Team LDN Hoghill Crit, 7 Aug 2021

On Saturday I was happy to be back racing after a very boring self-isolation. I was even more happy that the race was at my local circuit, Hoghill- it’s also my favourite circuit!! The race was 45 minutes long but as the bottom circuit flooded quite badly, we had to ride the circuit slightly differently. At the bottom of the descent we had to turn left, instead of right, which took us straight on to the ascent. I’ve done this circuit many times and it’s always a “hit or miss” for me. Some days when I ride the circuit I do really well- last time I did this circuit I came 2nd. Other days, such as today, I struggle a lot- you hardly get to recover as it’s literally hill reps for 45 minutes straight.

The whistle was blown and I got a good start, I was second from the front going into the first corner. After this everything seemed to go downhill. Sadly not literally downhill because we were climbing at this point! On the first climb I had a good position for the start of the climb but I just couldn’t stay with the leaders. My asthma started playing up and my chest felt so tight nor could I breathe. This set the alarm bells off in my head as that was not like me at all. Normally I would be in the front group for the entire race without too much trouble. I thought I could try and get my breathing back to normal within a couple of minutes but this didn’t happen. My arms and legs felt like jelly and another rider passed me. On lap 2 I decided to just keep pushing and I saw a couple of more riders go past me so I sat on their wheels, hoping we could work together to get back to the riders in front. But I got dropped and they got away! Not only did I feel disappointed but I felt frustrated because I didn’t know why I wasn’t performing well. I was going up the hill questioning “what is wrong with me today?”, “why am I struggling so much on a circuit I know inside and out from training/ racing here for the past 4 years?”

From there I just tried to go at my own pace and race my own race. My breathing went back to normal too! Another rider rode past me so I gave it another go at sticking on someone’s wheel. By some miracle I stayed with her and we worked together. We managed to catch up with a rider that was 20 seconds in front of us. Although still not feeling great, this gave me some motivation as I knew I had a chance of improving my results. We got lapped by a small group that was the leaders. I used them to try and set myself a faster pace by trying to stay within a certain distance from them and holding it for as long as I could. This worked for a few laps but they just went ahead and I couldn’t go any faster. 

With 3 laps to go I noticed that I was getting away from a couple of riders that were sticking on my wheel. I buried myself as much as I could to stay away from them. This worked and I managed to finish 20 seconds in front.

At the end I finished 7th which was good given that I wasn’t feeling my usual self from start to finish. There were moments in the race I did want to give up because I knew something wasn’t right from the start and I didn’t know why. But there was also another part of me that just wanted to complete the full 45 minutes, regardless of wherever I came or how many times I got lapped. Today was just not my day but there’s always another race🙂 My aim was to finish the race but to get a top 10 in a National B while not showing my usual form was a positive to take away. Plus, we only had rain for 3 laps🙃

Amy Harvey