London Dynamo Road Race, 19 Jun 2022

Over the weekend, I had a road race near Chichester, which I originally thought was going to be a fast and flat race. There was a decent sized field (roughly 40 women in the race) which contained some very strong riders. As a result, my aim going into this race was to stick in the front group for as long as I could, depending on how my legs felt. The past couple of weeks I have been doing lots of longer endurance rides, so I was keen to see how I would get on!

I completed my warm up, and my legs were feeling great, which gave me a little confidence boost. But then, the comms called all the women over and said our race had a 30 minute delay which was quite frustrating as my legs are going to feel stale in the beginning of the race. When the race finally started I had a good position, and was near the front. The neutralised was more of a race than a neutralised, as it was so fast! Some riders had got dropped in the neutralised, my position in the bunch helped me stay away from the dangers of getting dropped.

The race began at the bottom of a climb, and the pace was quite quick. I felt comfortable on the climb, despite the race pace set by a well known local team, Laka Pedal Mafia. The pace was pretty quick for the first lap, and as a result, the bunch had reduced to only 30 riders. Myself and two of my teammates were still in the mix and were positioned well in the bunch. Heading on to the second lap and the pace was still ridiculously quick, and with some attacks going off the front. Whilst the bunch was chasing down the attack in the flat roads, I felt quite under geared. Being the only rider in the whole race on restricted gears meant that I was put at a slight disadvantage as I was having to pedal at least 120rpm on the flat sections of the course, while everyone else still had more gears! I felt quite comfortable on the descents so I was able to squeeze through gaps and make my way closer to the front. This probably explained why I was comfortable on the climbs as I was able to carry momentum, plus the climbs were quite nice and suited me well. The rider that attacked was eventually brought back, and the pace was still the same.

We crossed the line and were given 3 laps to go. I could feel my legs slowly fatiguing, so I took a gel and refuelled, ready for the attacks. A rider attacked on the climb but as she had no teammates left, the bunch let her go solo, thinking we can easily bring her back into the bunch. The pace had eased up a little bit, but the bunch had reduced to just under 25 riders. Sadly one of my teammates got dropped, leaving me with one teammate left. There were a couple of attempts to bring the solo rider back, but it was too late. We were all going to have to fight for second place.

On the fourth lap, my legs were feeling really tired especially on the climbs. I was telling myself to just keep digging in deep as we only had to do one more lap, which did help me to an extent! As we were given the 1 lap to go bell, I was slowly dropping off the pack, I was about 20 metres behind the bunch. The bunch had suddenly eased up (thankfully!!) and I was able to catch up to the group and get back to sitting in a better position. Even going up the climbs, the pace was more controlled, and I sat in fourth place, which I did for most of the last lap. After going through a sharp left turn, there was a steep kick up a short climb were I did lose some places but I was still sitting in the top 10.

We were coming into the final kilometre and the pace suddenly increased, my legs were really fatigued at this point, but I kept digging in deep. I was boxed in too, which wasn’t great! The sprint started quite early with just over 200 metres to go. I didn’t have the legs for a good sprint, but I crossed the line in 19th place (technically finished 18th as a rider was disqualified!). It was also great to see my teammate finish 11th too!

I am really happy with how the race went for me, despite feeling slightly under geared on some sections of the course. A lot of my energy was wasted on spinning out on restricted gears. It was good to see my legs feeling good on the climbs, and it turns out, the race was quite hilly!! It was also good to see the longer endurance rides paying off well, as this was one of the hilliest races I’ve done!

Amy Harvey