Roller Girl: Nicole Begg: Alexandra Vivas Winner WIC, Wolvega

The World Inline Cup finally made it to Holland for the first time. Wolvega, a small dutch village hosted the third round of the World Inline Cup series.

The womens race started at 2pm in the middle of the village cheered on by an enthusiastic crowd. The first 500 meters of the race was neutralized but as soon as the flag was raised and the pace car took off the attacks started. The local skaters set the pace and attacked early. We had to react to all these early attacks made because many of the Dutch skaters were unknown. A handful of attacks were made in the first 15km of the race but none of them eventuated, then we hit the cobbles/small bricks. There was a patch about 3km long of small bricks which sent vibrations through your whole body, including my jaw. I went to the front and pushed the pace over this section because I just wanted to get over them as quickly as possible. Hilde Goovaerts then attacked half way over the section and was joined by myself, Liana Holguin and Catherine Penan but the small gap was soon closed down. Not long after that there was another tough section as we crossed over the dyke, the wind was really strong and the roads were rough and quiet narrow, again the attacks kept coming.

At the 31km mark there was a sprint for prizes. The team decided before the race that if we were near the front of the pack and not too many others were contending the sprint we would go for it. I followed a train of about four skaters from Cado Motus and popped out from behind them to lunge and take first off of Hilde Goovaerts by less than a wheel. Tamara Llorens (Bont Wheels) then attacked over the top of the pack as planned but before the gap opened up anymore she was chased down.

Bont Wheels Team made sure we had at least one team member in every serious attack throughout the race. This was successful and with less than 15km to go the winning break away was formed. Alexandra Vivas (Bont Wheels), Nadine Gloor (RB IBU Speedorom) and Elma de Vries (Cado Motus) were able to get away as Tamara was in control at the front of the pack. Liana Holguin then attacked and bridged the gap to the other three skaters. Jana Gegner tried to chase down the break along with members of the Alessi Powerslide team but their attempt was unsuccessful. A few kilometers down the road Catherine Penan headed to the front of the pack and started chasing but by this stage the breakaway of four skaters was well and truly gone and out of sight.

Elma de Vries had a small gap over the other three skaters in the break away through the cobbled streets of Wolvega heading towards the finish. Liana dropped off after her attempt to catch Elma leaving Alexandra to bridge the gap with Nadine Gloor on her wheel. Alexandra passed Elma through the last corner heading into the finish straight with about 250 meters to go followed closely by Nadine. Nadine made a final attempt to get past Alexandra with a few meters to go but Alexandra lunged at the line after stumbling to take first place for the Bont Wheels Team.

Tamara followed by Cecilia led the main pack through the cobbled streets up to the last corner, then Cecilia opened up down the last finish straight to win the pack sprint. By this stage I wasn't feeling too good at all and very low on energy but I managed to finish 10th. After being unable to eat solid food since Sursee two weeks ago I didn't feel like myself during the race. It doesn't matter how much energy is in the liquids I've been taking it just doesn't replace proper unprocessed food. I didn't feel strong and was unable to relax because I was aware and always conscious of my jaw, I didn't want to cause any more damage. Tamara after a long lead out and a lot of work during the race came in 20th.

I said in an interview before hand that I expected the WIC race in Wolvega to be hard with cobble stones, windy conditions and rough roads and my prediction was pretty much on the money.