ROUND THREE OF THE PROVELO SUPER LEAGUE
The CDF Racing Program headed to Tasmania last week for Round Three of the ProVelo Super League: the Tour of Tasmania. Hear from a couple of our riders below after a tumultuous yet rewarding tour.
We chatted with Savannah Coupland after her top ten GC and stage results:
Another couple of top ten stage results over the weekend, how did the weekend go with respect to your goals beforehand?
“My results reflected my goals pretty accurately. I wasn’t sure how well I could climb, as I hadn’t raced hills in a peloton for quite some time. So, my main goal was to ride with the front group up the climbs. This meant meeting some process goals of fuelling properly, staying hydrated and positioning well. I was able to tick all of those off, allowing me to be in the best form for the climbs.
I followed some attacks at the end of stage 2 (the first road race), which led me to 5th, then in the 4th stage (2nd Road Race), we went up a 17km climb, which didn’t exactly suit me, but I was able to hold on until the end. Just getting dropped in the uphill sprint at the end, achieving 10th. I didn’t have any goals for the criterium, but I was still able to position well, landing me 9th in the finish. For the whole tour, I ended up with 10th on the General Classification.”
How did you manage your team captain/leader role, with a few young riders on the team this week?
“As the team leader/ captain, I find it most important to understand and listen to all the riders in the team. Creating friendships with the girls so they know they can come to me whenever.
We all chatted heaps before and after every stage, talking about strategies, what we did well and what we could improve on. Unfortunately, for the tour of TAS, we had a few girls impacted by COVID-19, so it was more important to try to keep the morale high.
It was definitely a challenge trying to be inclusive of everyone while still maintaining social distancing. But we managed and still had an amazing time. The team is improving every race, even in small, mighty numbers.”
Darby Gaebler, one of our u/19 men, chatted about his experience in the ProVelo Super League thus far:
This was your second ProVelo event, and your second-ever National level road racing event, how have you found the last few months’ preparations, and how have things gone so far for you in the series?
“Yeah it’s been quite the preparation these past few months. Coming from an mtb background, the training hours were shorter, so it’s been good but challenging to make the jump and increase the training hours for road racing. Definitely enjoying it.
I think the series has been going quite well so far. I’ve definitely learnt a lot about racing at the higher level and also about myself and what I need to improve on for the future. Looking forward to more of it.”
Thank you to Andy Rogers fameandspear.co for the images in this post.
