Vicki Whitelaw

Hi again.

Vicki asked me to put up a quick blog for her about the Memorial Davide Fardelli, a 23.6km individual time trial around Rogno, Italy.

Vicki has a good history in this race.  It is pretty flat 8km (approx.) loop that is completed three times.  It is one of the most technical time trials on the calendar with lots of tight corners and narrow roads.  In fact the roads are so narrow (they race on bike paths at one point) that the organisers supply Smart brand cars as follow vehicles as they are the only ones that can get around the course without having to back and fill. 

The first year Vicki took part (2008) she finished second to Karin Thürig.  The next year she finished third behind Thürig and Amber Neben.  This year she was hoping to complete the set of trophies but instead came second behind Amber.

I have a brief email from Vicki, the main points of which are as follows:
      -  the course was quite windy on the back straight which spread the field out;
      -  “love the fact that it’s so technical… nice little winding roads and S bends”;
      -  she had a really fast first lap and was able to ramp it up in the last lap for the run home.

Vicki is pretty happy with the result.  Obviously she would have liked the win but as she said, “second to Amber ain’t bad.”  With a win in the TT at d’Or and a second here Vicki has really put her case forward for Worlds selection in the time trial.

Now Vicki heads off to Ardèche followed by another TT, the Trophée Européen.  Then she finally comes home.  I’d be all happy and excited about that except she goes straight into an Aus. national team camp.  It’s held right here in Canberra but she has to stay on campus.  Not happy, Jan!    I’m thinking I’ll stay outside her room all night with my nose pressed to the window plaintively crying out “Vicki, Viiiiiiicki” until the rest of the team throw something at me. 

Hi all.  Dave here again.

As many of you know, I’m a statistician.  This means that I’m avoided at parties, I’m the butt of lots of jokes* and I love playing with numbers and data.

My love of data has led me to spend a fair bit of time on the Cycling Quotient web site.  This is a really cool site (OK, cool for us statisticians) that is run by a bunch of guys in Belgium – with the odd Dutchy or Spaniard thrown in.  It uses the UCI ranking system to create a world ranking of professional female cyclists.  It is driven by a nice database that can be queried in a number of ways.  You want to know which races a rider has earned UCI points in?  Look at CQ.  You want to know who won a certain race, even if it was years ago?  Look at CQ.  You want to know what a nation’s ranking is?  Look at CQ.  You want to… well you get the idea.  They even do the men’s results if you’re into that sort of thing.

I can’t give these guys a big enough wrap – they supply an accurate (way more accurate than the UCI’s official rankings), up-to-date (often the first to have the results of smaller races) source of really interesting statistics… and they supply them free for all.

OK, to the point of this post.  Vicki’s coach, Donna Rae Szalinski, has recently drawn my attention to one of the rankings that CQ supplies:  the “Most Race Days 2010″.  This counts up all the UCI ranked races that a rider completes and then ranks them according to said number.  And guess who’s at the top of the list as of today??  That’s right, it’s Vicki with 33 days so far.  She is followed by Marianne Vos and Annemiek Van Vleuten, with 32 days.

I have always suspected that Vicki had a race program that was towards the high end.  Now I have proof – that’s the power of statistics!    The thing is that Vicki just loves to race.  And the more racing she does, the more her form improves.  She gets antsy if there is more than a week between races… and she loves the long tours because she seems to get better day by day as they progress.  Told you she was a sicko.

Vicki still has some work to do, coming only fourth in the “Most Kilometres 2010″ ranking with 3,163.6 km covered in completed UCI ranked races this year.  She trails the leader, Marianne Vos, by some 261.7km.  Still, not bad is it?

Now I just have to convince Vicki to expand this success to some of the other rankings – like maybe the most victories in 2010 ranking or the overall rider ranking. 

God bless,
Dave

*just to get in first, my two favourite statistician jokes are:

Q:  What’s the definition of a statistician?
A:  A statistician is someone who is good with numbers but doesn’t have enough personality to be an accountant.

Q:  How do you know when a statistician is extroverted?
A:  They look at your shoes when they are talking to you rather than their own.

Hi.  David here.

Thought I would let you know that I have added a couple of cool photos to Vicki’s site here and here.

Before she left for Europe, Vicki was fortunate enough to have a photo session with our friend Kathleen Fisher.  Kathleen is a writer and a photographic artist who lives in the thriving metropolis of Yass.  More of her work can be found on her blog.

I’ll put more photos up as they become available.

God bless!
Dave

Hi.

Vicki is still without consistent access to a computer so I thought I should give you all an update.  (I also suspect she wouldn’t tell you this as she is not one to make ‘excuses’.)

After an incident free year Vicki has decided to make life interesting by crashing twice in the space of just over a week.

The first crash was in a training ride with the girls on the national team.  Whilst in a paceline Vicki hit a pothole and proceeded to do a superman impression over the handle bars.  Unlike superman, Vicki can’t actually fly.  She landed on her front and slid down the road.  At first it was thought it was just a case of some skin loss but now it is thought she might have a cracked rib.  Not much that can be done about it but it certainly won’t help her racing.

The second crash was in the last round of the World Cup series on Sunday.  Vicki crashed in the sprint because a spectator moved into the road to get a better view – great, thanks for that mate!  No skin off this time but she has damaged her right wrist.  She doesn’t think it is broken but she can’t grip anything.  Could be the end of her season right there.  I’m hoping not as Vicki has worked really hard to get to worlds, but if she doesn’t heal quickly…

Caps off the year really – from a mechanical at Nationals to multiple flat tyres at crucial points in races to crashing just before Worlds.  I don’t know about Vicki but I’m certainly fed up with it all!

On that cheery note I’ll say goodbye.
Dave

Hi all.

Thought I would let you know that on her way home from the Trophee d’Or Vicki took part in the Zottegem-Erwetegem (Provinciaal Kampioenschap Oost-Vlaanderen) – a provincial championship race in Belgium.  Yeah I know, Belgium isn’t really “on the way home” between France and Italy but, because Vicki is having to beg, borrow and steal transport to races since Vision1 stopped racing, she is traveling via some very strange and round-about routes these days.

In typical Vicki fashion she won from a solo break away.  She started out with another escapee but when the other girl wouldn’t work Vicki attacked and rode the rest of the way alone.  Ended up with a gap of about three minutes or so I believe.

It’s amazing what happens when she keeps air in her tyres! 

Vicki is still off-line waiting for a part to be delivered.  She is managing to get sneak onto other people’s computers from time to time so she might be able to blog soon… you never know your luck in a big city!

Dave

Hi.

Vicki has asked me to let you all know that she is having computer issues so won’t be able to blog for a few days.  Hopefully she will be back on-line soon.

God bless,
Dave