The ProVelo Super League moved up to the harbour city for round four. Meridian Blue powered by 99Bikes took a positive mindset and were determined to animate the three stage race.
Unfortunately Alyssa Polites was unable to join the team due to persisting concussion symptoms from her crash earlier in the season at Cadel‘s Great Ocean Road Race. We were pleased to welcome Lauren Bates into the team after her individual performance at tour of Tasmania that left her third on the overall podium and with the Queen stage win.
All of the races in Sydney were lively, and Meridian Blue featured for the right, and wrong reasons. Keely was able to laugh off her celebration in stage one where confusion reined about how many laps were left leaving our leading sprinter with the embarrassment of posting up one lap early. Up until that point in time the team had impacted the race with a significant attack from Kirsty Watts putting the whole peloton under pressure making a solo effort that lasted around three laps.
The criterium at Cronulla foreshore was a magnificent event on a sunny Saturday afternoon in front of a large crowd and sold out VIP area. Aggressive attacks from the front of this very fast crit were managed by the whole team. Mia Williams setting up in a four person breakaway that dominated the second half of the race. It was finally reeled in with two laps to go and in the chaos of the last 300m Keely was able to take the inside line to sprint for a second on a thrilling stage.
Stage three was relocated south west towards Canberra just off the Hume Highway at Pheasant Wood Motor Circuit. The 2 km circuit had something like 16 corners! The Meridian Blue team attacked from the gun with an initial five person breakaway including Lauren Bates, Keely Bennett and Kirsty Watts. The efforts didn’t stop for the first half an hour at which stage quite a number of writers had already been shelled and the peloton was on the limit. Soon after a five person breakaway including Mia Williams got away and eventually established a two minute lead over the peloton. Mia took a number of intermediate sprint points and eventually finished stage three in fourth position securing fourth on GC.Soon after a five person Breakaway including Mia Williams got away and eventually established a two minute lead over the peloton. Mia took a number of intermediate sprint points and eventually finished stage three in fourth position securing fourth on GC.
The weekend was all about attacking and animating the race. It was good for television and certainly fun for the whole team. Taking out the Teams Classification was an added bonus!
