East London Velo Road Race, 26 Jun 2022

It was really nice to be back racing on some of my local training roads at the Rodings again! After a brilliant result on this course, I came into this race with a little confidence boost as I knew the course well and I had a good result the last time I was here! Plus, I already knew this race was going to end in a bunch sprint, so I knew what to expect unlike most of the other riders who have never raced on this course before.

Unlike last time, it wasn’t raining so I felt a bit more comfortable with the tight bends and narrow country lanes. We began with the neutralised and I was positioned at the very front. The pace for the neutralised was very quick, I was even spinning out at times. We just got over the drag and the neutralised had finished and I dropped back to sit in the pack. The pace was still quick, but not as quick as the neutralised. There was an attack, but was immediately brought back. My legs were feeling a bit rusty at the moment, but I thought that they just needed to be warmed up more, as we had to hang around a bit for rider briefing. The pace was fairly chilled, considering so many attacks was made. It was clear as this was going to be a bunch sprint as riders could not get away. But I also kept in mind that there was about 5 riders from the same team so I knew they were going to keep attacking to reduce the size of the peloton.

The second lap was pretty similar, but I wasn’t in the best position in the bunch so I knew I had to move up to the front end. This time a rider went solo and the bunch didn’t chase. There was no sense of threat so the rider just carried on going solo. Riders from the Laka Pedal Mafia team took control of the bunch and put the pressure on! We were suddenly all chasing down the rider that attacked. They were immediately brought back and the same thing happened, the pace went back to being more chilled. I took this opportunity to fuel up and recover. Just as I finished fuelling up, we had to slow even more as there was a tractor approaching us on a very narrow road, which was a pain, as I wasn’t in the best position in the bunch, so I was having to watch out for anyone that attacked after the tractor passed us. Luckily this didn’t happen!

Onto our third and final lap, I knew positioning was key. Everything was going quite well on the last lap, until we hit the left turn on the roundabout. I heard a few screams from the girls in front of me. I quickly thought they were just shouting at a rider for them making a mistake, until I see riders in front of me coming down. I just about managed to stop in time and luckily I didn’t fall off. My front wheel, however, hit the bike in front of me and my front brakes started rubbing, which I didn’t know until I had got started again! Literally, almost half the peloton was on the floor! I had to chase the reduced peloton (there was only 13 of us left!) , which I managed to do. The cause of the crash was a mystery as it was on a main road that was wide, flat, and straight! I used up quite a bit of energy to catch up with the leaders. My legs were feeling fatigued at this point so my aim was just to stick in for the last 10km and see what I could give at the sprint. A rider took advantage of the crash as she made an attack, which prevented the other riders from catching back on. Luckily I made it to the bunch just in time. A rider slightly in front was almost forced off the road and on to the ditch. At this point, I was dreading the bunch sprint as several riders weren’t holding their lines. We were coming up to the final km and I was in a better position in the bunch, roughly in the top 6. One rider started the sprint very early with around 400 metres to go. My legs were hurting at this point, but I knew that I had to give it everything. A car was coming in the other direction so we had to slow down quite a bit, which was quite frustrating as I was just getting into the rhythm for the sprint. Another rider started the sprint and I was sitting in 4th place until another car came so we had to slow down again. After 3 cars passing us, we were finally able to start sprinting, I was in the top 5 but suddenly I had no more legs and a few riders overtook me.

I went from a potential top 5 to finishing 13th, which was quite frustrating as I knew I could have done better in the sprint if we didn’t have to keep stopping and starting. However, despite getting caught behind the crash, having my front brake rubbing, and having a very interrupted sprint, I am still pleased with the result. There were some positives to take away: I was one of the lucky ones not to come down hard in the crash, and I was one of only 2 riders that was caught behind the crash who managed to finish in the lead group.

Amy Harvey