European Junior Cycling Tour Assen
Stage 1 – Prologue
The
first stage was a 1km prologue with a tricky 180 degree bend which, annoyingly,
we weren’t allowed to recce before our timed attempt. My preparation leading up
to my prologue wasn’t the best, as up until an hour before, I was lying in bed
because I was ill. I still gave the prologue my best shot but my time wasn’t
reflective of what I should have got if I was feeling well. So a bit of
disappointing and annoying start to the week of racing by being ill.
Stage
2 - Criterium
Goudkust Vredeveldseweg
Today’s crit race was
fast and furious from the start. We had 22 laps of a 1.8 km course to do, which
had a few tight corners and a section of road which was tiled. In this tour,
they grid riders by a lucky dip of the second digit of the bib numbers, to each
row at the start line. Today I was gridded around the middle and so in the
first few laps I was able to move myself up into a good position in the top
third of the peloton, trying to conserve my energy. Next though, there was a
crash right in front of me which completely slowed me up and I had to chase
back onto the peloton. By the time I got back into the peloton I definitely had
begun to tire and I found myself at the back of the peloton for the next few
laps, before eventually dropping off. I was quite surprised at the time that I
had dropped off as I believed that I was in good form, so I assumed that having
to chase on after the crash had completely drained me. After I was off the main
group I found that I was still struggling to keep up with a group of other
riders who had dropped off, this made me realize that there must be another
problem. I stopped at the pits and yes I had a slow puncture on my back wheel.
This explained why I had dropped off the main group as when I checked my inner
tube the hole was sooo tiny that I must have had the slow puncture for the
majority of the race as it was rather flat when I stopped. So today was
annoying as I lost time on the GC but it taught me that I need to be much more
aware of problems to do with my bike as if I had realized earlier, when I was
in the main bunch, I would have most likely lasted the whole race in the main
bunch! I hope, my teammate, Paige, you recover quickly from breaking collar
bone on the final corner on the final lap!
Stage
3 – Klassieker
The Klassieker was a 40 mile road race,
with a technical 4.4 km cobbled section to contend with! The cobbled section
was 10 miles into the race and leading up to that the race pace was set high as
everyone was moving around the bunch to get to the front of the peloton; the
safest place to be leading into the cobbled section as you were less likely to
be stuck behind splits within the peloton. Last year I really struggled with
the cobbled section as it was very damp and I was scared. This time I had gone
to recce the cobbles and so I was much more comfortable riding them at race
pace. However it didn’t go to plan as I was caught behind a split in the
peloton before the cobbles!. I went through the cobbled section pretty smoothly
(!) with two other riders. On emerging from the cobbles, there was a group of
riders between us and the main peloton, which we caught within a few kilometres.
At this point there was still over 25 miles left of racing and as a group we
worked very well together and were eventually able to catch the peloton. I
managed then to move my way back into a good position in the middle to front of
the peloton. Then, with 10 km to go, there was a crash in the middle of the
peloton just ahead of me. I had to come to an abrupt stop causing the person
behind me to bang into the back of me and my back wheel. I was in the middle of
the crash scene, still upright, but with no easy way out and not much room to
quickly untangle someone’s rear gear cable from my Garmin cadence sensor. So it
took quite a while for me to get going again, but I had someone else with me
and together we managed to chase back onto the peloton, though exerting lots of
energy in that attempt. There wasn’t very long to recover as by that time there
was only 5km to the finish, but I managed to move into a decent position with
the main bunch and I finished 14th in the sprint finish! Definitely
very pleased with that result, in such a tough race and especially as I had to
use so much energy chasing onto the peloton with 10km to go.
Stage
4- Omloop
Kostvlies
Today’s stage was early in the morning and I
was also still very tired after yesterday’s tough stage. It was another fast
race which was going well for me. I stayed in the main bunch, which was
gradually getting smaller and smaller. Then, on the corner, with 1 lap to go, I
was cut up going round outside of the corner and consequently pushed into a
small ditch by the side of the road. By the time I got myself back onto the
road the peloton was long gone and I had no energy left to chase on. This was
very annoying as because it was just outside 3km to go I lost more time on the
GC. I finished 28th as quite a lot of riders had already dropped off the main
group. So another frustrating stage as I could have finished a lot higher if I
had been there at the sprint finish. This has taught me to be a stronger rider,
to stop the foreign riders from feeling as though they can push me off the
road!
Stage 5- Criterium door het
Asserbos
I was really looking forward to this last crit
stage as I quite liked the course. It was another very fast race and I found
myself towards the back of the group most of the time which wasn’t the best
place to be as it meant that I felt the elastic band effect going round the
corners. However, as it was a slightly shorter race and I was on good form I
still had energy left at the end of the race. With 2 laps to go I moved up into
the top 20 in the bunch and by the final corner on the last lap I was in at
least the top 15, so in a good position to be competitive in the sprint.
However, I didnt anticipate that the line I was taking round the corner was
going to be my downfall .... as there was a crash at the front of the peloton,
going round the final corner, with the riders sliding round the outside of the
bend, directly in the line I was taking. I had to slow down to get through the
small gap between the riders and the barrier. Unfortunately, this meant that
all the riders who had taken the inside line went right past me! Well done to
my teammate Lucy for taking the inside line and coming 4th J
Stage 6- Individual TT
After a long busy week of racing, today was the
final stage, and unusually it ended on TT. Annoyingly for me the TT was very
short (like the prologue) and was a total of 1.9 km. A longer TT would have
suited me much better. Anyway, I managed to pace myself better than usual as
normally I completely fade in the second half. I did better than I did in the
prologue but short TT’s like this are something I really need to work on!
In the end I
finished 35th in the General Classification with my best result
being 14th in the Klassieker. All in all, I had a really great time
racing in Assen. The races were much shorter than I was used to, but much
faster as well. It has certainly given me a lot of experience and I hope to go
back again next year and use what I’ve learnt to do even better. Well done to
all my teammates!
