time and effort by volunteers who give up their weekends so people like me can race. And I want to make it clear that Blackburn did a superb job.

However, I left the race feeling a little disappointed. While the top 3 elite men each received a trophy, prize goodies/money and were made to pose for a podium photo, the race organisers didn't even announce the names of the top 3 women. As the winner, I received $30 (race entry was $20). Given that the race course was 2 hours' drive away, I think I blew my net profit in petrol before I'd even left Melbourne.

I don't race for money. Anyone who says they do is either lying, a pro cyclist, or needs a real job. But I race my guts out, just like the men do. I give up other things in life to train and race. And I feel women's racing needs more respect.

Today, the top 3 place-getters in the women's RR world championships - Giorgia Bronzini, Marianne Vos and Ina Teutenberg - collectively called for the UCI to impose a minimum wage for female pro cyclists.

Here's a newsflash: Most PRO women do not get paid. Of the 15 or so Australian women who race overseas on professional teams, approximately 5 are on some kind of salary. As in maybe €5,000 per annum. Compare this with the men's equivalent (min wage ~ €5ok). Yes, it's a function of the sponsorship money that men's racing can generate, but once upon a time men didn't get paid either. And we called it the Dark Ages.

Clubs are always saying how they would like women's fields to be bigger. I would love more women to race against. But I can't see how women are going to be incentivised to race when they are treated as participants in a support race.

There is a huge opportunity for clubs to take the lead on this. Some I know of are great at devoting resources to women's racing and giving us a chance to take ourselves seriously. It doesn't take much - a couple of minutes at presentations, an extra line in the race report - but it means a lot to us.

Ride happy.

New bike!

A quick sneak peak at the new Terra 30, which Apollo is entrusting to me for Malaysia in October at the Tour of Langkawi mtb stage race. I hope it's had its shots...

World Champs preview on CyclingTips

Just a quickie to say that I've done a preview of the Australian women's team for road world champs in Copenhagen today on CyclingTips.   And a big thanks to Apollo Bikes and Fitzroy Revolution for coming to the rescue today after my rear derailleur had an altercation with a stick. I'd show you a picture of the stick but it was taken into custody today pending a bail hearing.

Ride happy (without sticks)

LJ

The Roadie Project

I've got some exciting plans for October. We kick off with the Mt Gambier 100 mile handicap on Oct 8, then start the Honda Women's Tour (aka the Herald Sun Tour for lay-deez) four days later. The VIS ladies are pretty gee-d up for this one. This year, the Honda Tour will be 5 stages over 5 days, including a hilltop finish at Arthur's Seat (no chairlift allowed). THEN, the night Honda Tour finishes, I will be on a plane bound for Malaysia to do my first mountain bike stage race in Langkawi. The Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge 2011 is a 5-day, 5 stage UCI mtb stage race. Andy and I are heading over for our first holiday together in AGES. And probably there will be tears, and broken things, but aren't all good family holidays like that?

All in all, it will be 10 days of racing in 12 days, which will be just like the Giro Donne last year but with a nice rest in the middle on a plane.  I can't remember if the Giro last year had a 7 hour mtb stage in it but I remember being pretty tired so maybe it did. Hmm...

Clearly I need to recruit some serious firepower to survive Langkawi. Stay tuned to see what bike I'll be riding...

Lucky dog

Today we met a lucky dog. Lucky Dog's name was Connie and it had escaped from its owners and run onto Heidelberg Road (a major road near our place), where it randomly ran in and out of traffic. Connie took some convincing, but eventually let us pick her up and take her home where we tracked down her owners.

We learned 2 things about spaniels today.

1. Spaniels are delightful animals but have absolutely no road sense
2. Luckily, spaniels also seem to have a very short memory and major trauma is no big deal to them. They would probably make good domestiques. 

Make sure you register your pets!!