Wow. What a season! I officially completed my first year as a junior and did some senior racing for the first time.

At the beginning of the season, my aim was to give “proper” road racing a go, gain some experience from junior/ senior racing, and to have fun and learn something in every race! At the start of the season, there was still a lot of uncertainty of whether we will be in another lockdown so I wanted to race as much as I could just in case we had a repeat of last year.

The season started off decently, I did a junior 2 day stage race at the Cyclopark, although finishing last after a disappointing stage 3, I learned so much and had fun. I did some senior racing at Hoghill and Bovingdon, finishing in the top 20s. Although I wasn’t winning any races, I was happy with how I was progressing and becoming more confident in racing.

Suddenly, as I got in to the middle of the season, something clicked. When I was racing at Bovingdon, I kept up with the leaders the whole race- it became a lot easier after a few weeks. I finished 5th in the bunch sprint at Bovingdon (and I’m far from being a sprinter!) Then I took a big win at the Cams-Basso women’s Grand Prix at Hoghill. I was staying in the lead pack in every race. After finishing 6th in Colchester, I gained my cat 2 license. Towards the end of the season I guest rode for TW1 RT and Brother-UK Cycle TeamOnForm for the last 2 rounds of the British Women’s Team Cup. I recently finished an amazing 16th overall at the Hitchin Nomads late season road race- my best performance to date!

However, there were some downsides to the season with a couple of races that did let me down a little. At the Junior 2 day stage race I did at the start of the season, I underestimated how much I needed to eat before the third stage, this meant I didn’t have enough energy, so I lost a lot of vital time and places on the GC. Twice at Bovingdon a breakaway got away. The group didn’t chase, and as the leaders started to get away, I decided to attack to try to chase the leaders down. But the bunch only wanted to chase me down but not the leaders so I lost my chances of getting a podium. A couple of races I just didn’t have good legs so I couldn’t stay in the lead group and my asthma played up too! Things could have been a lot worse though.

Overall, I’m so happy with how my season went. I achieved so many results which I didn’t think I would have achieved so soon. I learnt some new tactics and have became even more confident in my races, and even as a junior, I have been challenging the seniors and even some u23s! Those grim Zwift sessions were worth it! The training Tim (Catenary Coaching) has given to me over the past year and a bit has helped in so many ways. I have got much stronger, I am able to go that bit faster in a sprint, hold a faster pace for a longer length of time- staying in the lead group for the whole race. Thanks Tim for all the training over the past year and for organising the group rides!!

Now that my road season for 2021 has been ticked off the list, I have now started to take an interest in cyclo-cross. Hopefully this will make some further improvements to my road racing next year!

Amy Harvey

2021 road race season report

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