Bovingdon Bomber & Colchester Crits, 14/17 Jul 2021

This week was a great opportunity to get my cat 2 license as I only needed 2 more points! 

My first opportunity to get some points was Bovingdon on Wednesday. I did a 20 minute warm up on my rollers and then some laps on the circuit to see which way the wind was blowing or anything that could have an impact on the race. My legs felt good in the warm up so this gave me a confidence boost. I didn’t have the best start to my race as my foot didn’t clip in, however I managed to wiggle through the middle of the bunch before the hairpin. For the first 20 minutes nothing exciting was happening and most of the bunch was still together. An odd attack here and there was made by a couple of riders but neither of them stuck and was brought back into the bunch. 25 minutes into the race, we had a prime. I aimed to stay top 10 in the bunch during the prime as the bunch always starts to string out after the sprint. The group carried on going hard for a lap after the prime so the group had reduced to about 15 riders in the peloton. There was an attack and I positioned myself closer to the front chasing down the attack, but also sitting in the slipstream. With 4 laps to go I was happy with my position and knew I needed to keep this position for the sprint to get a good result. On the last lap I was in the middle of the bunch but sadly on the final sprint I was boxed and finished 9th. I was little bit frustrated as I needed to finish 8th to secure my Cat 2 licence but it also meant I was a final step closer. 

My second opportunity to get my Cat 2 was the paracycling support event at the new circuit in Colchester. I had mixed feelings about this race as there was 18 women booked in, and every single one of those riders were very strong. One of them was a 5x world Paralympic champion! It was also hard to prepare any tactics as I have never raced at this circuit before, although most people on the start list hadn’t either as it was a brand new venue. After my warm up, I did 4 sighting laps of the track, which made it clear this would come down to a bunch sprint as there was nothing on the circuit to break up the peloton as it was very flat and there wasn’t a single bit of wind. The first 30 minutes were really boring to be honest. A couple of attacks were made but none stuck so we were just rolling round the track. The race was just dragging at this point and I couldn’t wait for it to be over! After 30 minutes the race got more exciting, with attacks and counter attacks made. I jumped behind a riders wheel and brought back an attack. Suddenly we had 5 laps to go and I needed to move up the bunch. 4 laps to go and I was in a good position, all I needed was to keep it and go flat out in the sprint. We were given the final lap bell and there was an attack to break the bunch up. I managed to wiggle through some more gaps so I was second row from the front. There was a rider that started the sprint before the final bend but we couldn’t quite close it. I crossed the line finishing 7th in the bunch sprint which I was really pleased with. This gave me the points for my Cat 2 licence which was a bonus!

Amy Harvey