Hello.
David here again. Vicki started her international season today with the Women’s Tour of New Zealand. She started the same way she finished last season off… with a crash.
Before I go on I’d better say that this blog will be filled with my embittered views which aren’t necessarily shared by Vicki. Blame me not her if you don’t agree with them.
This first stage covered 98 kilometres from Martinborough to Masterton with one major climb about 60 km in. Vicki was feeling good and crested the climb with a small group that was only just down on the leaders Ruth Corset, Amber Neben and Catherine Cheatley. It all came apart on the descent when one of the girls from the US National Team touched wheels on a straight and dropped her bike right on front of Vicki. With nowhere to go Vicki went down as did one of her new Lotto team mates.
Vicki is pretty busted up with deep cuts to her elbow and hip (which would have been stitched except it was too difficult?!?), a hammered arm and bruised ribs. Her team mate Ashleigh Moolman broke her collar bone. Ouch!
This year radios have been banned by the UCI in the lower level races. There are lots of arguments for and against the decision but one down side is that when an incident happens on the road the girls can’t let their team car know they need assistance. It becomes really important that race radio makes sure everyone is aware of what’s happening. Didn’t happen this time so the team car was blissfully unaware that there was a problem until they happened to spot Vicki standing at the side of the road holding a bike with wheels wouldn’t turn. More time lost.
Now if this had been me, I would have just called it a day and hopped in the car. Not Vicki. She got her bike fixed and then proceeded to chase. Nutter!! With blood dripping down her arm and leg, Vicki caught and stayed with a bunch that rolled in 1 minute 40 down on the lead bunch of 24 riders – which included the girls she was with when she crashed. Oh what might have been!
To cap the day off, the commissaires decided to give Vicki an ‘encouragement award’ and penalise her 20 seconds (like she hadn’t lost enough time already) and fine her for getting mechanical assistance from a moving team car. Nice! I won’t bring up the number of times you see people on TV coverage getting motorpaced back after crashes and mechanicals with no consequences… No, really I won’t.
At the end of it all Vicki sits in 40th place, 2 minutes 10 down on the tour leader Shelley Evans. Her GC hopes are long gone.
After three hours in the hospital getting patched up, Vicki is in for a rough night tonight. She will decide tomorrow morning whether she takes the start for the toughest stage of the tour (nice timing!) from Masterton to Palmerston North via the Pahiatua Track. Again if it was me I’d be looking for the next flight home but Vicki is such a machine it won’t surprise me if she toughs it out.
To quote a good friend of mine, “cycling is a stupid sport”.
God bless,
Dave