Westerly Spring Crit, 24 Apr 2021

First race of the season and I was rusty!

A few mistakes here: I didn't get to start line early enough and ended up right at the back of a field of 30 women. This immediately put me at a disadvantage as I was in a bad position from the off and wasn't able to fight my way through to get into a better position. So, I spent the first lap playing catch up - my body wasn't ready for that!!

The first couple of laps tired me out too quickly and when the race really picked up I was only able to hang on to the attacks for about half of the race as I was at the back. This meant I had to work extra hard to keep up as I couldn't see the attacks until the last second. I could feel that my top end was missing here. A better warm up would help me too - before starting I didn't feel as if I'd had a proper warm up

I eventually ended up out of the back and time trialled it for a few laps until I caught up with another girl and we worked together to the finish.

Positives - I finished the race - previously, if I had been dropped, I would have pulled out of the race but I beat my own demons on this one. If I can take anything from Saturday it was that.

Laura Powell