Sun shine and high temperatures where on the draw cards for the 11th round of the World Inline Cup and they delivered. The marathon started at 3pm right in the center of Switzerland's biggest city, Zurich. The race was held under clear blue skies and a temperature of around 32 degrees. The race was intended only to be 34km long but after a unanimous decision at the technical meeting the night before an extra lap was added on to extend it to 5 laps equaling 43km.The course was 8 km per lap snaking through the city with two u-turns at each end and finishing next to the Opera House and beside lake Zurich. With the course in the center of a big city there were a lot of hazards and obstacles to be aware of things including tram lines, tar snakes, pot holes and generally a lot of uneven road. The course is not dead set smooth and is quite rough in places so the girls opted for a full set of Bont Mint wheels with a hardness of 85A.
Unlike a lot of the races early on in the season attacks were launched throughout the whole race in Zurich. With our team, Bont Wheels dominating the sprint finishes so far this season there were a few teams determined to break away and not let this happen. Nathalie Barbotin and Elma de Vries tried very hard to escape on numerous occasions but our team not only chased a lot of these breaks but countered them as well. All the members from our team where in some sort of break throughout the race. The attack that looked most likely to get away was made by Tamara Llorens who I then joined. We were away for quiet a few kilometers but were caught by the pack coming down the final finish straight with one lap remaining.
Womens PackPhoto -Jorg Dietrich
The pace slowed down quiet a bit over the last lap once Tamara and myself were caught which allowed skaters that had dropped off the pack to catch back up. Tamara and myself tried to recover in the pack while Cecilia and Alexandra covered anything that looked serious. About 5km out from the finish the attacks started again with skaters trying to sneak away in the last few kilometers. Alexandra chased a couple of these breaks but they just kept coming so Cecilia also had to step in with about 3km to go and help bridge gaps. Just after the final u-turn with only about 2km to go Elma de Vries attacked and tried to escape like she did in St Moritz. I didn't hesitate and chased straight away. Before I could position myself with my team before the sprint she attacked again with only about 1km to go, again I chased her down.
The pack caught us and I didn't have time to get back into a good position for the sprint. Jana Gegner came to the front and started to wind up the pace and I positioned myself behind her. With about 250 meters to go Brittany Bowe started the sprint with Cecilia Baena on her wheel. Once I saw them coming I tried to move out and pass Jana to get on the train but there was not a lot of room and they came past with a lot of speed. Cecilia passed Brittany with about 150 meters to go to take the victory, with Alexandra lunging at the line to take a close 3rd. Once I was able to get out from behind Jana and build my speed back up I started catching those in front of me and lunged at the line to take 5th place. Tamara Llorens was sitting in a good position heading into the sprint behind team mates Cecilia and Alexandra but unfortunately crashed with about 700 meters to go. She caused some damage to a ligament in her arm in the crash and is in a soft cast for 4 to 5 days.
The race didn't go quite to plan for our team but we proved we can still pull out the results when things don't go right. At some point in the race we all had to chase breaks and couldn't save anyone in the team for the finish. We were not all together and organized for the sprint finish, and one member short but we were still able to get the results.
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