Thursday 22 July 2010

Three Races, Four Days, Two Countries




It’s been a busy few days for me and my Giant, adventures in Richmond Park, a journey to Europe and some fun on the cobbled roads of Belgium. First off early on Sunday morning was round two of the Richmond Park 10.4 mile Time Trial Series organised by London Dynamo Prologue and sponsored by none other than Prologue Bikes. Richmond Park is a familiar training ground for most of the entrants, I certainly feel like I know every pot hole and bend inside out.

The event is held before the park opens to the public to allow us to go slightly faster than the usual 20mph speed limit which meant a 6:14:30 start time for me and a very early bowl of wheetabix. There are also distinct categories between road and TT bikes and as the last of the girls to be set off I was not only on a road bike chasing a girl with full TT get up but also being chased by a guy who looked similarly aero. Rachel Joyce was the girl off in front of me, a pro triathlete, and I was determined not to let her get away from me.

Along the first straight and up the long draggy climb from Roehampton Gate to Richmond Gate Rachel certainly wasn’t gaining any distance from me and I may have been making up some ground but as soon as she turned left to go down the long downhill the benefits of anything aero she had about her person came into play and she flew away from me. I was then stuck in a bit of a vacuum. There was no one in front in sight I could chase although this did also happily mean the man behind me hadn’t caught me either. At the finish I was feeling pretty disappointed so I was amazed to hear that I had won the ladies road bike category ahead of the previous round’s winner Elise Laverick Sherwell and Rachel Armitage from London Dynamo.

Full report

http://www.londoncyclesport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1403:london-dynamo-prologue-richmond-tt-2&catid=38:time-trial&Itemid=92

Photos

http://www.londoncyclesport.com/index.php?option=com_phocagallery&view=category&id=365:richmondtt20102&Itemid=79

Thank you to Rebbecca Slack for organising such a great event and for the free tea from the café afterwards.

By Monday evening I was safely in Belgium ready for a couple of weeks of racing. The first one, a 94km leg opener near Oudenaarde with a couple of cobbled sections thrown in was the following day. The race was over 11 laps and I was pleased to see a few familiar English faces on the start line. Especially after the nightmare I’d had (a) trying to find the place and (b) trying to pump up my back tyre with a broken valve. After grappling with it for a while and straining a few muscles in my side a local kindly came to my rescue and helped me out. In fact he was so excited that his handiwork held out that he insisted on buying me a drink afterwards!

My plan for the race was to be wary of doing too much work and only work when I had to as I was unsure how my legs would be from the Tour de Feminin in Krasna Lipa the previous week. Unfortunately this meant that I was busy hiding in the middle of the bunch when the decisive break went up the road. Not a place I really wanted to be caught out in. To top it all off on lap 3 both my water bottles had bounced out of my bottle cages and gone off down the road leaving me without a drop of liquid for the remaining 68km in temperatures pushing 30˚. All I could think about what the taste of water – it was like I’d been stranded in the desert and started hallucinating about it!

Determined not to let that get to me and annoyed that I had missed the break I took an opportunity to attack to try and bridge the gap to the leaders. I made my move up a slight incline which at the top would have me hidden from view from the chasers and before long I had a gap. My move was to eventually become a chase group with about 6 of us, although it was disappointing to be in a group where not everyone seemed keen to work together. In a way it felt like some of the girls were content with a top 10 finish and would rather sit in and take it from the rest of the group at the end. I would have been much keener to work as a unit to make ground on the leading group but it is difficult when not everyone has the same aim. Even so we gradually picked up a few other girls who had been riding in no man’s land between us and the lead group. As we came in on the last lap a few kilometres out I made an attack at the same point as my earlier move to try and gain a decent result. Unfortunately this time it didn’t stick and instead I only achieved in leading the girls out to a sprint finish and a 13th place for me.

After a nightmare journey home around the Brussels ring road I was back out to Oudenaarde the next afternoon for race number 3. Wednesday was a national holiday in Belgium and the race the Province Championships so there was a lot at stake for the local riders. My legs were feeling good from Tuesday’s efforts and I didn’t want any similar regrets from yesterday and missing the break.

