Chloe Hosking

My La Course by Le Tour

Posted on July 28, 2016     4 Comments

What a difference a year makes. For those who don’t know, my 2015 La Course by le Tour finished somewhat differently than this year’s edition. I helped my teammate Jolien d’Hoore to a well earned second place. She was beaten only by Anna van der Breggen who rolled the dice and took off in front of the peloton with just over a lap to race.

That night, happy with our performance as a team and caught up in the buzz that surrounds the Tour de France, we went out. My evening ended after I cut my hand on an unfortunately placed glass. I cut three tendons and a nerve in my left hand. As I discovered, this was not a good idea. Some people said to me afterwards in an effort to comfort me, “at least you didn’t break it.” I wish I had broke it, I would have been back racing in a month. Instead, I flew home to Australia, closed the cover on my 2015 season and began three and half months of intensive hand rehab. 

It was a hard way to learn a lesson I probably should have already known. Still, it instilled in me a new sense of focus and work ethic that had been missing from my training and preparation previously.

A year on and the renewed focus and new strength I gained after spending five days a week in the gym when I couldn’t ride is starting to pay off. 

2016 is the third year the women’s peloton has raced La Course by Le Tour and it has established itself as one of the biggest races on the calendar largely because of the small event it proceeds — the final stage of the men’s three week Tour de France. But also because of the amount of exposure it receives, this year it was broadcast live in 38 countries. 

The course is iconic in the world of cycling; the long, wide boulevards of the Champs-Élysées, the imposing shadow of the Arc de Triomphe, the towering figure of the Luxor Obelisk in Place de la Concorde. I have grown up watching the sprint stars of the men’s peloton battle it out for the final stage honours of our sports biggest race. To be given the opportunity to sprint on the same roads, in front of the same crowds, for the past three years has been a monumental step forward in women’s cycling. 

The Tactics 
Out team director had split the race up into three sections and designated riders for each sections; our young Brits — Amy Roberts and Lucy Garner — were to look after things early while Dani King and Audrey Cordon would take over towards the middle and end of the race. Our dutchie, Amy Pieters, had a free role; she could go in moves if it felt right and would help me in the finish if it came down to a bunch sprint. I just had to wait. 

It doesn’t sound like rocket science, but nor should it. 

The Race 

It’s hard for me to give a blow by blow account of what actually happened from kilometre one to kilometre 89 because —largely — I had no idea what was happening.

Given my role was to wait I made the decision to sit back in the peloton and stay protected from the wind. After two editions of the race I had learnt how much energy you can save by sitting around 50th position, particularly on a course like the Champs-Élysées. 

I remembered thinking last year how strange it was that the majority of the Rabobank team were sitting quietly out of trouble only for Anna van de Breggen to school the entire field in how to win a bike race.

I was hiding so well that I totally missed when the first dangerous break of the day went. The first I heard of it was our director in the radio listing the rider names, ’28 seconds to Brand, Blaak, Barnes, Zabelinskaya’.

Oh man. It was like Kim Kardashian’s wedding to Kris Humphries; it happened so quickly it was easy to miss. I could only hope that the break would be as short lived as Kim and Kris’ nuptials. 

Before I even had a chance to start talking in the radio to raise the alarm Audrey and Amy were on the front trying to close the gap. 21 seconds. 15 seconds. The break hung in front of the peloton for 2 or so laps before it was finally reeled in. If we counted it in dog years it may well have lasted longer than Kim’s wedding. 

Around 3 laps to go I started to creep closer to the front. I made my way to where I needed to be just in time to see Amy P cannon ball off the front with Lucinda Brand and another Tibco rider. It put my teammates and I in the perfect position behind her. Dani and I, almost in unison, screamed into our radios, ‘Go Amy! GO, GO!’. 

With a little less than a lap to go however as we vibrated along the Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe the peloton swallowed up Amy’s triplet. It was going to be a bunch sprint, or so I assumed. 

Audrey led me around the outside of the peloton to the front to keep me or of trouble and all my focus turned to finding the right wheel for the final.  

…all of a sudden Ellen van Dijk shot out of the peloton…She obviously hadn’t read the script, this was meant to be a bunch sprint. 

With 3km to go I had found Lotta Lepisto’s wheel. Orica had started their lead out train too and the fight for position was really on. Imagine the customs line at an airport, then imagine being on bikes. This is what it’s like coming into the final kilometres of a race like la Course. 

Then all of a sudden Ellen van Dijk shot out of the peloton and down the ramp into the tunnel faster than you backtrack when you say you’ll come to something with your family and then find out you have to pay. She obviously hadn’t read the script, this was meant to be a bunch sprint. 

I literally thought, ‘oh shit’. I had no one left, they had done their jobs already, and I learnt after the race, had all been caught in crashes. I couldn’t chase Ellen myself. I had to wait.

The Canyon-SRAM team obviously felt the same sense of urgency as I did and flicked out of the compact group in pursuit of Ellen who had already established a solid gap with about 1.5kms to go. 

The issue was there was only two left in the Canyon train — Alena Amialiusik and Tiffany Cronwell — and one of the had to sprint leaving only one to chase Ellen, a former world time trial champion. Position third and glued to Tiffany’s wheel as we powered towards the final kilometre I was willing Alena to keep going but I could see her starting to rock on her bike. We weren’t going to catch Ellen. 

Then as we rode under the 1km to go banner I could feel riders coming up on the right hand side. I started to move out and somehow found myself on Pauline Ferrand-Prevot’s wheel. She was flying. She took it through the two last corners but Ellen still had twenty metres on the peloton with 350metres to go. 

