WIC Suzhou, China

The Suzhou World Inline Cup marathon got underway at 10am under the hottest conditions we have experienced so far this season. It was not only the heat but the humidity, it felt like you were trapped in a sauna. The course was pretty straight forward 21km along Taihu Lake up to a u-turn and then 21km along the same road back to the finish. The road was predominantly smooth and flat apart from a slight incline over a bridge.

There wasn't a huge womens field compared to the European races but there were a lot of local Chinese skaters present. The pace was pretty solid from the start and the attacks started pretty early on into the race. The attacks early on were made by the Alessi team but Tamara and Alexandra from Bont Wheels done a good job controlling the pack and didn't let anything get away. After the u-turn half way into the race a few skaters started to struggle with the heat and constant surge in pace. The attacks started again not long after the turn around but nothing quiet eventuated. With about 10 km to go the pace slowed down dramatically. With the finish nearing and skaters suffering no one was keen to push the pace. At this point Tamara and myself took turns to slowly drift off the front of the pack, by about the 5th attempt Tamara nearly escaped.

With about 2.5 km to go Alexandra made an attack, she gained a reasonable gap from the pack but had towed another skater through with her. The pack didn't react straight away because the skaters were both from two of the stronger teams, Bont Wheels and Alessi. It was a tricky situation because our team was stuck at the front, we didn't want to go too slow and get swamped on the fast finishing straight or go too fast and catch Alexandra. With about 700m to go the Chinese skaters were starting to move up and the two off the front trying to escape from each other. Alexandra had done a heap of work throughout the race and had led for quiet a while on the break so we were unsure if she was going to be able to hang on. Cecilia had saved herself and was fresh for the sprint finish. So at this stage Tamara went to the front and started winding it up so Cecilia and myself were not swamped. We caught Alexandra and Cinzia with about 250m to go. I passed Tamara just after this with Cecilia on my wheel who came past me with about 150m to go. Cecilia took the victory and I came in for 4th. Alexandra finished 14th and Tamara 15th after both working really hard during the race and sacrificing themselves towards the end.

What was surprising this year was how involved the Chinese skaters where throughout the race. They not only tried to escape and chase breaks but they also featured towards the end of the race in the sprint.

Top 5 Women
Photo - Official Website

Photo - Official Website

The Winners, Cecilia & Max
Photo - Official Website

Entertainment at the Welcoming Banquet

Visas Visas Visas

Today the spirit within the Bont house lifted tremendously when we were finally issued our visas for China. About a month ago when we first went to the Chinese Embassy and applied for visas we were denied and told that it was impossible unless we were residents. The only other option was to fly back to our home countries and attain visas. Trying to fly back to New Zealand in between races and the cost of a flight really wasn't an option at all.

But Bill Begg doesn't believe in the word impossible. He got in contact with Rex the president of the Chinese Skating Federation and together they worked really hard to try and improve the situation. After weeks of phone calls back and forth between China and Switzerland, tons of emails and hours on msn we started making progress. At the end of last week it looked like we would get them but needed just a few more final documents from the Chinese Authorities.

At the start of this week with the departure date closing in and still no final papers from China we decided to drive to Frankfurt and try our luck in Germany. We lined up outside the Chinese Consulate after driving four hours only to be told again that it was impossible. It was frustrating because we have been able to attain visas without all this hassle the previous two years, but now with the Olympics in China all the policies have changed.

With Bill being at the Junior European Championships Cheryl Begg toke over the case and chased everything up. Cheryl had an appointment at the Chinese Consulate in Zurich this morning to drop everything off with the final papers and hopefully attain the visas. At midnight last night the final documents had still not arrived nor when we woke up this morning. Running out of time she made a few frantic phone calls to Rex and the papers finally came through just before she left. We all finally have visas one to two days before departure.

It was not only the Bont Wheels Team in this situation, ten other international skaters from various teams were in the same boat and the boat was slowly sinking. So I think we would all like to thank Rex, Bill and Cheryl for all their hard work.

Engadin World Inline Cup

Engadin is probably one of the most beautiful races in the world if you have time to take in the views as you speed down the valley. The 42km is course is predominantly down hill with one 2.6km stretch of up hill and then a reasonably flat run to the finish. There is one nutoriously fast down hill stretch where the mens pack reached a top speed of about 95 km this year even with this section of the race being neutralized.


The womens race started at 4.55pm and with the first section of the race snaking down the valley the pace was pretty solid right from the start. From the start I felt that this was a race where 110mm wheels did have a great advantage over 100's. The first attack was made only after a few kilometers into the race but with the weight of the pack going down hill the few skaters in the group were quickly swallowed up.

The big down hill is about half way into the race and this section was neutralized. I went to the front of the pack before this section because I wanted to lead the down hill. There are quiet a lot of new skaters this year in the WIC that have never raced this course and the hill can be a little intimidating the first year. I didn't want to get caught behind skaters that weren't too confident and may drop off the pack in this section so the safest place to be was the front. After the down hill the course headed up to Pontresina which is the only uphill section of the race. The gradual hill went on for about 2.6km then there was a u-turn at the top and we headed back down. In the womens race this is were the attacks are usually made and in past years a few of these breakaways have lasted until the finish. The first attack was made by Cinzia Ponzetti from the Alessi team but myself and Liana Holguin slowly reeled her in. The next attack was made by India Kuhn from X-Tech, I also chased her down and caught her just before the u-turn. There were about four skaters slightly ahead of the pack at the top of Pontresina including myself but we were caught by the pack on the way back down.

With about 2 to 3 km to go Elma de Vries escaped from the pack. Our team did not realize she had gotten away as we were trying to position ourselves in the pack for the bunch sprint. By the time we realized it was too late and Elma had drifted well up the road, all we could do was wait for the bunch sprint and concentrate on winning that. The Alessi team started the sprint followed by our team, Bont Wheels. Tamara Lorens made the first move for our team with about 500 meters to go. The finish in Engadin is tricky because with about 150 meters to go the road narrows due to a traffic island. I had to hit the front earlier than planned just to make sure we didn't get trapped in and get Cecilia in the clear for a straight run to the finish. Cecilia won the bunch sprint, finishing 2nd and Alexandra coming in for 6th. I was getting rolled by skaters a few meters before the finish and hung on for 9th and Tamara coming in 15th after starting the sprint for our team.