As we hung around the start/finish line watching the presentation for the junior race I suddenly realised that the riders for our race were beginning to line up down a cobbled side street down a hill. This was not part of the course but for some reason it appeared this was the start line, by which time the only place left was right at the back of over 80 girls. Not a great place to start and with the race covering mostly narrow farm tracks it was incredibly difficult to move up the bunch once it had started. A break went up the road pretty quickly and my terrible positioning again meant I wasn’t anywhere near it. I was pretty angry with myself and my bad position made my life worse for me every time after the climb into the side wind where I had to chase on from dropped wheels.

A couple of laps later and I was stuck behind a crash on the approach to the climb, a couple of girls went on the floor, luckily nothing serious, and I managed to put my brakes on get my foot out and onto the floor. There was a bit of a domino effect and someone went into my back wheel but I got both feet back in the pedals, back on the saddle, across a bit of field and began chasing the bunch down. This took a lot longer than I would have liked and it was practically a full lap before any contact was made again. Luckily Claire Galloway and I (another Brit racing) were able to work together to bridge the gap. After the effort I needed a bit of recovery time so sat in taking the opportunity for a bit of rest. This still wasn’t what I had in mind so after watching a couple of girls attack from the front of our group with mixed results decided it was my turn. Near the beginning of the section into the side wind I made my move and got a decent gap. Keeping my head down I was determined not to look back but curiosity got the better of me and I saw two other riders bridging the gap to me. A group of three would have been very useful and we began working together but soon enough the bunch had reeled us back in.

It was somewhere around here that I started to find the riding getting a bit tough in my legs but with a 94km race the day before I didn’t really expect anything else. I was just getting more and more annoyed that I couldn’t get away from the group. Eventually after the last time up the climb I was in 3rd wheel of our group, a good position, or so I thought. That is until we turned into the side wind and the stretch to the finish line and the two girls in front seemed to ride away from me. I couldn’t understand what was happening and so, like the day before I succeeded only in leading the bunch out for the sprint, this time finishing way down in 24th. This felt like a disappointing end to the race and I slowly cycled back to the car. The emphasis being on the word slowly as it was only when I stopped racing that I realised something really wasn’t right with my bike. It must have been when someone hit my back wheel but my back brake was rubbing and I had a split in the tyre with the inner tube trying to squeeze its way out. Looking at it now I can’t quite believe how lucky I am to have finished the race with a tyre looking like that and with resistance training thrown in too it’s no wonder my legs were feeling tired!

A few days off from racing now before heading towards Antwerp early next week for a Belgium crit race - 30 x 2km loops of a town. That’s not before a recovery ride and a whole lot of food!

Saturday 10 July 2010

Tour de Feminin Krasna Lipa Day 3


Sorry, no time to write tonight. A very busy day today with a time trial this morning and a 104k road stage this evening. All in 44 degree heat. It's time for bed now for our team. We're still doing really well, right up there in the team classification. I bumped up to 17th on GC this morning after the time trial but I'm not sure about this evening as the results aren't out yet. Three of us finished in the front group again although the sprint to the finish was crazy with technical corners, descents and cobbles in the mix.

Friday 9 July 2010

Tour de Feminin Krasna Lipa Day 2


A very quick update this evening from Czech Republic. Time is on the tight side, it’s dinner time in 30 minutes and I can’t seem to eat enough at the moment.

Another great day in the saddle for the Rapha Team with a few thrills and spills in the mix. We started off as the 5th placed team out of 29 and the route today was three large laps, with a long climb and a trip down the motorway followed by two and a half smaller laps.

Things started well when our warm up took us in to Germany and we got water bombed by some kids hanging out of the window of a house. It would have been nice to have got a little wetter as the weather was 33˚C at 10am! Things got worse when the whole team got boxed in at the start, then again when Rachel was caught behind a rider coming down in front of her less than 500m into the race and then again when we got stopped at a level crossing a few more kilometres in. For a while the race passed without too much incident. The climbs were fun and I was at the front for them but with the long sweeping descent afterwards there was ample time for riders to catch back on. Then, about 50k in a few girls went down on the level crossing. I was just behind and slammed on my brakes, stopped and managed to get round them, Corrine picked a line through them but Alli had a little less luck and after getting round the girls was clipped by someone else and promptly got flung into a ditch. She’s a little grazed with sore ribs but it seems the grass broke her fall even though she had to use her hands to clamber out of said ditch.

