Tour ta Malta

Jo in the start gate - proper pro ramp!

Not sure where the original idea to go and do the Tour of Malta came from - but I'm going to blame Frankie White! To start with there was going to be a slightly bigger Manchester Wheelers Women's team headed out but in the end it came down to just me and Jo Street.
We decided to head out for a full week and enjoy a couple of days in Malta before the racing started, this meant setting off at the crack of dawn on the Monday after the Capenwray RR - to say we already had tired legs would be a slight understatement! Anyway we arrived to glorious sunshine and with most of the Squadra Donne team. They have all been to Malta for previous editions and so they were happy to let us tag along to go and check out one of the time trail courses. Turned out that the TT had been moved as there were roadworks but it was nice to get out for a spin and get the legs moving.
Day 2 arrived and more sunshine greeted us so we decided to head out and explore some of the island. Malta is a pretty small island and doesn't have lots and lots of roads - and quite a lot of those are somewhat low on quality. Quite a lot of those we visited were better suited to cyclocross bikes! We also visited a few places of interest the highlight being the walled medieval town of Mdina which was very pretty.
Day 3 and we tagged along with some of the other riders to check out the actual TT course and the first RR course before spending the afternoon preparing and resting ready for Stage 1.

The race technical meeting for the tour was a very good indication of how the next 4 days was going to work......it started an hour late and didn't give us a great deal of information!
But enough to get us to the start of stage 1 and the roll out from the hotel the next morning to ride to the course.

Jo rolling out at the start of Stage 1

Stage 1 was a 18.2km TT on a dual carrigaeway by-pass between 2 roundabouts.......exciting stuff! The road was on a slope and there was a headwind on the downhill leg - and a strong one at that. Not being a time-triallist I luckily didn't have things like a disc-wheel which would have been frankly terrifying! Jo was off early in the order and looked very professional  heading down the start-ramp.We had to ride 7 laps of the course which sounded easy - hmmmm.......well obviously it wasn't that easy as at the end of battling up and down it became apparent that my time was a bit shoddy! I felt like I'd been trying hard and I knew that I'd caught the 2 girls in front of me for 1 and 2 mins respectively. However what I had done was ride 8 laps of the course - what a dimwit! I've no idea where I lost count but that is exactly what I'd done and as the finish line was off the side of the course there was no way of getting my time adjusted - so Day 1 I'd already lost myself more than 5 minutes!! On the positive side I still wasn't last!

On the climb San Martine circuit

Stage 2 was a RR - on the San Martine circuit, an approx 51/2 mile circuit with a long climb, a tough headwind descent and an amazing tailwind section where you could fly along! The startline was close to the top of the long climb so the race was tough straight off the line. I managed to stay with the group right through until about a third of the way up the climb before losing a few metres and slipping out of the front group. The whole field was soon spread in small groups around the circuit with us all engaged in our small battles. I had hoped to stay with the good climbers a bit longer but it wasn't to be and by the end of the race I was around 15mins down on the winner. This was fine until it became apparent that some of the girls that had positions in the top 10 were actually an entire lap down on the winner!! It took 2 days of people complaining to get that sorted out. On the plus side we both avoided crashing unlike some of our fellow riders.

Sprinting out of the bottom roundabout on Stage 3 Gozo

Stage 3 and the second RR of the tour. This time we headed over to the even smaller island of Gozo - which was a fairly epic journey. We had to leave the hotel at 6:30am on a coach with all our bikes loaded onto vans. The coaches took us all to the ferry port where we then unloaded our bikes and jumped on......we then realised that the bikes were just going to lean up against the side of the car deck - we left our bikes nervously and headed up stairs for the 20 minute sail. It was a bit choppy so I'm glad it was only 20 mins. Arriving in Gozo we then rode as a huge convoy across to the race course. This course was just 5km long with a shorter steeper climb which suited me a whole lot better. I was feeling pretty tired but I made myself do several laps to warm-up and get the legs working.
The race started and I was determined to hang in as long as possible, and stayed with the front group until the 3rd go up the climb. I quickly established a small group of us who worked together until the end of the race. The course took place on a single road so we pedalled along one side of a road then turned at a roundabout and headed for the finish line. The wind which had been with us for all the stages was once again in evidence and meant that the final straight had a tailwind.
Tailwind finish - that means that to win the sprint the best place to be is on the front as it's unlikely that people will come past you. Knowing this I made a massive effort to get to the front heading into the roundabout, sprinted out of it and then gradually wound up the pace all the way to the line, I was poised ready to engage full on sprint if anyone came along side but they didn't so I was happy to come home first in the group.
The results eventually came out for this stage and once again they were simply wrong! There was a lapped rider in the top 10, one of the girls I was riding with had been given a placing 2 in front of me and more importantly 3 minutes in front! Aaargh! Jo was even worse off - there were loads of girls placed in front of her that had finished behind and 1 who had done 2 laps less that she should have done and got the same time!
Now neither of us were expecting to be fighting for the podium but we were trying our hardest and it's really frustrating to be given the wrong result.
There was a lot of unhappy riders after the stage and a few bruised and battered after a crash. Once again there were a lot of people who carefully explained to the organisers what had happened and hoped for the results to be changed but so far they still haven't been fixed properly!
This second stage was probably my best and certainly my best placing with an official 13th but an actual 11th!

Stage 4 was the final stage and another time trial. this time only 12km and without the same amount of uphill involved. It was a really wet night and the roads were very damp - this was rather worrying as quite a lot of the roads are super smooth and shiny and slippery. We were ready to go at the allotted 7am, and then we were told 8am was the leaving time - grrrrr and extra hour in bed would have been very welcome!

Stage 4 TT - full kit!

Anyway we eventually rode out to the course very carefully with a heavy shower on the way - but the clouds rolled back and the road dried up and we were ready to go. Jo and I had decided to get the aero-bars on and I fastened on the fancy pointy helmet I'd been lent - it was time to look like a professional tester! Not sure I ride like a tester but definitely went better than I expected made my legs scream and came home with a respectable time and a 20th place finish on the stage.

So, that was the end of the racing, we were both completely spent and felt like we'd done everything we could.

FINISHED! Big smiles from Jo, Paige Milward and I at the end of the TT

The overall result show that we were 21st and 27th place on the G.C. which may or may not be approximately right....

Did I have a good time - well yes, and enjoyed the racing, the sunshine and the company of all the other riders in the womens, men's and masters races but would I go back and ride the race again???
Hmmm if they could sort out the organisation and results then yes maybe, and there are other team managers who are saying they will make sure there are timing chips next year - so I'll have to wait and see what happens with that and let you know!

Jo getting some recovery watching the Tour of Flanders!!