Tour de Femme – Day 3

Day three was ugly. There were so many crashes and the worst one happened just behind me in the bunch. Something must have been happening up the road so one of the officials cars suddenly drove to the front of our bunch and slowed down. The bunch was made to lose speed in a hurry and people nearing the rear of the bunch weren’t aware of what had happened in a hurry up ahead. Some riders must have jammed their brakes on and over lapped wheels, about 12 girls went down and five into the hospital. It is the worst sound and feeling ever. Katie was just behind the beginning of it but used her mountain biking skills to ride through it. Monique was riding on the other side of Katie and was forced to go down on top of another rider, she was lucky to escape unharmed and eventually carry on riding… Her brand new shiny Merida bike is written off now though, with a stress fracture and chip in the carbon frame. We were all pretty shaken up and none of us finished very well in today’s stage. It is a shame to finish the tour on a bit of a low but at least none of us got injured AND we had three great hearty days of training! The tour was actually pretty fun, racing on your limit and to keep racing once your smashed too see how deep you can dig. My legs are going to be hurting for a few days still but after that surely they will be ready to start some mountain bike racing!