Vicki Whitelaw

Greetings.

Apologies for not blogging yesterday.  There was even less information available than usual… I didn’t even get a text from Vicki.

Both Stages 5 and 6 came down to sprint finishes.

In Stage 5, a 112km loop out of Avord, a dangerous looking break got away including a lot of the big hitters.  Neither Vicki nor her team mate Christel were in it so they combined with the girls from Lotto to pull it back just before the finish.  In the last kilometre the bunch propped allowing the Canadian rider Joëlle Numainville to launch a late attack and take the win by a second.  Vicki finished 13th.

In the final stage from St Germain du Puy to St Amand Montrond (106km) Vicki tried to be aggressive and force a break but there were too many teams interested in it coming down to a sprint.  Vicki was not the only one to have bad luck in the Trophée d’Or – the tour leader Béatrice Thomas broke her rear wheel 6 kilometers and never made it back to the bunch, ending her hopes of victory.

Diana Ziliute won her third stage of the tour and in doing so took the lead and victory in both the General and Sprint Classifications.  Emma Johansson won the Climber’s Classification.

Vicki finished the last stage in the bunch – not sure of her exact position.

And thus ends a really frustrating tour.

God bless,
Dave

Vicki just cannot win a trick in this race.  Last night was the queen stage out of Cosne on Loire.  Vicki got over the first climb with an elite bunch of six riders only to puncture again.  For some reason the commissaires hadn’t moved any of the support vehicles up – not even neutral spares – so Vicki had to wait for ages before she could get a replacement wheel and get going again.  It hurts to watch the race just ride away and not be able to do anything about it.

As usual Vicki just refused to give up.  She gave chase and after a 25 kilometre time trial she made it back to the front group.  Not surprisingly she had nothing left for the sprint.  There are even less results than usual available on the net so I can’t tell you who won.

Don’t know where Vicki is now on GC but from her text message it sounds like she is out of contention.  It’s frustrating that it was a mechanical that did her in.  At least she is getting some racing… that wasn’t a certainty after the collapse of Vision1.

Again I’ll update this post if/when results become available.

Hopefully there will be better news tomorrow!
Dave

Hi again.  Vicki finished 11th on the stage in with most of the favourites.

Hello again.

Last night was a double header with both Stage 2 (73km from Chateaumeillant to Orval) and Stage 3 (a 65km loop starting and finishing in Mehun on Yèvre) being run in one day.

Again results are hard to come by but Stage 2 was won by Diana Ziliute (Pasta Zara) over Emma Johansson (RedSun) and Noemi Cantele (Bigla).  There was a 16 second gap between the front 5 and the field which I’m assuming Vicki was in (maybe).

Stage 3 was again won by Ziliute.  At the end of the stage Ziliute holds the leader’s jersey, Emma Johansson the sprinter’s jersey and Rochelle Gilmore the climber’s jersey.

Vicki’s team mate Christel Ferrier-Bruneau was active in the third stage, making the only significant break but was brought back by the Great Britain team.  Christel is tussling with Rochelle for the climber’s jersey.

Vicki is enjoying riding with the mixed team.  Last night the peloton was again “crazy and really sketchy” so Vicki just worked to stay out of trouble.

Tonight is the race’s ‘queen stage’ – the hardest stage in the race.  It’s a 97km loop out of Cosne on Loire with some significant climbs.  Expect a good shake up of the overall classification.

Check back later as I’ll add results to this post when (or should that be if?) I find them.

God bless,
Dave

OK, I’ve found some results…  on Stage 2 Vicki came 23rd in the main group that was 16 seconds down on the winner Ziliute putting her 18th on GC.  Stage 3 saw Vicki finish in 24th place on the same time as the stage winner and hold onto 18th overall.

Hi all.

Vicki is currently racing the Trophée d’Or stage race in France.  Things stand to get a bit confusing this week for a number of reasons:

• this is the race that flys under the radar.  It has no official web presence and the results don’t seem to get to the news sites – even the ones which are usually pretty good with the women’s races.  About all that is available is an unofficial blog written in French (and my French ain’t that good!) which is down as I type but was operational this morning;
• Vicki is riding on a mixed team rather than with Vision1 or the Aus National team.  She is with two of her Vision 1 team mates and a couple of other girls.  Nicole is also racing but I think she is with the GB National team.  She certainly isn’t on Vicki’s mixed one… it would be hard to work out who’s who even with results – especially as I don’t know the name of the temporary team; and
• Vicki doesn’t have internet access so I’m having to extrapolate from text massages.

Last night was the first stage.  Sounds like it was a pretty aggressive race, with lots of girls trying their luck with attacks.  In the end it all came back together for a sprint which was won by Monica Holler.  Vicki described it as a crazy, nervous bunch especially on the last four laps.

Sounds like Vicki had some excitement.  She blew a tyre on the last corner and lost control, going wide and narrowly avoiding a crash.  It did mean a gap opened up in the peloton as it crossed the line so some people lost some time on GC.

Apparently Vicki copped abuse from some of the girls for her efforts.  Now I may be a little biased but I reckon that rather than abusing Vicki for something she had no control over they should be grateful that she held the bike up rather than causing a mass pile-up.  It’s not many who can avoid going down under these circumstances!!!  Chalk one up for bike handling skills.

I’ll put up results later if they become available.  Till tomorrow,
Dave

OK I’ve found some unofficial results: Vicki finished 15th on the stage with the same time as the winner Monica Holler.  Apparently the code for the team Vicki is riding for is RABC… whatever that stands for.