Women's Race Report
By Peta Mullens

Stage 1 and 2
Once upon a time, I was cleaning my bike, shoes and helmet for a race. I accidentally used vegetable oil on my helmet, and I won. Maybe I could have done with some oil on Saturday in preparation for the time trial at the 2008 Tour of Coleraine. It had been a long week, a long day, and a very long car trip. On arrival, I knew we were 100% country when we stopped off at a public toilet to be greeted by a long drop, and a sign above the plunge reading ‘Please close lid to compact odour’. I had been eating for about seven hours to keep myself occupied, and more importantly distracted from the weekend of racing ahead. There were huge amounts of pressure to win back to back titles (especially from me), to say the least! I went to check out the dreaded time trial course, only to see three of my competitors removing decked out TT bikes with disc wheels from their cars. Clearly they were motivated, as it had been raining for the past hour, so after studying the course from the safety of my car, I returned to the Hamilton pub to eat some more!

I had told Nicole Whitburn we were sleeping in the ‘foyer’ at the Wannon River Holiday Park. So when she arrived out whoop-whoop, she thought that she would be waking to a receptionist taking bookings at the front desk…thank god I was wrong! We were in fact sleeping in the ‘function centre’, a huge building that seats 85 people, includes a commercial kitchen, bar and cool room, an open fire-place, a switchboard of 32 lights, and a surround sound stereo! They had set up three beds for Nic, my Mum and I, so it became quite the slumber party!

I felt good in the 9.2km time trial, and was pleased to see that my time was competitive with the likes of those on time trial bikes, as I had opted to simply ride my Teschner. Kathy managed to claim the yellow jersey, going into stage 2 with a 21 second buffer that I was desperate to reduce. The afternoon saw us fronted with a 72km road race. With QOM and stage bonuses up for grabs, it was understandable that choice words were spoken when, leading into the first QOM, I dropped my chain with 500m to go! I dismounted; yanked away my SRM reader that had caused my chain to be caught, remounted, and won the hill sprint. It was here were a group of five went clear, including Kathy, Tess, Lisa Friend, Christine Foster and I. When Tess dropped her chain, I towed her back up, and when Nic made contact, she led me out for the final 2kms. Tess caught me off guard, jumping from the final corner, but I managed to chase the gap and take the win, to move to within 10 seconds of the tour lead! Woo!
 

Stage 3 and 4
By the time Sunday morning had come, after consuming the famous Chicken Parmigiana that has led me through every stage in Coleraine, and a restless night’s sleep, I was prepared to take the yellow jersey and back to back titles. I felt strong, was climbing well, and had 19 girls who were willing to help me relegate Kathy down the podium during our 66km road race. Once again I went head to head with her in the QOM, where she ran me off the road…twice…and after some malicious words, I took out the QOM classification. Christine Foster and Simone Spykers were the aggressors today, but with desperate time bonuses still on offer, a bunch kick was bound to prevail. Nic played the early role in our lead out, before Tess took over her duties. A look left, and a look right down the finishing straight, showed that Kathy was out of contention, so we were able to hand Tess stage victory, obtain critical bonus seconds, and claim the yellow jersey by 2 seconds!

What would prepare me better for an 18km criterium than a beef pastie? Well almost anything would have been more appropriate, but they looked SO good, and must have been made of something special… The opening minutes of racing saw Tess trying for a breakaway. Even with a stage win, she needed to escape Kathy by 22seconds to move to second on GC. So after claiming the intermediate sprint, I continued an attack, taking 6 girls with me, and leaving Kathy to chase. Nic and I worked hard to extend the margin, with the gap at 16seconds with 2kms remaining! We assured Tess the stage win, and waited nervously as the seconds counted down to Kathy’s finish. The verdict? 33 seconds! A successful tour for the team! The VIS claiming three 1-2 stage wins, the QOM classification and 1-2 in the overall classification! Now I can look ahead to Baw Baw, and merely hope that Frank Cipriano doesn’t beat me home, as he’s already four seconds up after the time trial in Coleraine!!