Getting back into the bunch was no easy task and it was the bottom of the climb before I got back on, even later for Alli. The bunch then continued on as before, a much bigger peleton than yesterday and it was 20km out from the finish that the next excitement happened. By this time I was absolutely gasping for more water as I’d missed the feed zone whenever we’d been passed it before. Then suddenly I spotted Cath Williamson’s Mum, Brenda (Who was helping to support us) but I was on the left side of the bunch and she was on the right hand side. Shouting out ‘There’s Cath’s Mum!’ in delight I powered past the bunch to make sure I could get to Cath’s Dad Tony who was just up the road. Grabbing a bottle and throwing away my empty I looked behind me to see I had a pretty sizeable gap and a quick look down at my bike computer showed we had 20k to go. The finish line was downhill and there were no sizeable climbs in the remainder of the route to break the peleton up so with nothing to loose and everything to gain being only 9 seconds down on GC I decided to put my head down and make an attack. I thought someone would come with me but no one appeared and after a while I was told by a following motorcyclist I had a 40 second gap! Being only 9 seconds down on GC this could have been a very handy 40 seconds. I powered as hard as I could up a long drag into the wind but it seems after a while, once they realised that I was a threat, Norris Cycling (whose rider Trixi Worrack is leading on GC) put the hammer down to catch me. Apparently the whole peleton was strung out in a single line and try as I might I just couldn’t stay away. I was away for a while but unfortunately caught with about 8km to go.

After all my effort I was determined not to get spat out the back and finished in the bunch which came down to a sprint as I suspected. I didn’t lose any time but didn’t gain that 40 seconds either. The Rapha team are still doing brilliantly with three of us finishing in the sprint and two just behind plus I've now moved up into 20th place on GC.

The dinner bell has gone in our boarding school and I must be fed. It’s a 7.30am start tomorrow with the Polish Police arriving to escort us to Poland where the time trial is being held. An early night tonight that’s for sure!

Thursday 8 July 2010

Tour de Feminin Krasna Lipa 2010


Evening from a sunny Czech Republic. Just wanted to send a few words from day one of the Tour de Feminin in Krasna Lipa. It’s been a pretty good one and there are a plenty of smiles in the Rapha camp (I’m riding for a combined team under the Rapha Condor name). We arrived yesterday and by the sounds of it we’ve been lucky in our accommodation. Even our shared room in a boarding school with no curtains is better than the wooden sheds that some other teams are staying in. Plus the food is good, so I’m pretty happy :o)

The first stage didn’t look too daunting on the profile, a hill after 20k, another at 103k and 116k in total. However, I have learnt never to trust the little scribble in the race programme. We’ve just completed something that was much hillier than and other race I’ve done this year and all in boiling hot sunshine.

With 175 riders starting, the peleton was a pretty crazy place to be and the girls are very aggressive over here. You have to ride with your elbows out or you quickly loose your place. The roads were closed though which meant we had a lot of ground to play with, my favourite being the stretch of the motorway which was entirely free of traffic. You’d never get the UK police shutting the M25 for a bunch of bike riders!

The pace was quite changeable with quite a lot of hills that broke it up a bit and other times where there was what seemed like a kilometre worth of single line tracing the road. After one of the primes a couple of attacks went which I tried to go with, the first I was successful but we got sucked back up and the second I succeeded only in dragging the bunch across. Another attack came straight afterwards and I had been brought back into the fray of the bunch and I couldn’t get round the riders. I made a few calculations in my head and realised with 60kms and the biggest climb of the day still to go I would probably be better off sitting in and getting some rest. After about 20kms we caught them so I’d made the right decision.

The countryside around here is gorgeous although I didn’t really get a chance to look at it properly. Our badly translated race programme informed us it is ‘grooved’. There were also a fair few spectators out, especially in the towns. I may have worried one or two of them when I had to traverse through a building at one particularly sketchy corner – it was either that or go on the floor. Another spectating highlight has to be the rather large man who stood up from his plastic picnic chair to give a cheer and then promptly fell over backwards when it collapsed under his weight when he sat back down.

The group was largely together until the last climb which came with 13km to go. It continued for 9km and at first it didn’t seem too bad but it just kept going up and up and up just when I kept thinking it was about to level out. The further the climb went on the more riders I went past until the crest when I realised I was in the top 10, with only 3km to go. Unfortunately, the last stretch was all downhill which isn’t what I’m best at and there are some quite big girls riding out here! I was determined not to let too many people pass me and I came into the finish line in 21st place, 9 seconds down on the leaders. The Rapha team had a great day in the saddle with 4 of us in the front group, Ali Holland in 22nd @ 27 secs, Anna Fischer in 36th @ 37 secs, Corrine Hall 62nd @ 2:22 and Rachel Przybylski 146th @ 21:30.

