WIC Valencia

Last weekend the first World Inline Cup of the year was held in Valencia, Spain. The race course was absolutely spectacular, 3.2 km lap around the formula one circuit. We skated in amongst the Americas Cup village and alongside the harbor which was scattered with super yachts. The stretch leading to the finish was slightly down hill and really fast, while the opposite side gradually rose and the head wind made it more of a challenge. Valencia turned on the good weather also, clear skies and a mild temperature of around 24 degrees.

There was a fun skate for the masses to start with and it was great to see so many people on skates. There would have been at least 3000 - 4000 people participating in the fun skate alone.

I was sick with the flu leading up to the marathon and still felt under the weather on the day so my tactic was to try breakaway with a few skaters so I could at least secure a reasonable position and salvage what I could with how I was feeling.

I started attacking on the second lap and of course I was being watched very closely. Every time I even looked like attacking Giovanna Turchiarelli was right there on my wheel. I had a few reasonable gaps on a couple of occasions but the pack didn't want to let me get away that easily and kept chasing hard. A group of Spanish skaters had a go early on but weren't strong enough to stay away and Melissa Chouleysko also made a couple of attempts. I just kept attacking and on about my 1oth attempt I finally got away.

Coming around with about 8 laps to go I accelerated around the bend coming off of the bridge and took off down the long, fast straight stretch with Giovanna on my wheel. Sara Bak then quickly bridged the gap across to us. Taking short, sharp leads the pack wasn't able to gain any ground on us and then the gap rapidly grew once we were out of sight.

Once we were down to about 3 laps to go and safely away I tried to attack again as I didn't like my chances in a sprint finish. I wasn't feeling great, my throat was croaky and dry and my nose was blocked along with my ears but I had nothing to loose as I didn't have a sprint in me. At times during the marathon I was unsure of my footing and feeling like the ground was moving from under me. I didn't manage to get away, my body just wasn't able to do what my mind wanted it to.

Giovanna won the sprint, I came in 2nd and Sara Bak 3rd. After the race I was struggling to breathe and my throat was really raspy so I was pretty happy with 2nd. Samantha Michael racing for X-Tech Wheelz came in 6th in the bunch sprint, finishing up 9th overall in her first WIC event.

The men's race was dominated by the strong Swiss Skate Team. They took out the top 4 places after nearly their whole team broke away from the rest of the field.