After having a busy week with lots of revision and sitting two of my A-Level exams, it was nice to go away for the weekend to Yorkshire for the Junior Road National Championships. I arrived to Terrington the day before my race, so I could analyse the course. Unfortunately I could not ride the course as the National Time Trial Championships were being held on the same course. We didn’t arrive in Yorkshire in the evening, so it was a bit late to do my race activation. I decided to save my legs for the race and drive around the course with my dad. The course was challenging, as there was one ‘big climb’, known as Bulmer Bank. Then there were a few smaller hills, especially in the village of Terrington and just before heading to Sheriff Hutton. The flat parts were on wide, open roads with some strong cross-winds. There weren’t many opportunities for recovery. But, it wasn’t too technical either which I was a massive fan of!

The next day was a 6am wake up, and arriving to HQ for an 8am sign on. I warmed up with my team and had team talks with the team manager, and we were ready to race. My legs felt a bit stiff in the warm up, but I assumed it was because I didn’t do my race activation the day before, so I didn’t worry about it too much. We were waiting for the neutralised to begin and it started raining, so I knew that crashes were going to happen. We eventually got going and it was very fast for a neutralised. Half of the field, including myself, were dropped at the beginning. The neutral vehicle eventually realised riders were dropping and gradually slowed down. We went down a 17% and riders were getting dropped on there, I managed to overtake a few riders slowly moving up the bunch. Eventually the race began with a steady pace with one rider already attacking. This rider wasn’t a threat and was slowly brought back to the peloton. We were approaching the Bulmer Bank climb so I managed to move up to the front end of the bunch. I was positioned in the top 20, so not too bad so far, and Zoe Backstedt (world champ!) attacked on the climb. Everyone knew this was going to happen, but the bunch had strung out completely.

Zoe and 5 other riders got away, and I was in the second group, slightly behind the group in front. Some riders, including my teammates overtook me so I joined them to form a group. We were working together well, and caught up with 4 other riders in front who had been dropped by Zoe and Awen (the eventual winners). There were roughly 10 of us in this group, so we now all fighting for third place. We were going at a fast pace but I was coping with it well. We were doing a bit of chaingang in to the cross winds, until one rider was shouting at the group telling us to speed up even more. She sprinted and sat on the front of the bunch and really put the pressure on. We went around the bend and a few riders crashed because it was of the slippery corners. Luckily I managed to avoid the crash, but my teammate was not so lucky. We continued putting the pressure on but as we were approaching the village, my legs were struggling to keep up. I dropped back and was about 20 metres off the back, but I was still trying to dig in deep and try to get back on. The group eventually got away and was too far in front for me to catch up. So I was planning on riding solo until I could find riders to work with. My teammate who had crashed overtook me but she was too strong for me to hold on to her wheel! There was another rider behind me who sat on my wheel for a bit until her team car overtook us, followed by a Range Rover. The rider sitting on my wheel overtook me, and her team car slowed down quite a bit, so the Range Rover and myself had to brake. I couldn’t get back on to the riders’ wheel as she got towed along by her team car and I had to wait for the oncoming traffic to pass! That frustrated me a little but I just carried on going solo.

I started to get this uncomfortable pain in my rib cage, which felt like a stitch. The pain gradually got worse and it began hurting to breathe. Admittedly this did panic me a little as I weren’t sure what was happening. But I chose to listen to my body and just ease up a little and be patient. I was too stubborn to pull out of the race, as it was only beginning of the race and I had travelled 4.5 hours for this race! The pain did eventually leave, and just in time, as a small group of 5 riders over took and and told me to join them. So I joined them and we were working well together. We got to the climb and I noticed a couple of riders were suffering on the climb a little, but they joined me again as the course flattened. We were working well together and this carried on until the 3rd/4th lap of our race. As we were approaching the finish for our 3rd lap, we had the parents shouting at us to sprint for our places as we were outside the 10 minute time frame. We were all sprinting but still shown the 1 lap to go. We were confused whether we had finished or not, but we decided to carry on as we only had 1 lap to go. We got to the descent and I did get dropped, as I was cautious of how slippery the bends were, and it was a pretty fast descent. I did catch on to the group, but I was a bit worried about my finish as I used up some energy to catch on again.

We were working together still, until we got to Bulmer Bank for the final time. I decided to put in an attack, as I wasn’t the strongest sprinter in the group. I put the pressure on from the start to the climb and all the way to the top of the climb. I heard a rider behind me telling me to keep going as we got a gap, which I didn’t expect! We worked together and caught up with a dropped rider in front. We noticed that the gap got really big, and quite quickly as well. They were out of sight. The final km was a bit like cat and mouse - no one wanted to take a turn. We got to 200 metres and one rider started sprinting so I followed. I managed to beat one rider in out of our trio and crossed the line in 16th place.

I am happy with my result considering the first lap and a half wasn’t so good for me. It would have been nice if there was a steeper climb as that would have suited me more. Someone did compliment my climbing skills on Bulmer which is always nice to hear! But overall, a good weekend away, and it was brilliant to have myself and my teammates all finish in the top 16!

Amy Harvey

Junior National Championships Road Race, 29 May 2022

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