The heat, nerves and exhaustion were testing my preparations for the third stage of the crits. We had to make a choice - go for overall or go for the series win. We knew Plan B would be marking me heavily for this course and with the nice hill in the course I was a little bit worried. Watching the support men steadily get dropped and lapped all I could think about was my race here last year when the same thing happened to me very early on in the race.
Fleet's great support crew kept us cool and calm and I got to the start line feeling good despite the headache and nausea I'd been experiencing that morning. Fleet had to keep an eye on Plan B's Davina and Bella and that we did. Sally Robbins set the pace for most of the race with very few attacks going and those that did go were short lived. Sally, Liz, Bec and I all tried to get off the front. Half way through the race we noticed that Bella was in trouble and upped the pace again. Soon it was Fleet vs Plan B with Sally taking charge in the final laps. With half a lap to go I moved to the front with the plan of leading Bec out for the sprint. Davina managed to get between us but in the end, Bec chose wisely when deciding which side to sprint on and being protected from the wind stormed home with a late acceleration to just beat Davina. I held on for third.
Stage 3 Podium1. Bec Halliday (Fleet)
2. Davina Summers
3. Holly McClellan (Fleet)
4. Liz Leyden
5. Sally Robbins
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