This week I’m sharing a recent story of a wonderful weekend of racing at the Sunshine Women’s Tour. It’s run by the Sunshine Coast Cycling Club and superbly directed and organised by Deborah Latouf, who I work alongside with at Spin Doctor Coaching. We were subject to some challenging conditions on Sunday, that unfortunately did not involve sunshine, and props to everyone involved in managing things so beautifully.

What made the weekend especially fabulous was that our UQCC Argenic Racing Team was represented by a contingent of eight riders - six of us in C grade - Mel, Wendy, Clare, Yvette, Katrina and myself - plus Angelique and Emily repping us in B grade.

The weekend consisted of four stage races with a general classification and points determining the winner.

STAGE ONE - PROLOGUE

The term “prologue” has Greek origins and means “to start”. In cycling, a prologue is a short opening stage that is held at the beginning of a road racing tour. For us, this consisted of a 5.2km all out time trial on the relatively flat Skippy Park course. Additionally, the course featured a couple of tight corners, and negotiating them properly was the key to making a big impact on the outcome of the event.

It has been a good seven years since I had done a prologue - and upon data analysis and revisiting that particular event result, it hadn’t been particularly successful! I narrowed my focus on what process I needed to execute to get the job done, whilst also employing the knowledge that there’s always someone better than you.When you realise this, all that is left to do is carry out what you think is best!

I calculated that the effort would take roughly between eight to ten minutes, and therefore an effort above threshold power (FTP) was going to be required. It’s always scary knowing how intense a short distance time trial is going to feel, so I made sure that I had done some decent activations before hitting the startling in order to make it feel a little less sickly. Competing in time trialling has taught me is to be able to grit my teeth and put myself in the hurt locker and this five km effort was no exception.

When Deb informed me that I had won the event, you could not wipe the smile off my face. It felt good knowing that I could still be competitive even after four years away from road racing.

STAGE TWO - CRITERIUM

Although this was my least successful stage, it was the highlight of the tour for me. Team Argenic came up with a plan in regards how we were going to ride this crit and maximise team points for our QRTS series. We have all raced together in various shapes and forms over the last ten years and this criterium felt like I’d never ever stopped. We buried ourselves to support each other, and I was filled with a sense of gratitude and “coming home”.

Mel and I attacked and attacked each corner and took every opportunity to break away, but it wasn’t to be. Hard to do in a twenty five minute crit, but we were prepared to put it on the line to give it a go and not die wondering! Wendy, Clare, Katrina and Yvette spread themselves over the field and weren’t about to let any of our competitors go down the road either. It was beginning to look as if it was going to be down to a sprint finish.

The bell lap was called, and Yvette’s sixth sense to move up towards the front on the outside had riders drifting over to grab her wheel.This opened up a decent gap in the middle of the field, and Wendy, who’s one of the smartest crit racers I know, simply slipped on through and smashed out a wicked sprint, just when we needed her to, reaching the finish line first. Argenic podiums - two out of two!

Wendy and me celebrating two podiums for Team Argenic Racing!

Not to be outdone by us C graders, Emily and Angelique rode their hearts out in Women’s A/B combined. It was fabulous to see Emily on the rampage driving the pace on the front, then to see the girls close a gap and to see Emily sprinting for second place was absolutely delightful. Overall, a winning day for our team!

STAGE 3 - HILL CLIMB TIME TRIAL

We woke up to inclement weather on Sunday. Seems like the “Sunshine” part had left the “Coast” bit and we were left with a day of wind and torrential rain. It wasn’t to be Argenic Racing’s day on the podium for this event, however, we all rode as hard as we could and managed to remain cheerful, despite the conditions.

This was always going to be my most challenging event of the tour, given that it’s all about the watts/kg and given that I’m a bigger bear than some. I console myself with the hope that it’s all muscle, but this is a stage that favours the lighter riders. Therefore, I was very happy about my fifth place and best five minute power for the year.

As presentations were completed, the weather worsened. As Emily and I were still in contention for the General Classification, we stayed back and decided that we would brave the rain at North Arm while the other girls went their separate ways after what I’ve heard was an excellent second breakfast club meet :).

STAGE FOUR - ROAD RACE

The rain was torrential, yet our spirits remained high. Ten of us brave souls lined up to complete the tour by finishing the road race. As far as road races and sportsman, or should I say “woman” ship was at its finest. Everyone rode safely, being mindful of our fellow competitor as we braved the howling rain and wind.

However, it wasn’t long before we acclimated to conditions and started to form race strategies in our minds, or at least that was what I was beginning to think! I decided to press a little harder into the corners and a small group of four of us were able to split the group on our second lap of the North Arm course.

“Ah goody,” I thought, “only four of us”.

However that wasn’t to last as two riders rejoined us and with one of those girls laying down a solid attack off the feature hill climb’s descent, it looked like it was going to come down to a sprint finish.

As I gleefully tell everyone, I’m not a sprinter, but happened to be smart enough to pick the best wheel to follow. Talent pulled Kelly away from me for the sprint win, but I couldn’t have been happier about my 2nd placing. I think I may have been smiling across the finish line, I was THAT delighted about sprinting.

My second place success meant that I came third overall in the General Classification and earned our Argenic team some valuable points in our QRTS series.

Overall, I couldn’t have asked to participate in a better event. It was well run, but importantly, it was fun, friendly and inclusive, which is often a barrier for women’s participation in sport.

The last couple of weeks with picking up some racing again has been incredible fun. Big thanks to my teammates for their support on the weekend - I had forgotten just how good racing together as a team can be and every time I think of that crit, I just have a grin on my face from ear to ear.

If you are interested in what it takes to do a stage race and want “in” for next year, let me know!

Sunshine Women's Tour 2024 - Event Review and Race Report