The team have settled into the rhythm of racing in Europe now two months from landing.
May was a big month, with all eight riders making great progress. Two tours in Czechia and two weekends in Brittany totalled more than 90 hours of driving.
The payback for criss-crossing Northern Europe was participation in some terrific racing.
Early in the month Gracia Orlová was raced over 4 days on hilly parcours in Eastern Czechia. In a massive peloton there was a wide range of teams with the front of the race ridden aggressively. In the flatter stages Amelie had some standout rides with two top tens (4th and 9th) while Inez finished at 2’20” on the final climb on stage 3, in P38. Kirsty’s TT was super strong with finishing P17 at 38” from the winner.
The team suffered from some fatigue after Gracia, with viral infections popping and forcing us to change plans for Morbihan. Amelie was activated for the trip West with Hannah, Inez and Georgia all unavailable.
The fantastic four lined up for La Classique on a fast circuit and with a big sprint Mia P32 and Kirsty P23 helped Amelie to another top 10 finish (P7).
The next day on a slightly more testing course the race was expected to be more attritional. Unfortunately for Mia, who was our protected rider, a crash touching wheels at the front group had her hit the ground hard and take several minutes to restart. Her day was over but Amelie and Kirsty fought on for commendable finishes, P33 and P60 respectively.
The squad back in Ghent recovered and we were able to get a full team heading to Bohemia for Tour de Feminin. This is a race that Taryn podiumed at in 2013, so carried some extra weight for our young team.
Kirsty and Amelie took some well earned time off and we lined up eager to support our climbers over a course with more than 5000m of climbing on 3 road stages.
Inez and Ava made an impression in the first half of the race P64 and P68 in stage 2 after a TTT in stage 1 where the team were a little disappointed in their time, finishing amongst the last few.
Stage 3 saw Hannah work super hard for a finish in the peloton with Inez at P57 and P75 respectively. Stage 4 saw Inez close out the race 44” off the lead at P40 and Mia resetting after stage 3 to finish a brace P57.
With little time to recover between races the team is really finding out what it takes. The physical and mental game is real. June saw recovery time off for all riders, and illness impacting results across the board.
Next races: Tour de Bretagne, DDDW and Tour Feminin des Pyrénées