Stage two tomorrow in scorchio weather once more. Three large loops and two smaller loops with a lot more hills. I’ve eaten loads, the compression tights are on so now all I need to do is fall into bed.

Tuesday 6 July 2010

British National Road Race Championships

Arriving in Lancashire a couple of days before the race I was relieved to find the weather was forecast to be a little kinder than when I’d been to reccie the course back in May. Accompanied by 10˚C, rain and fog, the hills and tricky descents had been far more daunting and the conditions so bad it took me hours to warm up once we’d got back to the hotel. This time, with the prospect of a bright summer’s day, there was a high chance the conditions could be against us in the opposite direction and with eight laps, 98k and nearly 2000m of climbing I knew the race was going to be far from easy.

To the grumbles of a lot of girls the race started at 8.30am meaning a very early alarm call. Nevertheless, this wasn’t too painful seeing as I’ve done triathlons that started at 6am and even my parents who had kindly taken me to Lancashire didn’t seem too phased. Plus even the lady at the B&B insisted on getting up as she couldn’t bear the thought of sending me on my way without a cup of tea.

The way the course was set up, the major mile long climb up Pendle Hill began only a couple of hundred metres from the start line, so I was in no doubt that a complete and thorough warm up and good positioning on the line would be key if I was to expect to be at all competitive in the race. With this in mind, I made sure I was outside race HQ for the rider briefing pretty early and sat myself at the end of the road, as close behind the lead cars as I could be. After a very brief briefing, we set off on the 6 mile neutralized trip to the pits to wait again before the final kilometre journey to the start line. My keenness and elbows out tactic to the ride paid off and I had a front row position at the start and the way that we flew up the hill at the gun I was glad of it. The pace was pretty incredible and it seemed the Cervelo girls were keen to ditch as much of the peleton as possible as quickly as possible.

The course was described as having ‘steep and technical descents’ which was certainly true and was even worse being surrounded by other riders. I could see why the Cervelo team had been keen to shell out a few girls. It was round one particularly nasty corner that the first of the crashes in the race happened. The girls went down only a short way in front of me and turning the corner I was forced to pick a line between broken bikes and bodies in the road and crossed my fingers. I’d been lent a pair of lightweight wheels by Bruce from Prologue (www.prologuebikes.com) and all could think was I couldn’t dare break them! It looked pretty awful though and took me aback quite a bit. I then found myself with Corrine Hall (Team Corridori) to chase the front group of about 10 riders. After a short while we caught them and heard that the race had been neutralized. We were told that our group had a 30 second advantage and would be given this time when the race was restarted.

However, as more riders began to join the group, by this time being held in the pits, the true scale of what had gone wrong on the descent began to emerge and it was clear that the race was actually going to be restarted. A following car that had taken place between our front group and the chasers had been unable to pass where the first crash had happened as riders were still lying in the road. The girls in the chase group had then come round the same corner and ploughed straight into the back of the car. There were apparently about 25 casualties in total and it sounded horrific. There wasn’t a girl in the pits that wasn’t concerned about what had happened and about the welfare of those who were being taken off in ambulances.

We had to wait in the pits for over an hour as about 5 ambulances were needed and it took some time for them to reach the course. In the meantime, the girls who were still able to race took places sitting on the floor and on the curb and stretching out the legs. At this point I could have really done with a set of rollers to keep the legs ticking over but at least all the riders were in the same position with legs seizing up everywhere. Eventually we heard the race was imminently going to restart and would be reduced to four laps. A big disappointment as I was relishing the prospect of a long and hard race and I’d eaten a shed load of pasta in preparation! We were given very little warning, no opportunity to re warm up, just grab your bikes and get in line.

My hard work on positioning at the first start was impossible to repeat with the chaos and we were all fighting to get the best position. This time I was about four rows back at the start – far too far back and behind quite a few girls who I knew weren’t climbers. So unfortunately from the outset I seemed to be chasing back on after Pooley and Cooke put in a huge attack up the climb. As soon as the road pitched up my legs felt like lead but I just had to remind myself that I had to get up the road quickly or my race would be over. I somehow managed to overtake over half the field by the summit and was with the third group of riders, consisting of many of girls I have been racing with recently in the national series. In front of us was a smaller group of Helen Wyman, Sarah Storey and Katie Colclough with Pooley, Armistead, Laws, Emma Trott and Cooke in the lead group.

