Bovingdon Bomber 3/4 & ELV Hoghill E/1/2/3 Crits, 23 & 24 Jun 2021

This week was another tough week for me as I was racing twice (on Wednesday and Thursday) with less than 24 hours to recover. Wednesday was at the usual Bovingdon race with the cat 3/4s. I had a decent start in the neutralised lap and I had a good bunch position during that lap too. The pace was dictated by a few riders racing for the same team (Paceline RT), but it was actually a perfect pace for me- many riders were dropped but the pace wasn’t using up all my energy either. We were riding round with a fairly large group and there was a smaller group behind us chasing. 30 minutes into the race there was an attack and 4 riders went up the road (3 of these riders were from the same team). I thought the group would have “left them hanging out to dry” and would bring them back in especially as there was still a while to go in the race. But I was wrong - they were gaining but no one in the bunch was bothered to chase. I decided to try going off the front and chase them down when they were about 40 metres in front but with a big headwind I had to fight on my own, this didn’t work. The bunch of 10 or so riders I had been with chased me down but as I was caught the bunch slowed down again, annoyingly. I sat in for a lap to recover and then I went again, hoping someone would go with me this time but I was wrong and the same mistake thing happened. The group pulled me back in but there was no organisation or any interest in bringing back the lead group. With only 4 laps to go I knew the chance of getting a podium had gone as the lead group had got a big gap. On the last lap, a rider in front of me clipped her pedal on the floor (she managed to stay upright) and I had another rider telling me to hold my line when I was trying to avoid what could have been a nasty crash! However, I took that moment as an advantage and I managed to move closer to the front. I was happy with this position but I just didn’t have the legs for the sprint so I rolled in at 15th. Overall, I wasn’t pleased with how that race went. I physically prepared everything I needed for this race and I had the legs to do well. However, luck wasn’t on my side and I was just caught out on an unlucky day where nothing went to plan. 

After having a very frustrating race at Bovingdon, my focus was on the race the following day, the ELV Hoghill women’s E/1/2/3 crit. I was hoping that this race would go better than Bovingdon especially as Hoghill is a circuit that suits my strengths and I’ve got plenty of experience racing there. I had a good warm up and I was mentally determined not to make the same mistakes as I did at Bovingdon. I had a good start getting clipped in quick and was third going round the first corner. I was sheltered on the climb and again this race was dictated by another team, Team Watto, but like at Bovingdon I felt comfortable with how everything was going. A few riders started to drop after a few laps and there was a group of 7 of us doing a bit of work on the front here and there. A couple of times up the hill I put the pressure on a little bit just to see who was feeling fatigue and who has fresh legs. 30 minutes into the race I could feel the fatigue starting to kick in so I thought I would shelter and save my legs for the hardest part of the race, the end. However a few laps later a rider did an attack on the bottom circuit (the flat part) which isn’t a common place to do an attack (smart move though!) and I automatically knew I didn’t want to let any attacks go again. I jumped on to another rider who was chasing the attack and as we approached the climb there was a rider from Team Watto that counter attacked. I was on the wheel and there was 4 of us but as we were getting to near the top of the climb another rider from Team Watto counter-attacked (all these attacks were on the same lap!) which blew my legs and I simply had nothing left. Three other girls joined me and we tried to chase the attack down as the 2 Team Watto girls were getting away. I only stayed with them for a lap as they pulled away from me on the climb. I was joined by another rider who was also dropped so we worked together for the last 15 minutes. On the final climb I decided to start our sprint and I managed to win it out of our pair, crossing the line in 7th. Again, this wasn’t my best race but considering the strong field and the fact I was the only rider in the peloton that had raced the previous evening it wasn’t too bad. Finishing 7th also meant I got 3 Regional points so I’m 3 points closer to getting my Cat 2!! :))

Amy Harvey