Good Friday Track Meeting at the Lee Valley Velodrome

I was back again at the Olympic Velodrome, this time for the Good Friday Track Meeting, racing with my 2 teammates, Sophie and Paige. Today’s track meeting certainly favoured the sprinters as the races for the women were match sprint, keirin and 20 lap scratch. As I’m more of an endurance rider, this event didn’t particularly suit me but it was definitely great to get some sprint practice in. I also used today's meeting as an opportunity to experiment with different gearing in the different events. Last year as an under 16, I was restricted to using a maximum gear of 49/15, so as this was my first track meeting as a junior I decided that this was a good opportunity to make the most out of unrestricted gearing, and experiment. Overall, I think I made good gear choices, and hopefully with more practice, e.g. at track league, I will find out the best gears for me for each event to produce the best results. My best event of the day was the scratch race where I finished 8^th, which overall  I'm pleased with. However, I would have preferred a longer scratch race, 40 or 60 laps, which would have suited me better. I'm looking forward to getting more track time at the Lee Valley Velodrome, the next time being week 3 out of 4 of the track accreditation training sessions on Monday.

Thanks to Laura for the photos :)

Wednesday 16^th April – Hillingdon Women’s race- finished 2^nd/30

It was a really nice sunny day for the first round of the Wednesday night women’s racing at Hillingdon. It was also the second round of the London Women’s Road League, so there was a great turn out for the race - about 30 women.  The race was much faster than usual, with an average of 24mph for an hour race. I had a very close call of a disaster in the third lap when I got out of my saddle towards the front of the group to chase down an attack - my right foot for a unknown reason came out of my peddle …somehow (very skilfully!) I managed to maintain my balance and stay upright!! For the next part of the race it ran very smoothly for me; I felt rather strong and found myself either in most the attacks or chasing down them. Unfortunately, with a few laps to go, there was a nasty crash towards the back of the group, where a few riders came down; hopefully they are all alright now. I didn’t get caught up in this crash as I was at the front of the group. On the bell lap, I positioned myself onto the strongest rider's, Nicola Juniper's wheel. When the final sprint came, I followed Nicola past the two riders at the head of the bunch but I didn’t have the strength or gears to get past Nicola, so I finished just behind her in 2^nd. Overall a really good fast race and I’m feeling on good form on the road!

Sunday 13^th April – Thames Velo Fast Run

Today I went on a great training ride, a 85 mile club run with Thames Velo, where we rode at an average of 19mph. It was really nice and sunny and therefore a great day to get some miles in in the hills - and there were certainly many hills!! It was probably one of my longest rides for a little while and I was definitely beginning to feel fatigued at the top of some of the big climbs - but great hill training for me. I had a lot of bad luck after the end of the ride; I was planning to ride home – first I had a puncture, after it was repaired I immediately had another puncture within 100 - 200 metres! However, this second puncture completely ruined my tyre and there was no way I could fix it this time. A quick call to my dad to come and pick me up was the only option! Luckily it was a sunny day so I didn’t mind too much waiting by the side of the road - and many thanks to Mark from Thames Velo for staying with me J

Monday 7^th April- 1^st Olympic Velodrome Track Accreditation session

Today I went back to the Olympic Velodrome for a really great 2 hour session; aimed at getting experienced track riders accreditation so that we can ride in the upcoming track league. We were split into 2 groups for the whole session. Firstly, we did the regular warm up, riding in 2’s above the blue and then followed by 8 lap progressive effort on the black. It was great to be riding back on the track again. In the next set we were split into groups of 4 and each group took turns taking a lap on the bunch. We repeated this a few times. We had a great group as we all worked well together; we went fast but we all rode smoothly as a group so that was great. We also did some keirin practise and finally a short-ish scratch race. It was great to get some good track time in,  I can’t wait for the 3 next sessions.

Saturday 5^th April - Beyond Spring Crits at Hillingdon

Today was my first day back on the bike since last weekend’s race because first of all I was very stiff, in particular in my neck, so I couldn’t ride and then on top of this  I caught a cold! L There was a local women’s race at Hillingdon so I thought it would be a good idea to try out this race to see where I was fitness-wise considering I’d not done anything that week. During my warm up I could tell that I was still not completely over my cold but I decided to still do the race. There was a decent field of 20 or so women. The race was a decent pace, with a number of attacks, some of which I followed as knew the woman who was attacking was strong so I didn’t want to let her get away. Towards the end of the race I was definitely struggling more than I usually do in these local Hillingdon races. However, I got myself into a decent position for the sprint at the end and finished 6^th /20; the 6 of us had a clear gap off the front. Definitely a damage limitation race so pleased to have had a decent finish at the end and pleased that the race was over.

Sunday 6^th April - Redmon CC 25 G25/46 SEWTTS #3

 A very early start for a TT starting at 8:16! Plus absolutely horrible wet, windy conditions to ride in.  Annoyingly, I miss-estimated how long it would take me to ride to the start of the TT which was 2.5 miles away , so it was rather close arriving at 8:15 and not much time to rest before I had to set off. The start of the TT went rather well, apart from a slight hiccup where I couldn’t see very well because my glasses were steamed up and the rain. I accidently took a wrong turn off a roundabout as I couldn’t see which exit the marshals were pointing at! Oops…so I lost a few seconds there but I was  soon back on track. Overall, the rest of the TT was pretty steady, but I wasn’t feeling particularly strong (I was still recovering from my cold and a week not on the bike) so I just tried to maintain a good speed and not fade too much towards the end. It was the longest TT I’ve ever done, 25 miles, and overall I was glad to have finished and get back inside into the warm, with a decent time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to improve on that time when I’m on better form.

Sunday 30^th March- 2^nd Round of the Women’s Team Series race, Twickenham CC Dave Peck Memorial race

In preparation for today’s race I did a quick recce of the course the day before. I was definitely feeling quietly confident after the checking it out as the course was mainly flat with 2 drag hills, a circuit which would seem to suit me rather well.  

On the day of the race, the weather was really great and sunny and I was looking forward to my first race on the open roads! The first couple of the miles were neutralised to the circuit, everyone was jostling for position in the group and I managed to stay towards the front. All in all I had a really great race as I was able to ride comfortably within the top 15 out of 80 rides for the majority of the race. I was really rather strong and even at one point made a lone jump to a leading group of 6. Unfortunately, our leading group was shortly pulled back into the main bunch. However, I stayed active at the head of the peloton, working at one point with about 10 other riders in chain gang in hope to split up the main group. I kept on top of my eating and drinking throughout the race. 50 miles into the race I was still energised. I was very happy as this was the longest race done.

However, the race was being ridden very dangerously by a few riders, who were constantly riding on the other side of the road to move up in the group; there were a few close calls when cars came past! Due to this dangerous riding, the commissaire decided to halt the race ; unfortunately too abruptly as when the leading motorbike stopped suddenly at the front of the group, no one at the back knew what was happening and so inevitably a couple of riders crashed. Annoyingly, as we stopped for about 10-15 minutes all the riders who had dropped off the group or had been lapped were allowed to start the race again in the peloton, which was definitely unfair. Within 2 laps of resuming the race, 50 miles in, there was a major crash which happened in the middle third of the group;I was really gutted because I came down heavily in it. I took a nasty hit to my stomach by some handlebars and in general very sore with a nasty road rash on my back. I’m glad as eventually I got back on my battered bike and managed to finish the race. I hope everyone else in the crash recovers quickly.