Haylee Fuller - Passport to Europe 2023

Welcome to my 2023 Dubbo City Toyota & Gilgandra blog series.

This year my European journey started on the 1st of May and you'll get an inside glimpse of my races and adventures in Europe until I return home on the 19th of July 2023. I will be racing with my Australian Continental team Bridgelane Women's team for the duration of my trip this year before returning to Australia for the remainder of the NRS racing calendar, in which I am leading the Under 23 Classification. Thanks to Dubbo City Toyota & Gilgandra for supporting my cycling dreams for another year, also a big thank you to all my supporters and to those reading my blog updates.

1-3 May - A false start...
Today, I started my travels from Sydney to Belgium for the second time after only returning to Australia in October last year. However, this year's flight was more eventful than planned. I flew from Sydney to Melbourne and then boarded a flight to Abu Dhabi, no dramas. But, 2 hours into this 13-hour flight, we were turned around and sent back to Melbourne after a fault was detected. After waiting around for a couple of hours they discovered it wasn’t going to be fixed and we were put up in a hotel for the night. The next day we re-boarded the same plane (more than a few nerves among the passengers here) and safely landed in Abu Dhabi. I then flew from Madrid to Brussels. I landed in Brussels on the 4th of May after a big 3 days travel. I was here met by the team and we began our drive to France for our first race block!

6 May - First race day back
It was great to be back in the saddle for my first race day back in Europe of the year, Grand Prix du Morbihan Femmes. After only arriving in Europe 3 days before, the team and I had no expectations for this race. I wanted to push to get used to being in the huge bunch again because the racing style here is so different from Australia. After a tough race up a short steep climb 10 times, I finished 71st/156.  I am very happy with this result, especially as was only 3 days off the plane and still managing a mild jetlag.

9-13 May - Tour of Bretagne
Tour of Bretagne covered 538.3km over 5 days of racing, most days we experienced hard torrential rain at some point. The week saw many crashes, each stage finished with 5 laps of a short circuit which proved hard after a couple of hours of racing prehire.

Stage 5 I was present in a breakaway of 5 riders and we broke away from the bunch from 20km in and lead the race up until 100km, so spent 80km in the break. We got out to 4 minutes 30 seconds at one point, however, on the final circuits we were unfortunately caught with 20km to go.

After 5 days of racing and 538.3 km covered I ended up 65th on the Individual General Classification and 6th in the Mountains Classification. I really loved this tour and the Team Bridgelane girls and I all communicated and worked together to get the best individual and team results possible.

15 May - Australian Naional Memorial
Today we began our travels back to Belgium from Bretagne, France. We stopped at the Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux in Somme France. The museum was very well thought out and featured interesting exhibits, the surrounding fields were gorgeous, such a warming experience.

18 May - First kermesse with the  team Bridgelane girls
Today, was my first kermesse with the team Bridgelane girls. We all woke up feeling quite sick after the massive week at Bretagne so only 5/6 of us raced. It was a 103km was with 17 laps around the circuit. On lap one, I sprinted to take the 100 euro prime then on lap 2 a small break of 2 girls from the same team went up the road. My teammate Emily tried to bridge the gap but unfortunately crashed on a corner, Mia did the same thing 2 laps later so we were down to 3 riders and a breakaway 2 minutes up the road. With 4 laps remaining in the race I decided I was going to ride the front very hard for the rest of the race and Keely would sprint, I was only able to get the break down to 40 seconds by the finish, and then Keely sprinted to 3rd place.

Today was my first ever time being a road captain. During a kermesse we arent allowed radios due to how the race was planned out. I had to make a lot of different decisions which was a cool experience to have all the girls trusting the decisions I made.

Thanks for following this month's blog and my first few races in Europe, stay tuned for the next one featuring my racing in Thurgen, Germany! ✌🏼