Phillip Island Women's Kermesse (7 May 2011)

For this edition of the Phillip Island Women's Kermesse the TDT-Race-Bikeforce team had strength in numbers, with Chloe, Rebecca, Stacey, Sarah, Nicole and Delphine on the start line. The objective for this race was to win or at least get on the podium, and we knew we had to race an aggressive team race in order to beat the other big guns in the field. Indeed, we had quite a few riders to worry about: ex-pro Helen Kelly was racing, as well as the St Kilda Giant team; and the VIS came with a strong contingent in Kendelle Hodges, Victorian champion Joanne Hogan, and new to the women's scene U19 sprinting sensation Imogen Jelbart.



With near perfect conditions for Phillip Island (only a strong wind, not a gale force wind) and sun breaking through the clouds we started racing. Straight away Nik when to the front of the bunch to set the pace while the rest of us moved to sit in the top 10 positions.

From the second lap in we started attacking, first with Delphine, Chloe had a couple of digs, then Stacey and Sarah. The team tactics were to have Bec sit in the bunch and look after herself ready for a sprint finish, with the other girls trying to tire the legs off the other teams.

About half way through the race Sarah made a really strong attack, but was chased down. However she kept the pace high into the wind to string the bunch out. This is when Chloe counter-attacked and managed to get a good break on the field with only Kendelle Hodges (VIS) joining her. Our team went straight to the front to slow the pace. The team worked well to stop the peloton from chasing down the break and the2 leaders stayed away, with Chloe getting outsprinted by Kendelle to take 2nd place.



The minor placings up to tenth place were decided by a bunch kick and it was very difficult for the judges to finalise. After much deliberation and arguing they took us to the back and settled on a classification with the riders involved.
Overall, it was a very successful race with Chloe riding an outstanding race once again and another 2 riders making the top ten :
Chloe - 2nd / Delphine - 7th / Stacey -10th


THANK YOU to our sponsors for making this success possible :
TDT Australia
BIKEFORCE DOCKLANDS
RIDLEY
CHAMPION SYSTEM
BOUWMEESTER, BARTERCARD
WYNDHAMVALE PHYSIOTHERAPY

And to our team manager Kim Howard.