Junior/U23 National Road Series, 1 May 2022

Over the bank holiday weekend, I raced the Junior and U23 womens road national at Witham on the Hill. This was my first national series event since 2019 when I was an U16 so I was quite excited to be racing at National level again. As it was my Team Manager, Mark, who organised the race, I hoped to put in a good performance, as it was essentially our ‘home race’! The course was 11 miles long (we did 4 laps of the course) which consisted of a few hills to split the pack. So it was a tough course, and it was quite windy as well, so positioning was key.

After our warm up and rider briefing we had a neutralised ride from race HQ to the race course. This was when the chaos started. We didn’t even make it 30 metres into the neutralised ride, and already there was a crash and a rider’s wheel had broken spokes. This was because of the car leading the neutralised, as they started braking for no reason! At this point I was dreading the rest of the neutralised and couldn’t wait for the race to start, as I find that the neutralised is the sketchiest part of the event. The rider changed their wheel and then we were told that the radio/microphones wasn’t working so we couldn’t resume the neutralised until that was solved. About 10 minutes later we continued the neutralised and just as we turned out of HQ a second crash occurred so we stopped again, then a rider had a puncture so we spent a lot of time waiting around. We eventually got going and the neutralised was quite slow so it took forever to get to the race course. We arrived at the race course, still neutralised, and as we rode over where our uphill sprint finish was, the lead car stopped at the top of the climb. The riders in front of me couldn’t react to this and ended up crashing on the hill - luckily I was able to go around them. At this point, myself and other riders were getting really frustrated!. We restarted and thankfully after a couple of minutes, the race had begun!

I was sitting in the middle of the pack getting pulled along and keeping sheltered. The pace was very quick, with full on sprints after each corner, and attacks on the hill. My legs were feeling good despite the pace. We approached one of the first big climbs and a rider attacked, causing the peloton to break up. Around 20 riders got dropped, but luckily I was comfortable in the bunch. Nothing else happened on the first lap, other than a pace that was crazy fast! I took a gel to keep energy levels high.

We approached the second lap and the pace had significantly decreased and the race was more controlled. I was sitting a little further back so I had to be careful in case of any potential attacks. My teammate managed to catch up again to the bunch and we got her sheltered and protected from dropping out of the bunch. This lap I decided to keep drinking and eating some energy bars to keep fuelled up. We approached the hill again and a rider attacked. I was a little too far back so I did have to go the long way around riders who were getting dropped. Thankfully at the top of the climb, the attack stopped and the bunch was still together. I managed to move up the bunch a bit more to avoid that mistake again. On the third lap, we were all still together until one of the climbs where an attack was made and 3 riders got into a break, including one of my teammates. After the corner another attack was made, and as we went uphill the bunch split up again. I had a cramp in my leg so I got dropped, however my teammate was with me so I got on her wheel and we worked together to catch up with some riders in front who were also dropped.

The peloton wasn’t too far ahead so in my head I had hoped that we could work together to catch up with them, as this was doable. I had two of my teammates with me so this was a big help for me too. We were making progress catching up but one rider in our bunch slowed it down and the bunch was out of sight. Another rider joined our bunch and she was able to help out her teammate who was also in our group. The seven of us worked together for the rest of the race - we only had one lap left at this point. Nothing really happened until 1km to go where a rider in our group attacked but she couldn’t keep away and sat up. At the bottom of the last hill an attack was made again and this time I followed. We had 300 metres to go to the finish line and my leg cramped up again which was frustrating but I kept going. I looked behind and the others were slightly behind. I kept going but a rider from our group overtook me with 50 metres to go, and I ended up finishing 3rd in my group. Overall I finished 27th (including Juniors and U23s), and 16th Junior.

I was quite happy with that result given it was my first national race in almost 3 years! The course was tough with lots of climbing each lap, but it suited me well. A little frustrated with my leg cramping up but next time I’ll remember to drink a bit more! Looking forward to my next national event in a few weeks, which is the Junior National Champs in Yorkshire!

Amy Harvey