Preston Park Crit, 20 Mar 2022

Last Sunday I had a race fairly early in the morning at Brighton. The field was only small but they were all very strong. We raced on the outdoor velodrome, so although this wasn’t physically or technically a difficult circuit, it was tactically challenging.

The first lap was a neutralised start. I positioned myself towards the front, ready for someone to attack when the lap ended. There was a strong headwind along the back straight so I avoided taking a turn on the front on that particular part of the circuit. As expected there was an attack on our first lap in the race into the headwind. I sat on someone’s wheel, keeping sheltered, while also going after the attack. The attack didn’t work and the bunch was riding together again. On the second lap, the same rider attacked, at the same spot, and again, I sat on the wheel of a rider who chased the attack. Like the first attack, this one wasn’t successful and the bunch was still together. This cycle of attacks repeated for the first 20 minutes, which was tiring to say the least! Being the only rider on restricted gears was a bit annoying too, as I was riding almost at 110rpm just trying to keep up with the bunch (and that’s without the attacks!)

However, on one lap, I made the mistake of losing my position near the front, and I was caught riding at the back of the bunch. When someone attacked I missed the wheel to go with, and the rider in front of me wasn’t able to follow the riders chasing the attack. I went around this rider and tried to catch up, but I was caught in the headwind and the bunch just pulled away from me.

I could see a couple of riders who were also dropped from the bunch, in the distance. I aimed to try and chase them but I just couldn’t do it on my own. A rider who was dropped overtook me, and we ended up working together. We caught up with 3 other riders, and formed our own group of 5. One of the riders in the group sat on the front for a good 3 or 4 laps, which I knew would play into my hands. We were lapped by the leaders with 1 lap to go so I knew we were about to finish, and that I needed to start my sprint early. A rider in our group said we still had another lap to go which did cause confusion for the other riders in the group, thankfully I knew that’s not how it works, otherwise I would have made the same mistake!

I started the sprint with about 200 metres to go and I managed to execute my plan to perfection, taking the win out of my little group! Despite making a silly mistake, resulting in me losing contact with the bunch, I am happy with how I rode my race, my tactics worked, and I saw an improvement in my sprint.

Amy Harvey