Amanda Jamieson, 18, of Waipukurau, is making her debut for the New Zealand women's team at the annual Santos Tour Down Under in Adelaide. This is her diary:
- Stage 1: My race started off with a bang, literally. 10km in my rear wheel burst on a fast descent (approx.50km/h), with the tube coming out and wrapping around my chain/wheel. I was extremely lucky to not come off as I couldn't brake on my rims and my bike was going all over the place.
After that I had two more mechanical problems (carry-ons from the first mishap) that led me to stopping a further two times and then having to chase back on.
With that happening I could not be up in the front of the bunch helping Emily, Jo and Linda. Which was part of our plan, to just help out our stronger riders. Also to try to get into any possible breaks.
Emily Collins ended up seventh in that first stage, coming second in her bunch sprint with five other riders 47 seconds up the road.
For the overall teams GC the first three riders count for the times, so after stage one team NZ was in 5th place, 47 seconds down on the leading team Cylance Pro Cycling.
Emily was sitting in seventh GC and myself eighth in the young rider classification. Jo 14th, Linda 22nd, myself 51st, Madison 67th and Grace being OTL (over time limit) which means the tour for her is over unfortunately. Travelling the day before wasn't very ideal as most of us were still very tired from it, and not being used to the different time zone.
- Stage 2: The pace was on right from the start, the 37-degree heat didn't slow the top riders down.
Today it was mine and Madison's role (as the young ones) to cover any breaks and moves that happened in the first 15 minutes of the 12 lap, 30-minute criterium. This was to let the other girls just sit in the bunch and rest up for the crucial parts of the race.
In the closing laps of the race, there were a couple of nasty crashes with a lot coming down, none of our team came down thankfully. It did, however, break up the field with Emily again being up the front for the final lap coming in at 12th place, Linda 17th, Madison 21st, Jo 23rd and myself 35th. All riders were given the same time as the winner due to the last crash being within 3km of the finish and causing a lot of us to get caught up behind it.
After this stage our team moved up to third overall on the teams GC! Emily ninth on GC, Jo 15th and Linda 16th.
