Hoghill National B Crit, 4 Sep 2021

My second race of the week was the Hoghill National B race and it was 45 minutes long. There was a very strong field with some riders from great teams (AWOL, Loughborough Lightning, Team LDN etc). I knew that I needed to stick in that group because it was really windy.

I had a decent start and a rider made an attack from the gun. The rider blew up and the bunch caught her up. The first 4 laps was crazy, the speed was so fast, riders dropped like flies, I have never had such a fast start to a race at Hoghill like this. I dropped back 10 metres on the flat circuit. A rider overtook me and I got on to her wheel and she pulled me along back on to the group. I knew I needed to move up closer to the front so I didn’t lose the group again. However on that same lap I stupidly went on the front on the climb and as I got to the front of the climb, my legs blew up. At this point, we were 25 minutes into the race and we still had another 20 minutes to go. I was in no mans land. I couldn’t get to the bunch on my own and I couldn’t see anyone behind me. I decided to push on and pretty much time trial the rest of the race on my own and if I catch up with another rider, I can use them as shelter. There were 2 riders in front of me so I set a target and tried to catch them. A rider was also behind me, and when she overtook me, I tried to get on her wheel but my legs was just too tired and she was too fast. She managed to catch up with the 2 riders in front of me and they formed a group of 3. They ended up pulling away from me. I continued to time trial the race on my own but behind me I saw another rider catching me. She caught up with me and I sat on her wheel for a few laps and we decided to work together for the last 15 minutes. I felt relieved that I was able to finally get a bit of shelter from the wind and I have a target to aim for. After a few laps of sticking on her wheel, my legs began kill even more. I sadly lost her wheel with 5 laps to go so I decided to just ride my own race for the last 5 laps. I had no riders behind me so I was relieved that I didn’t have to worry about anyone chasing me down. At the end I finished 10th. Overall I was happy with how I raced. The race had a strong field and I’ve had a hard week on the bike, so given that, I did well in that race.

Amy Harvey