Chelmsford National B Crit, 30 Aug 2021

Bank holiday Monday means another day of racing! This time my race was at a new venue, Beaulieu park in Chelmsford. My race was the women’s E/1/2/3 national B crit that was an hour long.

I was really excited for this race as there was a large field and there was some elites in my race including the well known Jo Tindley. This was an exciting experience as I was able to see the difference between my level of racing compared to the standards of an elite road cyclist. 

Entering this race I didn’t give myself any expectations as I had to race against such a strong field. My aim for the race was to stick in the bunch for as long as I could and take things from there. The course we raced on was around 2-3 km long and very flat with a few corners that carries a lot of speed and there was a massive headwind just before the second corner. After seeing the course I knew that this was going to be a fast race with lots of attacks.

On the start line I was positioned second row from the front and we had a short neutralised ride which ended just before we got to the first corner. I was at the front for the first lap but on the second lap I found myself right in the middle of the bunch. On this lap a rider from the Pro-Noctis team attacked and they got roughly a 10 second gap on the bunch. I knew that team was going to dictate the race as there was 6 riders from that team in the race. Then another rider attacked to try to catch the first rider. The first 3 laps were crazy, very fast, with attacks going on, and people were getting dropped already. My legs felt good and I felt comfortable in the bunch. After the first 3 laps things started to settle, the pace was more consistent, and less people were attacking. Not much was happening at this point. People were just trying to improve their bunch position. A rider attacked here and there. The riders that attacked at the start of the race still weren’t brought back and had formed their own small group.

Soon we were 30 minutes into the race and I still felt good. The headwind was getting stronger however so I just the tried to shelter from the wind and stay in the bunch for the second half of the race. Riders started attacking again and the bunch size was really small at this point, with roughly 10 of us left, with another small a group roughly 10 seconds in front of us. I was hoping that the other riders would work together to catch the group in front, but after waiting for others to do this I decided to attack myself. One rider followed me and told me to get on her wheel and she will work with me to get to the front group. I sadly couldn’t hold her wheel as I was caught out in the wind. The headwind got even stronger at this point and my legs just suddenly ached and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sit in a group for 20 more minutes. The group I attacked from caught me and I sat at the back of the group for the time being. The rider who followed me on my attack also couldn’t get to the group in front so she dropped back in to our group. We were given 3 laps to go and riders in the bunch started speeding up a little. I was in a bad position as I was stuck at the back of the bunch. With 2 laps to go I managed to wiggle to the middle of the group but I still needed to be a little closer to the front. On the last lap I tried to move a bit closer but as I tried to ride through a gap, someone closed it so I was a bit stuck in the middle. A rider started the sprint early so we had a long sprint to the finish line. I ended up finishing 3rd/4th in our group’s sprint and roughly 18th overall. 

I was happy with how I rode, given that I had to race against a very strong field. My legs felt good and I attempted to catch another group but sadly that didn’t work, but I’m happy I gave it a go. The aim of this race was to get experience and to enjoy it, which I did, rather than worrying about my result. This was definitely one of the most enjoyable races I have ever done! :))

Amy Harvey