On Friday the 6th of August, Christchurch Girls’ High School / Te Kura o Hine Waiora’s cycling team travelled up to Blenhiem for a massive weekend of the annual Southern Tour held by cycling schools New Zealand.

Over these two days we had seven girls compete in this individual two day tour consisting of the National time trial title as well as the criterium (which is a bit like a road race except it has a sprint every thre or so laps depending on how long your race is). This first day was very tough for our girls as they fought their hardest, positioning themselves nicely for the GC. As day one came to an end we went back to the motel where we had a debrief on what went well for our girls and what they needed to focus on for the next big day of racing.

Day two came around very fast and was by far the hardest day of the tour consisting of first, the National Hill Climb title up for grabs. As this day was a scorcher we made sure our girls were well fed and hydrated before the last stage of this tour, the brutal road race that had a rather large hill climb that most of our girls had to climb 2-3 times. Caitlin Jamieson rode outstandingly throughout the whole weekend but especially after being given the wrong directions in the road race which resulted in her doing an extra hill climb and still managing to place in the top 10! Orla Fitzgerald gave it everything for her first time at the Southern Tour also managing a top 10 finish. Meg Barnes finished 2nd in the road race which finished her 4th on the GC just missing out on third after some complications in the hill climb earlier that day, also consistently placing in the top 10 all weekend alongside Caitlin Jamieson. Harriet Rowse, Dannielle McLaughlin and Brooke Keown all rode to their best ability against some of the strongest in the South Island.

Overall, the team had an outstanding weekend of racing and I couldn't be prouder, ending the season with my amazing team on a high!