Vicki Whitelaw

Well, it has finished. After 10 days, 9 stages (and a prologue), 16 categorised climbs and 874 km of racing Vicki has finished in 23rd place overall after riding for 24 hours 13 minutes and 59 seconds.

During the tour Vicki won a stage, finished a sprint with a flat tyre (stage 8 – she didn’t know about it until after it was over) and crashed. “Crashed??” you ask. Yes crashed! Coming into the last kilometer of the tour Vicki realised that she had gone 873 km without a crash so decided to “drop myself on a wet corner.” Apparently she is “fine though.”

On Stage 9 last night, based around Limoux, Vicki finished in 33rd place in a group 3’41″ behind a small break. She is tired but happy with how the tour went.

Unfortunately because the Australian team was down to 2 riders they were out of the teams classification. A real shame given that they were sitting in third place. Perhaps next time the powers that be will take riders who plan to stay the whole tour.

Well, I’ll sign off now. As I said yesterday, I’m sure Vicki will put her thoughts up at some stage but perhaps not for the next couple of weeks depending on internet access. God bless,
Dave

The tour’s penultimate stage was the first to finish with a bunch sprint. Ina Teutenberg, arguably the best female sprinter in the world, won her second stage for the tour. Vicki finished with the bunch in 14th place and remains ensconced in 24th overall.

It was another tough day of 119km with a category 2 climb at kilometer 9 and a cat 1 climb 77km into the race. Vicki’s brief comment (via text) was “finished in front bunch. Have a severe case of touritis though!” I am guessing that she is going to be very glad when the tour finishes tomorrow.

The Australian Team is still sitting third on the team classification, which is excellent, but they are now down to only two riders, which is not so good, after Katie Mactier failed to finish today’s stage. The team’s time for the classification each stage is the combined times of the first three finishers from that team. I’m not sure if this means that Australia is now out of the competition. It would be a real shame if they are as they have been performing brilliantly given the teams competing in the tour.

Stage 9 is ‘only’ 71km long but still manages to contain a cat 1 and a cat 2 climb in the first half. This is on the back of 9 days of very solid racing… rather her than me.

I may have difficulty getting online tomorrow for the last update. If I can’t then I’m sure Vicki will fill you in once she has internet access again… though that may be in a couple of weeks as she is going to take a little time off the bike and see some of Italy before getting back into training for her next race in 6 weeks.

God bless,
Dave

Hello again.

Not a lot to report about Stage 7. It was a 108km stage starting and finishing in Castelnaudary. Again the stage was won from a break away group.

I haven’t had a chance to talk with Vicki (she hasn’t even sent me a text today ) but it looks like she had a quiet day in the main bunch. She remains 24th overall.

Tonight is a 116km stage out of Bram with a category 2 and a category 1 climb added to spice things up. I’m sure Vicki will be very glad to not have to climb a col for a few weeks when this is all over.

Thanks to everyone who has sent their congratulations and best wishes to Vicki – she really appreciates them… makes her feel just that bit closer to family and friends.

Dave

Huge news… Vicki won the stage last night!! The race was 117km long from Rennes les Bains to Axat – and a tough one at that with the 3 cat 1 climbs I mentioned yesterday.

I haven’t had a chance to talk to Vicki yet but from what I can figure out she went clear of the bunch with two other girls after the last categorised climb. One of the girls, Sharon Laws, actually shared a house with us the night of the Australian National Road Race in January this year. Sharon and Vicki get on like a house on fire and would have worked well together to make the break stick.

It came down to a three up sprint. From the pictures it looks like Vicki took it out ‘easily’. (I’m sure it wasn’t easy but, not having to have tried to sprint after a week of horrible climbs myself I can make these outlandish statements. )

Vicki wins the sprint on Stage 6

Once I’ve talked to Vicki I will add her comments to the report on her news page.

This is a huge result - it is Vicki’s first UCI road race win. (She won a UCI time trial last year.) The Tour de l’Aude can now be classed as a success no matter what happens from here on in.

For those interested, the win moved Vicki up to 24th overall. There is quite a gap between 24th and 23rd – 5’15″ – so it will be hard for her to move up much higher.

On the teams standing the Australian National team are currently sitting second. This is phenomenal - they are beating some of the best professional women’s teams in the world.

Tonight Vicki has a 108km stage which starts and finishes in Castelnaudary. There are a couple of climbs involved but they are not as severe as the ones the peloton has tackled in the last couple of days.

Way to go Vicki! Until next time,
Dave

A better day for Vicki.  She finished in the front bunch in 26th place. It wasn’t exactly an easy day – there were still 3 categorised climbs in the 112km race. The bunch averaged 37.99 km/h which is just down right scary!

Vicki is finding the going tough. To quote a text message she sent me: “yet another very hard day – there seem to be no breaks!” Still, she has moved up a couple of places on the overall to 32nd.

Stage 6 will be another tough one of 117 km from Rennes les Bains to Axat with three category one climbs. Somehow I don’t think Vicki will be overly sympathetic if I complain to her that I found my two repeats of Black Mountain this morning hard.

Dave

Hi.

Just to dispel any confusion, this is not Vicki writing the post but David. Vicki is currently half way through the 10 day Tour de l’Aude stage race in France.  They are staying in caravan parks and don’t have internet access (nor much time for blog writing) which explains Vicki’s silence for the last little while.

I thought I would jump on and put up a quick update for everyone.  Note that this is my take on things and not Vicki’s – she may violently disagree with what I say… but can’t contradict me right now. I could say anything I wanted to.  Hmmm.

The tour started with a prologue – a short time trial of 3.9km.  Vicki did well, coming 16th (or 15th if you look at the times rather than the positions) out of 106 starters.  The next day saw a 107km stage with a significant climb in it.  Again Vicki did really well, finishing 30th in the third bunch over the line.  This moved her up to 14th overall.

Day 3 had the girls doing a team time trial. This is where each team goes off on their own and tries to do the fastest time over a set course. The time for the team is taken from the third person across the line. Anyone who gets left behind is given the time that they take to finish (rather than the time of the team). It was a bit of a disaster. The team director decided that the team should wait for the slower members and, being the only team to do so, the Australian National Team finished well down the list losing 1 minute 35 seconds to the winning team, the Netherlands National Team. Vicki dropped from 14th to 23rd overall.

Vicki was very active on day 4, making several attacks in an effort to get away from the bunch and get the stage win. The bunch was having none of it, chasing everything down. In the end Vicki finished the 111km race in 24th moving to 22nd overall.

Stage 4 (Day 5) was the hardest day of the tour with 3 serious climbs in the 101km race. Vicki didn’t have a good day – perhaps paying the price for her aggression the day before. She finished with a large group 12 minutes 22 seconds down on the stage winner in 32nd place. As a result she has dropped 13 places to 35th overall. It’s not all doom and gloom – at least now the bunch may not be so attentive should Vicki try an attack in the remaining stages.

Vicki at the finish of Stage 4

Today’s stage is 112km long, starting and finishing in Toulouges. It has 3 categorised climbs but they are not as daunting as those in yesterday’s stage.

I will keep posting updates until Vicki comes back online.

Dave