There was a chance we would get rained on during the race. I wore arm and leg warmers and was glad I had them most of the time. The first lap was really chill. Suz Weldon’s team pretty much set tempo for the first bit. We even took a pee break; I decided not to stop to pee, but the easy pace was nice. There were a few attacks that opened up good gaps. Suz and her teammates didn’t chase, even when the person off was in GC contention. Kele Murdin did a lot of work chasing things.

There was a prime sprint at the end of the first lap. Kele got a flat a few miles before the sprint, so we were all nice and rode slowly. Kele came blazing to the front (over the yellow line) and took off for the sprint and won it. The pace up the climb wasn’t that fast. We basically rode tempo. There was a headwind, so I don’t think anyone wanted to try anything. I decided to go for the QOM half way up the hill. I was in bad position until about 200 m to go. The window opened and I slipped through. I sprinted and won the QOM, Mara 2nd, Suz Weldon 3rd. The climb was not hard enough, so we had a huge group going into the last lap. A few more people attacked and got off. Extended chases brought them back.

Coming into the hill, a single rider was off. We caught her at the bottom of the climb. We started out steady on the climb for a little bit. Then the attacks started. Sarah Barber attacked, followed by Kele Murdin, then Sarah attacked again, and Mara put in the final attack that shattered things. Mara went off to win the race, Suz Weldon was 10 seconds back (so she kept the leader’s jersey), Sarah was 3rd. I finished 6th. Mara won the QOM competition.