After a promising start to her season a fortnight earlier, UCD’s Cait Elliott stood at the start line in the hope of recording a top 15 finish in this pro-am race in Switzerland on Sunday 19th of April. Unfortunately due to a clerical error, she was forced to start from the back of the race as opposed to about 20th given that she had finished 21st in round one. On what was mostly a tight single track course, overtaking opportunities were few and therefore the administrative error cost her dearly.
Cait’s report is as follows:
“There wasn’t much space but I managed to move up a few spots on the first climb and then lost any advantage as I got stuck behind a huge group when we hit some super steep wooden steps that everyone was running up. I spent the whole of the first lap working like hell to pass people, it was tough, warm weather and steep climbs left me breathing like a donkey and the course was mostly single track so passing opportunities were limited. I got into the back of a group of 5 or 6 people (some of whom I know were ahead of me in Schaan) and it was wheel on wheel stuff with no chance for recovery. By the end of the lap I was in 22nd place (last time I was 27th at that stage so an improvement).
I really enjoyed the course but it was hard work, a 7.2km lap with a mixture of steep climbing and descending (260m total climb per lap) and a lot more technical than last time. The ground was mostly dry but it meant that the few wet parts were super greasy. Into the 2nd lap I’d moved to 2nd in the group and was feeling ok until on a descent someone shouted ‘achtung!’ and next thing I know WHAM, I rammed my shoulder into a tree at full speed and then hit my head and knee as I fell. I got up feeling disorientated, straightened my bike out and hopped back on but I’d lost several places and was passed by a couple of others as I struggled to fight pains every time I hit a bump.
It took a couple of minutes to put the crash out of my mind and get focused again but I pressed on trying to catch the group. We actually all got a split up - a girl 2 places behind me crashed at the same place and couldn’t go on (they taped that line off on the next lap). By lap 3 I’d settled into a good rhythm and kept getting glimpses of people in front. Unfortunately using the upper body was really important with lots of rocks and drops to negotiate, and I wasn’t able to go as fast as I’d have like on the descents. I kept thinking I’d caught the girl ahead and then she’d pull away again.
On the last lap I was chasing hard, but also being chased. As hard as I tried I couldn’t make up another place and was really annoyed to be caught from behind on a descent. I can partly put it down to my shoulder but I would have like to have been strong enough to stop it happening - mentally as much as physically.
I finished in 20th place, some 14 minutes behind the winner. Not the best race ever but I definitely learnt a lot from it, both good and bad. In fact I’m almost happy to have had a bad race so that I know I can deal with it”
Post race, Cait felt the pain of her exertions. Her damaged shoulder was so sore that she was restricted in lifting her arm. She also had to contend with removing stones and cleaning away blood from her leg. She got an x-ray taken the following day which revealed that she had fractured her collarbone and would have to allow 3-4 weeks for it to heal. Everyone involved with UCD CC wish her a speedy return and congratulations on finishing a bike race with a fractured collarbone, which shows how determined and brave Cait really is!
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