CB European UCI Race Report

Coming off a big podium finish in Madrid at the World Cup I was pretty exhausted and had a few days to relax. We stopped over night in Italy, at the Cycling Australia base before we continued onto the UCI World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland. The Australian EDS Squad and I had 2 awesome days of training at the centre on the Supercross track. It was very cold!! It snowed the last day we were there but we all gained a lot and was well worth the time there. We then drove a few hours to Besancon, France for 2 European UCI rounds. The riding over here is completely different to in Australia. All the girls are racing for sheep stations every race and are not afraid to give you a shove. The track was really long and quite technical. All I can say about day 1 racing in France... Is that I have totally wrote it off and put it down to experience. I learnt my lesson to be on top of knowing exactly how many points I am on during the heats, so that I can conserve energy for when it counts, but also qualify at the same time.

Day 2 I had analysed my mistakes made on day 1 and had a plan. I stuck to my technical, tactical, physical and mental plan and it payed off getting me to the final which was a success in its own. I got a bit squeezed down the 1st straight and was sitting in 6th till the last corner where I passed my team mate Rachel and crossed the line for 5th place. Racing at these European rounds is the best race training possible. The level of competition was equivalent to a World Cup. The Australian Team will now have a long 30 hour travel home and return to Europe in 4 weeks for another 2 x UCI rounds and a World Cup in Denmark.

CB

• By Allan H