A Race in the Sun - Twickenham Women's Team Series RR

Last Sunday's race was a real joy to take part in. Not so much because of the result, but it was the pleasant surroundings of the Surrey lanes in the June sunshine that really added the feel-good factor.

The third round of the Women's Team series was held at Chobham, close to the leafy affluent suburbs of Chertsey and Virginia Water.
Having not done a Women's Team series race since 2005, this felt like a new race for me. It was also going to be just my second race on the open road this year.

This shouldn't have been a daunting prospect for me, but it was. I always get nervous before races - especially national level races - where I get a bit psyched out by the competition. Also my track record for these races has never been good. In 2005 I learned alot about riding 2-up and 3-up time trials at the tail end of many a road race !

The start list for the race still had a number of speedy women - quite a few who had spent this season thrashing me on an almost weekly basis. So I wasn't expecting any surprises. What did reassure me though, was the presence of more than a couple of women who were of a similar ability to me. At least I knew I would get into a group.
Furthermore, the National Circuit Race Championships were taking place up North, so a number of national level riders, such as Nicole Cooke's Halfords Bike Hut girls were missing.

Our race was likely to be a slightly meatier version of the South East Championships that took place last month.

The race began in earnest at 11am, under the watch of many spectators and a few curious locals. We had 10 laps of a large circuit, followed by 3 laps of a short circuit to complete. Having calculated that I would have lost enough time on the leaders to be pulled out between laps 9 and 10, I hadn't bothered to recce the short circuit !

After a first lap in which the 40 strong peloton stayed together, the first digs were made. With Fatbirds CC, Team Luciano, Surrey League, and Twickenham CC all having strong teams their riders were the ones who took turns to do damage to the pack. Every time we climbed the hill leading out of Chobham there was a power surge, followed by a spurt up to the roundabout, an acceleration out of the corner and an attack down the Bagshot road. This proved a bit too much for the non-climbers, so a few people were off the back on the second lap.

For my part, I had to remain focused and remind myself that I could handle it. I kept telling myself that the pain from the attack would be temporary, and I would recover and survive with the bunch. I also tried to remember the training sessions I'd done, and remind myself that what I was doing here would be no worse than what I had done in the those sessions.

So with this in mind, I felt slightly less anxious about dealing with the attacks. However, I still wasn't confident enough to move up the bunch. So I spent most of the time at the back of the pack. Occassionally I moved to the middle, but I didn't dare go anywhere near the front.

Inevitably when a break went off the front on the fifth lap, I was too far back to actually realise what had happened - and even if I had known, there was nothing I could have done. In any case, as I was guest riding for Team QCP, and one of my team mates, Yorkshire Regional Champion, Sarah Cramoysan was in that break I didn't really need to do much.

So with 7 riders in the break, which included 2 Surrey League women, plus one woman from each of most teams the pace of our 15 strong group slowed down as everything was neutralised by the Surrey League riders.

It was good to have a breather, but after a few laps it began to get a bit silly as the pace slowed right down, people got a bit bored and started chatting about their holidays, life and the universe etc, and so the break gained 4 minutes. When we realised we might get caught by the stragglers we decided to get our act together.

We were later joined by Susie from Surrey League, who was not feeling on form and had been dropped by the escapees. As I looked around at the people in my group, I couldn't quite believe that I had actually managed to hang on. Yes, I was still holding up the rear, but I had had no difficulty keeping up.

Here I was with 3 fast Surrey League riders (Jo Munden, Susie Osborne, Jen Hewitt) a couple of Team Lucianos (Heather Summers, Jackie Garner) some Fat Birds (Michelle Buck, Lizzie Goodband, Tracey Fletcher), the Agisko Viners and the stronger Twickenham ladies. I think alot of people were surprised to see me there. No one was more surprised than me though !

The last section of the course involved the 3 short laps that I hadn't recce'd. It turned out to be half a mile of grinding uphill back to the main road. These 3 laps passed very quickly, and even more as things became very lively. Tac-tics came into play as the Surrey league women discussed what they would do - Susie Osborne and Nikki Wheeler who had been hanging around at the back (with me) made their move to the front, and people began to amble up ready for the uphill sprint to the chequered flag.

For me, this part of the script hadn't been written out, so I had to improvise what to do. And as jostling for position in a bike race is by no means my strength, I left it a bit late to start my sprint from the back. Oh dear, when I reached the chequered flag I realised I'd run out of road ! So I finished 11th out of our group of 15. With the lead group of 6 ahead, that put me 17th overall.

