You could almost say history was made on Sunday when the Coburg women lined up to take part in the Vic State Team Time Trial Champs.   It has been a long time – questionably if ever – since Coburg has fielded a team in this event, and even the organizers were shocked to see 4 Coburg jerseys roll up to the start line.

The team consisted of Christine Ervin, Brooke Condon, Janet Kiely and Trish Knight.  Having ventured out the weekend before to do some practice as a team, we knew what we had to do and understood each other strengths and weaknesses.  With both Janet and Trish having only completed one race each, it was going to be a great learning experience -  though in hindsight they could have picked better weather conditions for their second ever race!

With 2 teams scratching, there was only 5 teams left in the women’s field, and we were off second for the 40km out-and-back race.  The team started well, despite the roaring head wind, with all girls pulling turns and encouraging one another.  With Chris putting in some great efforts at the front, the pace soon heated up and ‘the lights went out’ for Trish who dropped off the back after about 17km.  With all respect to Trish, she kept hammering, and completed the course not far behind us!  This is a girl who has only been riding seriously a few months, and just demonstrates her determination.

With the loss of Trish, the 3 remaining riders worked well together.  We were glad to see the turnaround point, knowing we would be coming home with a tailwind!  The questions has to be asked whether the organizers could have picked a narrower road for us to U-turn on, with the 3 of us almost coming to a complete stop in order to make it round.

The big gears were taken out for the trip home.  After Chris’s hard work into the headwind, it was up to Janet and Brooke to put in some big efforts to bring us home.  Janet – what can I say, there isn’t too much of her, but my god can she churn out the watts! 

With about 2km to go, we were past by eventual winners St Kilda.   Not one that likes to be overtaken, it was Brooke that moved to the front and tried to reel them in.  For possibly the first time in the bike’s history, the 54.11 was in use as we hammered home and finished in a time of just under 78 minutes.

Despite missing the podium, the girls were very happy with their effort.  It was a great learning experience, and we had a lot of fun.  All the women demonstrated their courage, talent and toughness out there.  Watch out next year, with a year’s racing under their belt, the Coburg chicks will be eyeing that podium.

Next stop – team’s pursuit.. 

Results
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1st - St Kilda         1:08.41
2nd - Blackburn     1:13.09
3rd - Carnegie        1:13.17