This year I started running an Etape du Tour Femmes support package and, after having the tour sell out very quickly (there were 10,500 riders at the start in this, its 2nd year of operation), I also had a couple of late cancellations. Right after the 2nd one came through I got an email that in part read:

Rhylee was looking for a tour operator to sponsor her for the race and also to get her an entry. She hadn’t really heard of the Etape, but was told that it attracted a strong front end of riders. I had a chat with her and she seemed very motivated and sure of herself (“I think I can podium”), so I got kind of excited and jumped into action. Putting her on the tour was easy, since I had a bed in one of the rooms free and a female roommate ready to go. It turned out that acquiring a place in the race was trickier, but I kept bugging my contact at ASO till he gave in and we not only got her an entry, but also a spot in Pen Zero, which she insisted she needed if she was going to get on the podium.

If you’ve ever been on a 44|5 Etape support tour you’ll know that my clients are not usually near the pointy end of the event. Pre-race discussions mostly revolve around making the time cut, not winning the race. So it was great fun for all of us to see Rhylee taking things very seriously and eating pounds of rice to prepare for the day.

The morning of the event came, and Rhylee rode to the start herself, holding her phone in front of her to light her way. We had arranged for me to pass her a bottle at KM90, which was right in front of our accommodation. I held it exactly as she told me (from the top, at just the right height), but just like the pros, it popped out of her hand at 45kph. There was no question of stopping or slowing down even, so she raced that whole 111km / 3000m with 3 bottles (one stuffed in her back pouch).

Well before lunch we got the results (none of our other riders had even passed us by yet) from the top of Mont Ventoux – Rhylee Akeroyd was the 3rd woman out of well over 3000 who started the race.

Rhylee is back in Italy, racing and looking for a team still. I have a new appreciation of how hard this world is for non-Europeans and we all wish her the best.