Blogs
Mon, 26 Jul 2010
Tour de Limousin - Stage 1
By Stefan Wymans - DS - Horizon Fitness Racing Team
This tour was going to be hard for us... very hard. This was for many reasons, but each day was to show the potential of our riders in many different ways. With the course for Day 1 clearly being set by someone with a great sense of humour, the first 40kms were going to be very challenging for a lot of the 172 riders on the start line. There were 4 laps of the lake, including a 1st category climb. For some this would be a great warm up, for others it was their worst nightmare.
Straight from the start line, the course descended to the lake, before we took a long climb back up. This got the riders to the 5km mark, in the 10km loop. They then took a wild descent that clearly wasn’t made to fit one of the largest pelotons ever seen in women’s racing (172 riders). After a crazy left-handed corner, the riders took on a 1st category climb. This lap was repeated 4 times.
It was obvious there were going to be problems on this circuit. Firstly it was very hard. Secondly, the roads were very, very tight. Add to these points the fact there was a huge difference in ability in the peloton, it was no surprise there was a crash after about 3kms. These circuits were raced pretty hard. There were 4 riders going for the King of Mountains points, and it wasn’t actually that long until the front of the peloton had caught a couple of riders for 10kms!
The Horizon Fitness riders rode really well; all doing their best and putting in 100%. For Annie, Penny, Britt, and Sarah, it was their first UCI stage race. It was a major step up in all areas. Each of them was going to face a separate challenge, and each would step up to it and surpass expectations.
The star of the day had to be Alex Greenfield - what a ride! She was up at the front, helping Helen and giving it everything. She blasted the first 4 1st category climbs and it really was a fantastic performance. She was with the front of the race until just short of 70kms. Very impressive, considering how many other sprinters had already gone out the back of the bunch a long way before. Results don’t show performance, and on this stage, Alex was Superb. She proved what a classy rider she is, and what a massive future she has.
Helen finished 31st on the stage, which was a good start for us. Everyone survived. They were all tired, but happy. Morale was still high, but the volume level had slightly reduced (but not that much).
As for what the riders thought, it was summed up by Penny, “That were ‘ard!”
Result – Stage 1
1 TREIER Grete MICHELA FANI EST
2 CORSET Ruth AUSTRALIE AUS
3 VERBEKE Grace LOTTO BEL
4 DE VOCHT Liesbet Belgique BEL
5 ANTOSHINA Tatiana RUSSIE RUS
6 PITEL Edwige MICHELA FANI FRA
7 BOYARSKAYA Natalya RUSSIE RUS
8 BUBNENKOVA Svetlana RUSSIE RUS
9 HOHL Jennifer BIGLA SUI
10 STENERHAG Jennie ALRIKSSON SWE
31 HELEN WYMAN – Horizon Fitness
131 ALEX GREENFIELD – Horizon Fitness
134 SARAH STOREY – Horizon Fitness
139 ANNIE SIMPSON – Horizon Fitness
155 PENNY ROWSON – Horizon Fitness
164 BRITT JOCHEMS – Horizon Fitness
For more information about the Horizon Fitness Racing Team, visit www.onthedrops.com.