Cait Elliott's Bundesliga and Racer Bikes Cup Results

In anticipation of Cait's final race result from the Racers Cup, which we should hear about soon, the following is some of her reports from the last few weekends (see also: here and here).

22st June: "The international fun continued yesterday at the Racer Bikes Cup in Winterthur. I had an early start, leaving home at 6.30 to catch the train to meet Richie Felle and James McCluskey who were already there.

The starting line-ups are getting tougher each time, today 42 Elite Females, with 12 nationalities including the British, Dutch, USA and Argentinian national teams. We were lucky that the course was in good condition despite really heavy rain over night.

I was gridded 32nd and a really tight tarmac start loop at the usual ferocious pace meant it was hard to get into a good position. I waited until a nastily steep climb before starting to make up some places. The course was good, a real mixture with something for everyone. Steep climbs on tarmac/fireroad, fun sliddery switchback descents, and long flat fireroad sections (too long if you ask me, I haven’t trained to go fast on the flat!). It meant the racing was really close with different people making time on different sections.

I certainly feel I’m getting stronger, especially on the climbs I was really able to make up time, but didn’t quite feel as fresh as last week (too much training in the week I reckon!). It was a long race, nearly 2 hours for me, and the last lap was tough, I kept seeing the bright orange kit of a Dutch rider closing in on me, but managed to hold her off in the end. I finished 25th (again!) but no getting lapped this time and if I can get 13.8% faster I could win these things!

Afterwards it was fun hanging out with some girls I met at last week’s race and then watching Richie in the men’s race. He wasn’t as lucky with the weather as we were, it started to rain and the course looked super greasy. It was cool to watch Absalon do his thing too, blasting up the hill in the big ring where I was in the granny by the end!"

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15th June: "Yesterday I travelled to Albstadt along with fellow Irish rider Richie Felle of Think Bike to compete in a German Bundesliga race. Ranked UCI Hors Category, this offered the toughest challenge yet featuring 12 different nationalities and a standard comparable to a World Cup.

I got off to a good start getting up to 16^th place and was feeling really strong. The course was amazing, long steep climbs but really fun technical descents. The 30C heat made it hard but 15,000 spectators and an incredible atmosphere helped spur me on. On the 3^rd lap a puncture forced me to run over 3km to the tech zone, loosing 7 minutes and dropping to 30^th. After a quick wheel change bike I rode hard on the next lap to get back to 25^th and into the UCI points, but had to finish early after getting lapped by winner Sabine Spitz.

Although I was gutted to get the puncture I’ve gained a lot of confidence from the way I rode, a big improvement from last week. I was on target to finish on the same lap as the winners and to finish in the top 25 is a great result regardless. I'll look to build on this performance at Swiss Racer Bikes Cup next weekend in Winterthur."