Ras na mBan Stage 5: The Queen Stage

This morning was the epic "Queen stage". The race start time had been brought forward by 2hrs in the interest of rider safety. I woke up at 7am to find that two of my team mates had been ill all night and so wouldn't be able to start the race. At breakfast it became obvious that Sandra and Karen weren't the only ones who had caught the mystery illness. Around 15 to 20 riders were ill. We rolled out of the start, up the hill that we had ridden on the TT course 2 days previously. The stage was neutralised for the first 4km, after which the start flag was dropped and the pace was set fairly high, to try and limit the carnage that might occur once we reached the extremely narrow single track roads. We hit the first climb. It rolled gradually up until we got to the point where the gradient ramps up. There was grass in the middle of the road, as well as loose gravel. I was in the middle of the bunch and struggling to move through the pack. I had to work my way through the mass of riders right until the top of the climb. Nine riders had gone clear over the top. I was one of the first, after the lead group, over the top, having worked my way up to the front of the pack. The descent was just as narrow as the climb. I had a couple of riders go past me and then one of the Dutch girls came flying past. She yelled, "On your inside," and hurtled past me. (I was slowing down at this point, knowing we were about to enter a right hand bend.) She realised too late, braked, locking her back wheel, and then hit the barbed wire fence: the only thing stopping her from falling off the edge of the hill. After that I took it a bit more cautiously, allowing more riders to fly past, knowing that they were joining the group that was forming ahead. So I knew that as long as I stayed within bridging distance, I would be fine to jump back on. At the bottom of the climb, I bridged across the gap to the second group on the road fairly quickly. The group slowed a lot into the headwind before the second climb. It rose gradually up. The Japanese girl decided she wanted to get a head start into the climb and rode off the front. The climb zig-zaged slightly and we could see the lead group near the top of the climb. It got steep at the last bend before the top. I lost a bit of ground over the steepest section, grinding up the hill in my 53/25, while the Dutch girls came past me, spinning away. Once around this bend, however, I made the lost ground back up. This second descent we had seen the previous day and so I took it very steady. As it turned out the freshly-laid gravel section wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be. The worst part was the top section of the descent, with a very steep and twisting section. I lost ground on the group I was with, despite being one of the first 3-4 to reach the top of the climb. I didn't care though: I just wanted to get down the descent in one piece. I worked with one of the Dutch girls and a Danish girl, who had also lost ground on the bunch. I never somehow doubted that I wouldn't get back on. We had to work for longer to reach the cars, which by now had come past us, but we got there and then I got back on the group. The group was going slowly, so I moved straight to the front and continued to push the pace on. Only a couple of the High Wycombe girls came through to help, and very quickly I was fed up with dragging them all along. By the time we reached Waterville and the bottom of the last climb I had decided that I needed to try and get rid of a few of the wheel-suckers! I set the pace. One High Wycombe girl helped. I then ramped the pace up slightly more and I must have got a gap, as next thing I realised, Irish rider Louise Moriarty came flying past and yelled, "UP"! I kicked and got on her wheel. The pace was high, and she gapped me slightly. I managed to peg the gap, we were both away. Louise slowed towards the top and I managed to bridge over near the very top of the climb. We worked together, and had around a minute's lead. By the time we reached the descent into town and 5km to go, the gap was at 50 seconds. The bunch had got themselves organised and on the run into town they were chasing us down. I was none the wiser, not having heard any of the time checks. Steve was calling out of the car window, "1km to go!" and we worked together all the way to the line, crossing the line together. The bunch was only about 20 seconds behind us. All in all, a good day's racing, and very pleased to have stayed away for 10th or 11th place on the stage. Iona