Lichfield No Frills & Abingdon Summer Series Crits, 11 & 12 Jun 2021

Lichfield No Frills:

This was a race that had a lot of 2nd Cats in, so a strong field today. I had a really good warm up around the track, the weather was good and a little windy.

The race started and it went off quickly. I stayed with the front group for the first two laps, however on the 2nd lap a girl crashed in front of me. I had to brake and slow down to avoid running into her - the riders in front took the opportunity to make a gap as they saw what happened and I couldn't catch them.

There was a group of 4 of us that worked together. I noticed that the leading group was only half a lap ahead so I suggested that we chase them. No-one followed me so I settled back into the group and we worked together.

I was in a good position ready for the sprint at the end - however I went too late and ended up getting blocked and wasn't able to get through. I ended up in 12th position because of this.

Abingdon Summer Series:

I was quite anxious before this race. Having done their Autumn series last year, I didn't do very well and pulled out of a lot of the races. As a result of previous bad experiences, I was quite nervous going into this one. There were also a lot of riders from one particular team so I expected a lot of attacking and was worried how I would hold up as I had raced the day before.

Just as we were lining up, there was a serious crash in the mens E/1/2/3 in the bunch sprint. The rider fell on his face and there was a lot of blood: he broke his jaw and lost teeth. An ambulance was called which delayed the women's race. I was already nervous and after the crash I almost pulled out - it really rattled me.

I thought I'd try and see how far I got.

The race started 45 minutes later and went off fairly steady. The attacks started on the second lap - my legs were quite sore at this point possibly due to cooling down after the accident. I was starting to worry I wouldn't be able to continue. I noticed that the attacks were quite tame and few and far between giving me enough time to recover. I stayed in a really good position all the way around and didn't lose the wheels when the attacks happened.

I was placed around 3rd coming round the corner for the last 150m. When the group started sprinting I lost my bottle and sat out the sprint, ending up placing 13th overall. I was very disappointed about this as I had a really good race but the crash frightened me. During the race I did have a wobble on the bike when I was looking back so I was quite nervous about coming off.

I would like to work on my sprint for the future!

Reflecting on both of these races I am managing to hold my own during the race but I definitely need to work on my confidence, timing and strength with the sprinting. I feel that I am going too late and I am losing places as a result of this. I will be working on strength and confidence as well as timing to maintain the position that I hold during the race.

A positive from the races is that I am able to maintain a good position within the race. Also, looking at some photographs from the races, my profile is much smaller than others and I will look to using that to my advantage. It's an aero position which will help me to go quicker for that all important sprint!!

Laura Powell