Wellington World Cup
Having watched a few womens races in recent years I can honestly say I have never seen one quite like the 2006 edition of the Wellington World Cup. The way the kiwi girls ripped into it right from the gun was inspiring. As if feeding off each others positivity the girls in black laid down one aggressive attack after another, causing some unprecedented early splintering. At one point in the first few laps I ventured down to the flat section of the course to get a feel for what pace the race was being ridden at. What I saw at this point was Toni on the front of a peleton stretched out over about 800m. But it wasn't the whole peleton as the race was being blown apart, with 3 or 4 large groups. Toni was looking over her shoulder as if to say - is that all you've got! I don't think she knew what the tempo was doing to those behind her. The remaining 40 riders were strung out in single file, with pain etched across many of their faces.
This early softening up of the bunch allowed McUlmer to assert her true class on the field. When she went for it solo, everyone was too buggered to respond.
The kiwi quartet left in the bunch controlled any attempts from other riders to bridge up to Sarah and left the Aussies wondering what they have to do to get one back on us for the Commonwealth Games.
The team is really coming together well and looking very strong for Melbourne.
Go the Black Spokes!
Aaron
posted by Toni @ 8:02 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Aaron,
Thank you for keeping us FANS up close and personal with this excellent report of the Wellington section of the UCI World cup. My wife, my sister and her husband watched the first round held in Geelong on Sky sport. One thing that caught our eye is the improvement in womens cycling over the recent past. With more women seemingly being in a position to win or have a podium finish than has been over the long ago or recent past where just a few women dominated.
We have never met Toni or yourself, but knowing that Toni live's, or lived down the road from us, as shared with us by fellow cyclists obviously in the know, is good enough for us to join with Toni and yourself and support crew in having someone close for us, to focus on coming up to these COMM. games.
We know Toni can achieve a podium finish at the games. She is right on the pace. Has obviously done the work. Is hitting her straps nicely. And her show in Wellington was to my mind a reflection of this fact. To set the pace she manifested early on and have every one extended beyond what they perhaps would have wanted, indeed set up nicely the win for Ulmer in my view and going also by your writings. And then to hang in there and work with BOYD, HOLT, HYLAND and WOOD before Susy had whatever caused her disruption, in working together to cover any breaks would not be known by us Joe PUBLIC in watching the race.
As a FAN we vizualise Toni having gone with Sarah instead of setting up the probable outcome of the race with her extreme selflessness. And then outsprinting Sarah in front of an extraordinarily large crowd as witnessed on TV and in this excellant photo of Toni. But we would wish that wouldn't we. damn hahahahahahahahahaha
We pray this is reversed at the COMM.Games as we in the neighbour-hood are already exited at living close to a Comm. games representitive. But do you realise Aaron, what it would do with the psychology of us local FANS if Toni came home with a deserved medal?
We know the complexities of these races and the desire of every competitor to have a slice of a piece of the cake of which there are only three slices. damn again
But in the COMM. games our DREAM from the FAN'S point of view is for Toni to become extremly inner focused. I've done the work. I'm in bloody good shape. I'm in a good space within myself. I am absolutely going to focus on where I am in the equation of this road race and worry only about my own performance and stay in touch with those who pose the ultimate threat. Ole
I HAVE A DREAM. I HAVE A DREAM. I HAVE A DREAM.
Who would fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when we can SOAR with the mighty wings of Toni BRADSHAW in the ultimate challenge of these here CommonWealth Games Ole
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