It was the final race of the Womens Team Cup series, where the winning team was crowned the Team Cup Champs. My team was currently sitting in 3rd place overall, whilst Saint Piran was in second place just 50 points head of us. We knew that Laka Pedal Mafia had won the series as they were too far ahead for us to catch, so our aim was to get all 4 of us in the top 20 to move into second place overall.

After completing our warm up, myself and my teammates did a few laps on the circuit. As the race was at Hillingdon, we knew that it was very likely to end in a bunch sprint as the circuit is too flat and fast for any breakaways to be successful. We were also racing anti-clockwise so the sprint was shorter, and we had a large sweeping hairpin just before the finish, so we knew we needed to be at the front. Our plan was to mark Laka Pedal Mafia as they always like to ride hard from the gun, and to follow their moves, but try and stay as sheltered as much as possible in the process.

On the first lap there was an attack made from one of the Laka riders, just before the hairpin. I knew that this was going to be a very attacking race, so I stayed in the middle of the bunch, chasing the attack. As expected, the attack wasn’t successful. The pace was quite fast but my legs felt good so my aim was to mark the correct riders throughout the race. On to the third lap, there was a crash at the back of the bunch, luckily not affecting my teammates and I. There was a third attack by the Laka team, and my teammate Ellen jumped on to the attack and was in the breakaway. They were still in sight, and only had advantage of a couple of seconds. Whilst Ellen spent some time off the front, me and my other teammates pushed up to the front of the bunch, policing the peloton along with the Laka team. The breakaway was pulled back in and the pace had eased off a little. As everyone was recovering from the never-ending attacks, Saint Piran then launched an attack, and my other teammate Harriet joined it. Again the attack was not successful and riders were brought back. I knew on the next attack, I wanted to jump on it and not let the Laka riders get away. The Laka rider did do an attack, and 2 riders followed the attack. I was a little boxed in but I managed to get myself out and join a rider from FTP Racing to chase down the attack. We managed to bridge to the breakaway and had a couple of seconds of advantage over the bunch, but it wasn’t long until the bunch caught up with us. My legs felt good considering going out into the wind to chase, and with a very high speed set by the Laka team. Plus it was getting a bit boring just sitting in the middle of the bunch doing laps of Hillingdon!

About an hour into our race we was given the whistle to indicate our prime lap. I knew the bunch was going to string out on this lap so I managed to move up a little closer to the front. With a half a lap to go until the prime lap ended, my teammate Ellen did a fantastic attack off the front and she gained the largest advantage over the bunch, out of all the attacks made throughout the race. Just before the hairpin, a rider from team Spectra began to chase her, with the bunch following. Becky just nabbed the prime lap win over Ellen, as she overtook her within the last few metres from the finish line.

We had 30 minutes left, and the pace was still quite high, and my legs still felt good. The attacks from Laka continued. It wasn’t until the final 3 laps where the race became quite tense and exciting. A rider from Saint Piran and Laka did an attack, but the bunch didn’t organise a chase. I knew that the breakaway wasn’t going to be successful. But they were quickly gaining a large advantage. On 2 laps to go, and the bunch was under some pressure with the breakaway actually getting away. The chase had begun. I slowly started to move my way up towards the top 15, ready for the finish. On to the final lap, and we were slowly catching the breakaway. I tried to move up again, but I had a rider overlap my wheel and nearly took me out, so I had to brake and rebuild my momentum. I attempted to move up again before the hairpin, but someone’s wheel hit my foot and there was almost a crash. The usual half a lap chaos meant no one was holding their lines, making it difficult to move up without almost getting knocked off. I found myself towards the back of the bunch, which was really frustrating. I tried to move back up to the front of the bunch after exiting the hairpin, but with the bunch building up speed for the sprint, I couldn’t move up any further. So I had to sprint from the back and sadly I couldn’t make up any places, but I managed to keep away from the riders that were behind me.

Although the last lap was quite frustrating for me, my legs felt good throughout the whole race, and it was good to go off the front and do some chasing. My team managed to come away with 3rd overall in the Team Cup Series which we’re pleased with after some mixed fortunes of luck throughout the series. It was also good to gain experience racing as part of a team rather racing for my own individual results.

Amy Harvey

Women's Team Cup, Hillingdon, 28 Aug 2022

© Catenary CoachinG