On Wednesday I was racing another round of the summer series at Bovingdon with a start list of 39 riders. I knew I needed to position myself as close to the front as possible on the start line because after going through the hairpin the group would string out. On the start line I was on the second row from the front and maintained that position on the neutralised lap. The first few laps I was at the front with the group leaders and tried to stay in that group for as long as possible.

After a while a group of 9 riders went off the front and I wasn’t able to follow but I managed to work in a group of 5 including one of my teammates, Karine. From here I decided to stay in this group to keep away from other riders. Luckily we managed to keep away from the other riders and I even attempted an attack. This didn’t work but it was good to test the other girls’ legs. A few laps later we managed to lap a very large group of at least 15 riders which I was surprised with as we were a very small group fighting the wind! I saw the lap board showing 2 laps to go so I knew I needed to position myself close to the front for the sprint. However there was some confusion with the lap boards and we didn’t get the 1 lap to go board and on the following lap, the finish flag was on the floor and they didn’t wave it till 50 metres to go! I had to sprint to the finish with little notice, but I managed to finish 2nd in my group’s sprint and 13th overall which I was very pleased with! A big bonus was that I felt super confident round the hairpin and “prisons corner” too!

Amy Harvey

Bovingdon Bomber Crit, 26 May 2021

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