This month has been amazing! lots of experience, some decent results and many lessons learnt.
I had my first junior and u23 womens road national of the year on the 16th of April at Bovington ! I set out at 4 am as google maps estimated it would take me 3 hours to get to the venue and my race started at 9:30 am. This race consisted of 11 laps with a total distance of 73 km, which would take around 2hours for us to complete. Once I had my gears checked and had signed on, I recced the course with two of my team mates, Libby and Lydia. The course was unlike any other national I‘d competed in previously, as it was a closed, wide circuit, making it a lot easier to get to the front or make an attack. Overall it wasn’t a hilly course, but there were a few power climbs people could definitely attack and get away on. Soon enough it was the start of my race and I was more nervous than I expected. The race began at a nice pace, but everyone soon slowed up anticipating an attack. Lucy Gadd from storey racing went for the attack first. She didn’t get away but on her second attempt Zoe Backstedt and Awen Roberts got away with her. The pace had a sudden rise and everyone in the bunch was working together to try and catch the three riders up the road. We weren’t far off, but as soon as the pace slowed up, the break kept getting further away. At this point we had 3 laps to go and I knew from then, it was going to be a bunch sprint for 4th. Coming into the last climb before the finish line, I wasn’t positioned too well, as I found myself stuck in the middle of the bunch. I hung on for a top 10 finish, which I’m super happy about, for my first national this year :)!
Onto the next day, (Sunday the 17th of April) I had the British Women’s Team Cup in Griffydam. I have previously competed in the British women’s team cup, so I expected it to be a hard race from the beginning. Nevertheless I was super excited as there were 70 women competing! its not often that I get to race in a field this big, with such strong female riders - I was definitely interested to see how strong my performance would be. The race was also 101 kms, which is the longest distance I’ve ever covered in a race. Therefore, I knew fuelling was vital, especially with how warm the weather was. We set off at 10:30 am and I was happily positioned in the middle of the bunch. The first half of the loop was downhill and the second half was uphill. From that, I knew if any attacks were to work, they would most likely happen on the second half of the circuit and that was when I needed to place myself towards the front. I felt pretty strong and stayed within the front half of the bunch until there were 4 laps to go…. We were going fast down the decent and a crash occurred right in front of me which I physically couldn’t avoid, which resulted in me being thrown over the handle bars onto the ground. I didn’t feel too bad from the adrenaline, so I got myself back up onto my bike to complete the remainder of the race (60kms) solo. I was simply happy with my performance, completeing the race after such a hard fall. - 45th
Omloop Van Borsele Nationals Cup was next in the Netherlands! I was racing with my Awol team and team mate Jacqui Kinsey, as well as guest riders - Amber Junker, Caitlin Harvey and Freya Evans. The following Friday (22nd of April) ,after my previous races, was stage 1 - 14.2 km time trial!! I knew going into the race, that it was going to be a struggle after only just recovering from my injury, as well as not having a TT bike yet. This didn’t stop me from doing the best I possibly could and pushing my body to the limit! The next day was a stage race which was 73km long and had massive stretches of roads with massive cross winds. There were 120 riders competing on narrow roads, so everyone was fighting for the front as soon as the race began. Me and my team mates all got caught behind a huge crash which put us at a massive disadvantage to try and get back in contention for the rest of the race. There were at least five crashes until the carnage settled down slightly and we were all in bunches of around 20 riders. Unfortunately, if you
aren‘t within 18% of the lead group, then you get forced to withdraw from the race, which is exactly what happened to me and my team mates. A lot of bad luck, but a lot of lessons learnt and experience to take from my weekend in the Netherlands. Next up I have the Timmy James Memorial Grand Prix which is part of the junior and women’s u23 road race national series!