 I was looking under my arms to see if any wheels we creeping up behind me but nothing came. The finish line kept getting closer and no one was coming around me, ‘this can’t be real’. 

And then Pauline swung to the right. She was done. I was on the front. This is way too early. 

It is amazing how much actually goes through your head in a sprint, it seems like you have minutes to make decisions but really it’s milliseconds. I decided to go. I figured I could jump and maybe hang on for a podium or get swamped and come away with nothing.

With Pauline in the middle of the road and Ellen glued to the barriers on the left hand side of the road I put the power to the pedals and steered my bike for Ellen’s back wheel. I figured I could run at her wheel and maybe use her as a wind break to close the last few metres. I must have passed her with 200metres or so to race. Then I just had to keep going. 

With my elbows out and head down I just tried to put everything through the pedals. I was looking under my arms to see if any wheels we creeping up behind me but nothing came. The finish line kept getting closer and no one was coming around me, ‘this can’t be real’. 

Then I won La Course by Le Tour de France. The words still seem foreign, like a dream. 

While crossing the line with my hands clasped over my mouth was an amazing feeling, I think searching my family and fiancé out of the crowd moments afterwards topped it. My mum was in tears, my Dad had a smile that could challenge Denzel Washington’s and my Fiancé was lost for words. 

I felt all these emotions and more. To win on the Champs-Élysées; I still feel like I’m dreaming. 

But for those who are wondering, I didn’t get caught up in buzz this year. I was tucked up in my bed, and not a hospital bed, by 12am. My Dad always told me nothing good happens after midnight. 

My Giro Rosa (so far)

Posted on July 5, 2016     1 Comment

I figured if anything warranted a blog it was winning a stage of the Giro Rosa. Also, one of my pushy Twitter followers suggested I should write one so here I am. 

I’ve started the Giro four times, five including this year. I’ve finished twice. As a sprinter it is not an easy race to finish. As a sprinter preparing for the Qatar World Championships (read; dead flat) when the rest of the peloton are preparing for the Rio Olympics (read; extremely hilly) I was sceptical about my chances of finishing a third. 

And to be honest, the first two road stages did little to reassure me. Fortunately however, my past four starts have taught me a thing or two about surviving what is one of the hardest women’s stage races. 

After the opening prologue where I finished 18th I knew there were a few tough road stages before the gradient would finally be in my favour. 

I decided that after doing my job for the team on the flat — which largely involved ferrying bottles back and forth, communicating with our director, covering any rouge attacks and helping position our climbers into the climb — I would conserve my energy. 

Rather than killing myself to stay with ‘grupetto’ I swallowed my pride and filtered back through the peloton. Watching team cars speed by and feeling team directora judgement on my back as they passed was almost enough to make me question my tactics. Luckily, by the time they passed me I was too dropped to question my decision anyway. 

This was a tactic I had learnt, but not employed, in the 2014 Giro Rosa. Then, when the battle for stage honours was well and truly up the road I continued to battle to hold onto the group in front of me. By the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th stages girls who had been 10 minutes behind me earlier in the tour were now dancing on their pedals in front of me. Shout out to Iris Slappendel. 

In this year’s Giro, with nothing to prove on the climbs, I decided to employ the above tactic. 

As Mara Abbott said to me in the team car while we were transferring yesterday; “In reality, for sprinters, the aim should be to do as little as possible without getting time cut”. Coming from a woman who has won the Giro twice, I’m inclined to agree. 

Starting yesterday’s stage I was pretty pumped. Thanks to getting myself horrendously dropped the last two days I was feeling quite fresh.

As is common in the Giro, flat stages aren’t necessarily flat. So when you actually do get one you need to make the most of it. Apart from a slight bump around 45km into the 115km course it was — I swear on Chanel — flat. 

That’s not to say it was uneventful, however. The winds had picked up and teams like Boels and Rabobank seemed determined to make the most of them to try and catch out other GC rivals, namely my teammate Mara. Unluckily for them, we were on top of it and the bunch was all together as we hit 15km to go. 

Earlier in the stage Gio had come to me and said we go for me today. I wasn’t going to argue. I immediately switched my attention to the Canyon SRAM sprinter, Barbara Guarischi or ‘Baby-G’. I knew their lead out train was ace and they would be wanting to get their Italian sprinter up for a stage win. In the end, my assumption paid off because with 3km to go it was just the Canyon train and then little old me with entire peloton strung out behind us.

Tiff and Baby-G are two of the best bike handlers in the peloton, I would be lying if I said I was sure I could stay with them around the final corner…

With a little more than 600m to go it was just Tiffany Cromwell, Baby-G and then me. With 300m to go I knew there was a sweeping right hand corner and a tail wind finish. (Information I was happy to have had thanks to our logistics manager who had driven the course a few hours earlier.)

I was in the perfect position. All I needed to do was not crash. This was a legitimate fear. Tiff and Baby-G are two of the best bike handlers in the peloton, I would be lying if I said I was sure I could stay with them around the final corner. Adrenaline must have won out over fear however, because as Tiff swept through the final corner I stayed tucked onto Baby-G’s wheel. 

275 metres to go…

250 metres to go…

200 metres to go…

I didn’t want to wait any longer. I jumped off Baby-G’s wheel even before Tiff had finished her final lead out. With 75 metres left to race I started to worry; ‘Oh man, did I kick too early? Are they about to swamp me?’ 

I won with over a bike length. It was a surreal feeling. To win a stage of the Giro Rosa. I don’t think words can do it justice.

What potentially was more satisfying was knowing that my tactic had worked. I may be be minutes down on the GC but I won a stay of the Giro Rosa.