Jo Hogan – European Update

By Jo Hogan (Twitter @jojohoganTR) Hello family and friends,   It is hard to believe another month has nearly past and itis only eight weeks until I will be returning to the Aussie shores.? I am currently traveling to France from Belgium,for the Tour of Limousin. I am a guest riding for a Belgium based team, SengersLadies Cycling Team.? In this update, I willinclude a few race reports, as I have been fortunate to have been racing quieta bit over the last month.? I will concentrate on the highlights of these races! 🙂   My first race in Belgium was a kermesse in Steenokkerzeel whereI placed 2nd.? This was apleasing result, however I developed flu symptoms over the next 24 hours andwas unable to do the three day race block I had intended to do in preparationfor the Tour de Feminine in the Czech Republic.   For the Tour de Feminine, I was a guest rider for aNorwegian Team, CK Vittoria, along with an experienced Australian rider, EmmaMackie and fellow Victorian, Amy Bradley, who had just arrived from Melbournefor a six week racing block in Europe. We hired a car and had a great time road tripping across Europe toCzech, with the open freeways being a highlight!?:-)? I had two strong finishes in the firsttwo stages of the tour and with a couple of time bonus?, was sitting in fourthon general classification (GC) going into the third stage, an individual timetrial.? A disappointing result saw memove from 4th to 14th on the GC after the time trial.? I had a better final stage and finished 10thoverall.? Amy has also written a blogabout the race that can be seen here: http://aimzbradley.blogspot.com.es/2012/07/tour-feminin-krasna-lipa.html   The Tour of Limousin saw me return to France with the Sengers LadiesTeam, who had recently had great success, with their rider Anna Van Der Breggen winning the TourF?minine de Bretagne .? Annais a Dutch under 23 rider who has been in amazing form, riding both the Giroand Bretagne leading into the tour.? Shewas the dedicated team leader and the objective of the team was to support herfor the best GC result possible.? On thefirst stage, Anna and myself were in the front group.? [W:Marianna Vos], who is in amazing form, hadattacked early in the race and we were in the chase group.? Unfortunately Anna punctured and with ourteam car being 17th in the convoy and the neural service not inclose proximity, I gave my wheel to Anna and waited until I could getservice.? Unfortunately this was acritical point in the race and I was unable to get back to the frontbunch.   Day 2 was an individual time trial and I was lucky enough tobe able to use one of the team?s amazing n7even time trial bikes.? Anna had a sensational time trial andfinished in first position, beating Vos. The team was definitely on a high. Anna moved into 4th place on GC. Day 3 was a 128km road stagethat again saw a group getaway early in the first climbs of the day.? My team mates Anna, Karen and I made the firstsplit, however at about the 35 km mark, after a few attacks that put pressureon the group, I exploded! This is the time when you need to fuel up and try to recover,unfortunately it was a little more difficult and I found myself being unable tohold the group and was then caught by the chasing group.? This was extremely disappointing and I had torefocus at the end of the stage, ready to continue to defend the Young Rider Jersey and Anna?s position on GC.   The final stage started with an interesting uphill neutral,with the climber and GC contenders already making their way to the front of thepeloton.?? My role for the day was tocover the attacks of all the Young Riders threatening Anna?s jersey and to staywith Anna for the race, making sure she was well positioned in the bunch, helpwith feeding and assist if she had a mechanical.? The stage went to plan, however we wereunable to cover Vos?s attack mid-way through the stage.? Anna finished 7th on the stage, 5thon GC and took the Young Rider Jersey.   At the end of another great racing experience, I was luckyenough to travel with the Norwegian Cycling Team to Paris. I enjoyed two dayssightseeing and taking in the magnificent city. I was mind blown by its beauty, history and culture.? Unfortunately I was a day late for the finishof the 2012 [W:Tour De France]!   My next race is with Bizkaia in a Spanish Cup Race thisSunday and then Trophee D?Or Tour in France from the 18th-22nd of August.   Take care and ride safe,   Jo