Lesson - I should follow Nikki or Susie's wheel next time !
Ok, so I just had a bunch finish, but for me I was still very pleased with how the race had gone - mainly because I had survived the initial attacks and stayed with the group. I'd enjoyed my race in the sunshine.

I think money must have been lost by a number of folks who'd seen me lap after lap believing that this one would be my last one in the group !

The race was won by Rachel Osborn (Newport Shropshire CC). The podium was completed by Dorothea Cockerell (Twickenham CC) and Rebecca Curley (Surrey League/London Dynamo). My QCP team mate Sarah Cramoysan (who normally rides for Team Swift) finished 4th.

It was a good day all round - then myself and Fred (who had ridden over to watch) rewarded ourselves with a big lunch and beer at a local country pub. Bring on the sunshine.


Photos by Fred

Fast and Scary at Dunton

Having missed out on racing recently due to cancellations caused by bad weather, I was keen to get in a bit of the fast and scary stuff over the weekend. With the Surrey League women's race at MOD Chertsey on Saturday being limited to 3rd and 4th category women, this meant that the other category women (Elites, 1st and 2nd) would have to get their racing at the Ford Vehicle Testing Centre at Dunton, Essex. Having such a field would make the racing fast. Also, given the steep bankings on the course and the wet conditions, the circuit would probably be scary.

With the closure of the Eastway Cycle Circuit (East London) in order to make way for the 2012 Olympic stadium a new circuit was needed for cycle racing. So the good people at Ford offered the facility at their Technical Centre in Dunton, as an alternative. The circuit is dog bone shaped and 1.5miles round. However, with steep cambered bankings (like in a velodrome) on the curves at each end of the circuit this makes for quite a challenging ride - both in terms of its energy sapping nature, and its trickiness in the wet.

So it was with a certain apprehension that I showed up at Dunton yesterday, ready to race in the Team Economic Energy Spring Rumble. The clash of women's races in the London area on Saturday meant that we had a small field - just 11 women signed up for the event. However, what we lacked in quantity of riders we compensated for in the quality of the racing.

The first couple of laps were taken cautiously, as none of us were familiar with the course. Then after 3 laps Charlotte Blackman (London Dynamo) made one of her trademark digs. Initially no one went with her, hoping that she would tire herself out on this lone breakaway into the wind. Of course, this is Charlie we're talking about and she doesn't tire that easily. We arranged ourselves to bring her back. We all worked well together, especially along the windy sections, though a few managed to get dropped from the group.

Further digs were made by Anna Grundy (Team Economic Energy) and Susan Wood (Maldon and District CC), plus Charlie again but our reduced group of 7 managed to stay together. I was just glad to be in for the ride. Having missed a few weeks of racing and still trying to find my form there was no way I'd be making any digs. I was just aiming to stay with the group and do my bit during the through-and-off along the straight windy sections. I had to really bury myself - nose practically on the stem just to keep the pace up. Deep down I was just keeping my fingers crossed that the pace would ease a little.

The numerous ascents up the banking took their toll on me during the hour-long race, and at moments I thought I was going to be dropped off the back with the other 4 casualties. I felt sick. I was breathing through my ears, as not enough air came through my nose and mouth. My panting was so loud I thought I should apologise for being too noisy ! Somehow, my determination kept me going, despite the heavy shower that fell on us half way through the race.

As the rain came down we needed to take care. The concurrent 3rd and 4th cats men's race had around 40 riders. They passed us a couple of times during the race - both times on the banking. It was a case of stay low, and pray that no one slips and brings us down. Risky stuff.

Then on the bell lap, some would say the predictable happened. The pace cranked up again, and was sustained all the way up the climb on the bankings. Unfortunately I was too tired and didn't read things properly. Aside from that, my fuel tank was on empty ! I lost contact with the group on that final climb, which after about 15 ascents just felt like a tall order - literally. Talk about falling at the last hurdle. I ended up rolling in over the finish line on my own. There's no guarantee I would have finished any better than 7th had I stayed with the group and contested the sprint, but I would have still liked to have tried. I must try even harder next time.

So 7th it was. Still, I'm pleased that I managed to stick with this quality field at all - two first cats in the shape of Nikki Wheeler (I-Team) and Charlie Blackman (London Dynamo) plus rising star Michelle Buck (Fat Birds CC), and the solid rouleurs, Anna Grundy and Susan Wood.

Hopefully I'll be stronger the next time I meet these riders. I've got a series of races with a load of Italians next week. I'm sure they'll sort me out and put me right by the time I'm racing in London again !