Battle on the Border

[Eleri]

DHBC is well represented at the Battle on the Border with the Men’s NRS Team and Amy Vesty competing in Women’s A Grade which is joined with the Women’s NRS race.

We never imagined we could win a race, or a stage at the NRS level. We don’t have the resources to run a fully-pro team nor do our riders have the luxury of unlimited training time.

The competition at this level is really tough but also fraught. NRS teams are relatively well-resourced and support riders who can contest most of the NRS races and then everyone else. DH Racing is part of everyone else. We get to contest 3 races in a year and we run the team on a shoe-string. If it weren’t for the significant contributions of our sponsors Velofix and King Carpets along with the riders and support teams – we would have nothing.

Yet for young riders it’s a level of racing, and stage racing in particular, that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise. But the corollary of that is the standard at the top end of the race means that riders manage one or two stages, misjudge their tactics and miss a time-cut and that’s the end of their racing for the weekend.

That happened at Battle of the Border this weekend. There’s some disappointed team members tonight reflecting on their racing and training and wishing more had happened. But it’s important to see all that in context.

Stage 1 was 123km ending on Mt Warning and is a tough ride, let alone done as a race. The average speed of the winner was 40.3kph. It’s worth watching the 6 min race review video here. At 3:00 you can spot Alex Chubb (#354).

Stage 2 of Battle of the Border and was a hard day racing for the team. We had four riders on the start line ready to back it up after the gruelling climb up the very steep Mt Warning on the previous days stage.

The course undulated through narrow country roads, up hill and down dale. The many sharp pinches testing the riders legs and fast technical descents testing their handling skills.

Bill Bolton was our best placed rider doing extremely well to complete the arduous 178km not to far from the leaders and is now our best placed rider.
Unfortunately the day was marked by confusion for many riders who made wrong turns on the course due to poor signposting. This resulted in Alex being left out on course until dark despite being well positioned before making the wrong turn. Overall it was solid effort by everyone, and we will be sleeping well tonight

Stage 2 vid (and Stage 1 of the Women) vidhere with one of the DH boys just working hard to stay on the back at 10:00. Imagine how hard it is to stay attached at those speeds and there’s no worse feeling in a race than the elastic streeeetching … and snapping.


Women – Amy Vesty

This is Amy’s first race at this level and she’s been on a steep learning curve. The top women’s NRS teams are in the race including Ruth Corset from Total Rush Hyster who was last year’s NRS women’s champion. So it’s a tough group. And Amy is riding as a solo rider with no team (but support from DHBC also supporting the men’s race.)

In the first stage the 2nd QOM of the day saw Amy and about 15 others split off from the lead bunch. They worked together and chased to get back onto the peloton. Amy said she wasn’t sure what to do and then saw Ashlee Ankudinoff (St George CC and World Junior champ on the track) so she just followed her lead.

Amy slipped off a wheel not far from the end of the race and solo’d home for the last 20 minutes. Ashlee was riding smart, not doing too much in the chase and was rewarded with 2nd place in the stage behind Kimberley Wells. Amy finished up 57th out of 80. Winner’s average speed was 36.4kph
In the 2nd stage (113.5km), Amy told me her goal was to “make it over the first QOM” – in fact she finished with the bunch 2:26 behind a breakaway of 8 that got away at about 74km.

This is a very impressive result for Amy who was 33rd over the line but the 3rd A-Grader. The first 28 places were all NRS team riders. Riding without a team means that it’s harder to ride a tactical race and to have the security of a team. In Stage 2 Tessa Fabry won the stage but the peloton looks to have been controlled by her team mate Kimberley Wells and was never going to chase. Amy said she wondered why there was no reaction when the found out the breakaway had 4 minutes on the bunch. The average speed of the winner in this stage was 33.5kph.

Sunday sees 2 Stages. The time trial with Amy starting at 9:18. The boys have put their resources towards helping Amy do well and have contributed race wheels (Amy doesn't have any) and a TT helmet. Then a crit in there afternoon and the race weekend is over and it's a long drive back to Sydney.

[Eleri]

You can follow the results of the race here during the day.

[Eleri]

Update:

Amy rode the 9.9km TT this morning and placed 18th from a field of 73.

A top 20 result is a great result for Amy. She was the 2nd A Grader across the line and just 50 secs down on the winner, Tess Fabry who averaged 40.6kph.

The Crit is at 1:00pm.

[Eleri]

The Crit has finished ended up in 18th place, 3 secs down on the winner Kimberely Wells with Jessica Mundy in 2nd and Ruth Corset 3rd - quality competition for sure!

She was the first A-Grader over the line (not sure if there is an actual place for that or not). Avg speed 40.5 kph.

In the GC Amy finished 40th overall, 9:58 down on the winner Tessa Fabry. A big chunk of this is because in Stage 1 she didn't realise where the finish line was and stopped short for a while (rookie error). Overall a great result. She was also 4th A-Grader in the GC. That's significant because everyone else was riding with a team.


[Edited to add GC A-Grade placing.]