Tuesday/Wednesday were about reccying the first TT stage, and 2 road stages. For me this year is my 5th year riding the Tour ta Malta, and by now know each stage well. So these two day's were more about riding the bikes and checking all was working! (Which wasn't exactly the case!) The bottom bracket on my road bike had decayed over the time in Sicily and needed replacing! So while I had the job of showing the others the courses for the race on my borrowed TT bike! Enter Steve and Steph who very kindly went on a tour of the island in search of a bottom bracket, to what must have been virtually every bike shop there was! Thank you very much to both of you and bike all sorted!
Wednesday and we headed again to the Coast Road, to practise on the TT bikes and for Brit to try the clip on bars that she'd never ridden with! Today we were also joined by Steph who also wanted to practise on the new TT bike.
Race day, stage 1.
Thursday, race day! The first TT on the Coast Road and to my disappointment the race distance had been shorted to 3 laps instead of 4! It's a great stage this and i've always enjoyed this stage, if of course that is the right word to describe a TT!? We were very lucky that team Agones very kindly let us borrow their turbos for the warm up. So all went to plan and we all went off the start ramp and finished with no incidents, now just to wait for the results!
A super ride by Hayley ensured her 2nd place on the podium. Jo and myself finished in 4th and 5th place with the 3rd placed rider being only 1 and 2 seconds in front of us! Ahhhh how close that either one of us could have also made the podium along with Hayley. With all of us safely within the top 14 after stage 1 everyone was ready for the first road stage next day.
Stage 2, St Martins. 6 laps of the best road stage (it's hilly), despite a few seriously bumpy bits of road! I was happy to have got a good start off the line, but very quickly Zappi's came to the front and it was clear their plan was to blow things apart early on. This was a good thing, it saved the messing around crawling up the hill for the first couple of laps and also reduced the risk of the women's race getting mixed up with the men's, which always seems to happen!
First time up the hill and I knew my only chance of keeping contact with the leaders was to be on a good wheel going into the hill. Which I wasn't! I found myself having to move up the outside trying to get back in contact with the leaders at front of the group! Ahhh why oh why! I was in no man's land, trying to get back up to leaders who had moved off the front of group. I knew then there was no getting back, but I still had to try!
Lap 2 and I got a gap on the hill again. There were 2 Zappi's riders, Clare and Anna, up the road, and a 3rd Zappi's rider Sian, was the only other rider to come with me up the hill. Lap 2 we got brought back, but I knew it was just a matter of time before we would be in no man's land between the leaders and the main bunch again. Up the hill for the 3rd time and I rode off the front again, the Zappi's rider came with me, while Brit rode at the front behind.
Last lap and to my surprise we caught Steph! Turns out she'd had the worst bad luck ever, suffering a double puncture! With no neutral service car to be seen for ages! By the time it did arrive, it had no spare wheels left! She finally did make it back into the race!
The results came in that evening and no surprises they were messed up again! Somehow lapped riders had appeared in front of all of us on the day's stage! Everything was eventually corrected and those of us who have been to this race for a number of years are all used to these usual errors! (But the excuse 'it's Malta it always happens' is wearing a bit thin!!)
Day 3 and St Paul's by pass. Again Zappi's took the lead and there was plenty of attacking early on. The main group was quickly whittled down, but this not being a mountain goats course the group remained bigger. By half distance we seemed to have reached a stale mate, no one was getting away! With 2 laps to go we were caught by the men's field. Like in previous years it took this to really split the field. I was ready but still somehow missed the split. I was spinning out trying to close a couple of bike lengths gap to the 5 who had escaped onto the back of the men's field! Next time up the climb and I found myself behind one of the Italian girls, and she was being dropped. With the Women's field still mixed up in the men's race, I was trying to maintain contact with the group containing the rest the team. I could see Brit, Steph and Jo ahead, all trying desperately too to main contact with the group ahead. Jo was the nearest, and I yelled ahead. She heard and dropped back to drag me back onto the group! Back to the group and with 5 up the road I went straight to the front and tried to push the pace but we were never going to get back up to the leaders now!
1 lap to go and Brit reported she was knackered!, (last lap, it's all or nothing I told her!) I asked Jo and Brit to take it in turns to keep the pace going on the front. Which they both did brilliantly, keeping a train going on the front for the whole of the last lap. Round the last corner and up the hill for the last time to the finish. With Jo and Brit on the front, Sian one fo the Zappi's rider attacked in a last ditch effort to the line. I was 3rd in line in our train, how long do I leave it before I think I could close the gap to her, she would tire I knew! Over the steepest section at the bottom of the hill, and I went, with Steph on my wheel. I was closing in on the rider ahead, and as we reached the brow of the hill, and in sight of the finish Steph launched from behind and flew past Sian (Zappi's) to beat her to the line for 6th place, with my yell's of 'Go Steph!'
A trip to Selima for gymnastics in the shopping mall!
Stage 4 and the promised rain forecast the day before had arrived! We all waited to leave the hotel, praying it would stop! The roads are like glass when wet! The road the TT was being held on was of a much better surface so the hope was that this would still be ok given the conditions. Our departure form hotel was delayed by 30min, probably in the hope that the spitting rain would stop. But as we eventually left the hotel, it soon became clear that this was not going to be the case! The rain got worse and within abut 10 minutes we were all drenched. I rode a fair way off the back of the bunch hoping to avoid incident on the way out to the course! Steph had told us all many times about how bad the roads can be!
We reached the course and just to add to everything, we found that there was diesel right across the road on one of the turn points! By this point I had decided that I didn't need to race in this! It was clear that there would be a lot of riders off on that today! We all took shelter in the team car, Hayley continued to prepare to race, until she heard otherwise! I was pretty certain the race would be called off and within half an hour it was announced that the stage had indeed been cancelled!
Luckily we all managed to get back to the hotel by car, and with the bikes safely stowed in a van, we didn't have to creep back by bike! 11am and the overall GC presentation. After the bad luck of stage 2, Steph was awarded 3rd Maltese rider overall.
Final presentation that evening.
Next morning, home time.
Written by Iona.