Already I was gutted, I was much further back than I wanted to be and I had some serious work to do. Going up the next climb and down the tricky descents we overtook Helen Wyman but still there was a lot of ground to be made up. Then halfway up the shorter climb on the course, and I’m not sure how it happened, I managed to drop my chain. Not panicking I flicked my gear lever and hey presto it jumped back on. Or at least I thought it was hey presto, until I couldn’t turn the pedals anymore and I started to veer sideways into a bush just in time to see my group disappear over the brow of the hill. Flicking my left foot out I realised in my enthusiasm I had put myself into the big chain ring and had been attempting to ride the steep incline in the 53/21, explaining why I could barely turn the pedals. As quick as possible I set it right and got back on but not before seeing the forth group of girls sail past me. Great! In a race I’d hoped to do well in, I was now behind the fourth group, no longer even in the top 20 and way off the pace of the leaders.

What else could I do but put my head down and hope to goodness that I had strong enough legs on the flat for some solo TT’ing and that the climb was going to be brutal enough to give me an edge on all the girls who’d made it in front of me. I set myself the task of getting back on in half a lap and gradually the fourth group got closer and closer. As we came into Barley and the start finish line I was delighted to see them catch the third group. Now I knew if I could get in front of both groups together I’d be putting myself back in contention for a top 10 finish. As we approached the bottom of the ascent I caught the groups and with a brief 30 seconds of respite I climbed through them. By the top I could see the chase group of Sarah Storey with Emma Trott and Katie Colclough on her wheel in the distance and looking over my shoulder I saw I had only Kara Chesworth for company, the rest of the combined third and fourth groups were nowhere to be seen.

Kara and I worked together, as much as we could with the up and down terrain for the next lap, gaining all the time on the group in front which was no easy task. There were a few people dotted about the course cheering for both of us and it was great to get the encouragement. It was at the main climb that I once again made a move, turning the screw a few notches, eager to catch Trott, Colclough and Storey. By the top I was pretty happy to find I’d not only caught them but we’d lost Sarah Storey and Kara in the process.

At this point I knew we were about 50 seconds behind the lead group, with one and a half laps to go. 50 seconds didn’t feel completely insurmountable and the three of us continued at a pace. At the technical descent Colclough gained some ground on both Trott and I and by the second shorter climb all three of us had separated. Going along the flat section each of us were doing as much work as each other as we raced along separately. Then, at the bottom of the climb for the last time I heard that the gap was now down to just 15 seconds and heard someone shout ‘They’re playing silly buggers, you can catch them!’ This sounded like a great idea and within less than half the distance I began to pass the following cars and I knew I was on their heels. Soon I could see the lead group right in front of me and it seemed to me they were going pretty slowly and I was gaining on them quickly. As I joined the back of the group I suddenly felt incredibly reluctant to have to brake on a climb and in a split second decided to just carry on riding right through them. In retrospect this was a huge mistake, I should have sat in and accepted the rest, as no sooner had I got a gap Cooke attacked, probably not keen on the idea of being beaten by a club rider! I stood up to counter attack and unfortunately just couldn’t answer, no doubt not really helped by all the chasing I’d done, mostly on my own. I continued instead grinding up the hill accompanied by Colclough and Trott who’d been similarly unable to go with the front group.

I was gutted to have joined the leaders and then through my own making have it ripped out from under me but I couldn’t let that distract me and carried on ploughing up the hill instead trying to drop the other two girls. Try as I might I couldn’t get rid of them on the final climb and once again as we came to the tricky descent it was Colclough who showed us an edge at descending and pulled a gap. Trott was just in front of me and I then made another mistake of letting her on my wheel in the final kilometres and she refused to come round and take a turn. A good tactic from her but I was pretty annoyed as I was sure that between the two of us we’d have been able to catch Colclough as by the finish she only had 10 seconds on us. So in the end it came down to a sprint finish between Trott and I which she took by about a wheel and I claimed 7th place at my first nationals. I’m just very disappointed that the race wasn’t the full 8 laps as I relish in the longer harder stuff and would have loved a few more opportunities to climb that hill. Plus, I also feel the results were skewed by riders being involved in the crash and it would have been nice to earn a top 10 from a full field. Next year…