Witham Hall was the first round of the J/U23 national series. There was a strong line up and the course was tough too. This was going to be challenging so my aim was to stick in for as long as possible. I also wanted to try something different and put in an attack on the climb, especially as I had 9 of my teammates with me.

The race started with a fast pace and I was in the middle of the bunch. The race was quite choppy too so this made it difficult to move up. When we approached one of the three main climbs I decided to go to the front of the bunch and keep the pressure on. I had a gap over the bunch and had one rider on my wheel. She was keen to keep opening the gap with me. Then the whole Liv Halo team chased us down, and a rider from Shibden attacked half way on the descent and into the sharp left turn. The bunch strung out as there was a punchy climb straight after the turn. I found myself in the middle of the bunch again. There was another big attack made by my teammate Lotty, and a few other riders followed her and they gained a 10 second gap.

Due to some riders in the middle getting dropped I lost the group and was left to chase. Unfortunately I couldn’t catch them but I was in a small group with 5 other riders and we decided to try and get back on. We could see the group not too far ahead, so it was possible to get back on. We started off doing a chaingang to try and keep the pace up. Then the chaingang approach wasn’t effective anymore so we did through and off. The group were no longer insight which was frustrating as my legs felt fine, but I was paying the price for making some mistakes. I should have positioned better on the sector I lost the group on and I should have timed the attack better- lessons learnt!

We were working well in our small group, but one rider did get dropped, so there was one less wheel to shelter in. When we approached the climb near the finish I tested the other riders’ legs and I managed to get a gap but as we descended the gap quickly closed. I was sort of glad this was the case as it meant I had a chance of winning my group’s sprint as the finish line is before the descent. We continued to work together for the rest of the race and had a time gap of 2 minutes between us and the peloton. On our 4th lap we were unsure if this was our last lap as the last car from the race convoy had passed us. I wanted to have a good position just in case we were finishing that lap. We approached the final climb and I could not see the finish flag until I was 1/3 of the way up the climb. Luckily I could see one of the girls in my group getting ready to start the sprint, so I knew I had to go now. So I set off and kept pushing all the way to line, managing to stay away from my group, finishing 44th overall and 13th U23.

Overall, I feel that my race could have been better, although not my worst race. Some lessons were learnt about timing of attacks, positioning for specific sectors and the importance of working together as a team.

Amy Harvey

Witham Hall J/U23 National Road Race, 9 Apr 2023

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