It was sunny when Lieve and I arrived at Sittard to pick up
our 6 team members form the Mike Greer Homes Womens Cycling Team. Only one girl
I met before, Niamh, last year at worlds in Innsbruck. The other ones, Alana,
Connie, Emma, Libby and Alecia were new to us.
The next day we left Watersley Sportpark with our teamcar
and a van driven by Matias. Off to Czech. We arrived in Krasna Lipa late in the
afternoon, but still time for a short spinning.
The” Tour de Feminin” had four days of racing in a beautiful
hilly area, decorated with forest, fields and small villages. Four stages in
line plus a TT. All in Bohemian Switzerland in and around Krasna Lipa.
That is what has been offered to our four New Zealand girls
and
In stage one Libby came down getting around a roundabout but
still finished the race. Altough two minutes before the start of stage two I
made the dicision to withdraw her from the race. I did not want to take a risk
of another crash with her already injured knee. There is no doubt about that
our best climber was Niamh staying with the best in every stage resulting in a
awesome spot on GC and KOM. Connie finished almost every day in the main bunch and
finished well on GC, while Alana and Emma lost some time due mechanicals and
also lack of experience. So they learned a lot in this four days.
And all this on a diet of potatoes and soup in a “half star”
hotel. I don’t complain about the rooms but it was all very basic. The beds not
more then a plank and a foam. In the shower you had to run around to get wet, a
little brownish kindy water came out of the sprinkler. No new towels for 5 days
and like I said, apart from the breaky the lunch and diner was poor. But that
was the same for all teams. And it was even worse when the mecanics, soignees
and yes the DS’s too wanted to sit down for a cold Pivo, the bar shut at 9PM.
But ….. the coffee shops were great. Lieve and I and “coffee
runner” Alicia found a few ones with high quality coffee and cakes.
KAVARNA U TADEASE
what I guess means coffee bar.
In Chribska Lieve and I went to the main square and found our
first surprise. Hard to believe but a cappuccino, a espresso macchiato and two
delicious cakes for 99CZK = €4.
Same happend in the oldest house of Krasna Lipa where we had
nice coffees while waiting for the take away ones for the rest of the staff.
Alicia found super brew for the staff in Rumburk and
Varnsdorf.
Was the food a minor point, the racing and the coffee was
superb!
Directly after the finish of the last stage we drove 250km
to a small village in former “East” Germany where everybody enjoyed a well
deserved hamburger in an awesome American Bar. On the tunes of YMCA we all
finished a great journey. After a good sleep we dropped off some riders at
Dusseldorf airport and drove back to Sittard. From then on it was in relax mode
on the square of Sittard for a feed and a beer with Matias, Alicia, Ritchie,
Lieve and meself
The next morning we had a lovely brunch (thanks Alicia!) and
drove back to Gent.
·
Niamh FISHER-BLACK – NZL
·
Connie O’BRIEN - NZL
·
Emma SMITH - NZL
·
Libby ARBUCKLE - NZL
·
Alana FORSTER - AUS
·
Matias FITZWATER – NZL – mecanic
·
Lieve DRIEGHE – BEL – soignee
·
Alicia EVANS – NZL – soignee
·
Me – BEL – DS
Results
Stage 1 – 25/Niamh 36/Connie
84/Alana 118/Emma 145/Libby
Stage 2 – 29/Niamh 47/Connie
92/Emma 126/Alana DNS/Libby
Stage 3 – 39/Niamh 70/Connie
77/Emma 92/Alana
Stage 4 – 14/Niamh 22/Connie
88/Alana 118/Emma
Stage 5 – 20/Niamh 63/Connie
68/Alana 92/Emma
GC – 26/Niamh 44/Connie 92/Alana
103/Emma
KOM – 5/Niamh
Teams – 12/Mike Greer Homes
Womens Cycling Team (27 teams in the race)
No comments:
Post a Comment