October 1, 2007 (Stuttgart, Germany) — We caught up with Alex Wrubleski from Regina, Saskatchewan, who made the top ten finishing in 9th place at the 2007 Road Worlds Elite Women’s 133.7km road race in Stuttgart, Germany on Saturday, Sept. 29. Here’s her race report from inside the peloton.

I just finished the Worlds RR, my last race for the year! 133km (7 laps) — here’s how it unfolded.

It was crazy right from the start, with everyone fighting for position during the first few kilometres before the twisty, winding, wet & slippery descents. There were several crashes mostly because the pavement was still wet from the rain. Leigh (Hobson) was up at the front for the first half of the race getting in all the moves and staying in great position.

For the first two laps I didn’t feel that great, but after six gels I started feeling really good by the third lap. Erinne (Willock) didn’t feel very well either until three laps to go. It became a huge battle to be at the front before the gnarly descent because right at the bottom was the start of a super steep 15% climb (similar to Philly but longer). It was a winding, hilly, technical and slippery course.

Girls were so pushy, one Dutch girl actually pushed me into the guardrail! Once the climbs started getting harder Erinne and I stayed near the front of the pack. On the third to last lap, after a sharp right turn, the wind suddenly blew over the metal barriers (the whole fence fell over on to the riders like a domino effect) and took out a good portion of the peloton. Fortunately Erinne and I missed that crash, the barrier got my leg but I stayed up. Meanwhile the riders involved in the incident re-grouped.

On the last lap I fought my way to the top five riders as we reached the steep climb. Seven of us had a pretty big gap by the top. In the group with me were Judith Arndt, Marianne Vos, Trixi Worrack, Chantel Beltman, and two Italians. One Italian rider attacked and got a good gap. The other girls started attacking and I was just sitting on like the other Italian because I didn’t know if it was smart for me to work since I was outnumbered. None of the attacks stayed and eventually we slowed and a pack of about 12 riders behind us caught on.

When we got to the last gnarly decent I somehow ended up right at the front but I took one of the turns a little too fast and BAM, I went down hard and skidded for a ways and took out Judith Arndt. At that point I was so worried that my race was over but we both got up and chased back on for a few kilometres. We caught on right before the second last climb (about 8km from the finish) – we were a little burnt and sore.

With 5km to go – the Italian rider was still off the front by 20sec – Erinne attacked and got a little gap. Everyone just sort of looked around trying to decide whether or not they should chase her down. It took a minute for them to start chasing. She stayed away until the last climb (about 1.5km from the finish).

At that point I was just trying to stay near the Germans and waited for them to make a move. There were a few attacks but none of them stayed. It was a winding uphill finish and everyone who attacked seemed to die so it was hard to find a good position. I was in the mix before the last corner about 300m from the finish and I went into it in about 11th place. So with 9th (Alex), 17th (Erinne) & 31st (Leigh) in the RR and Anne’s (Samplonius) 15th in the TT, we are super happy with it!