Straiton Struggle is my most local road race and this year was the first round of the Scottish national road series. The race is contested over a 9 mile loop which we would do 5 times. The lap is quite lumpy with some tight corners on the descent and an uphill finish.

I arrived at the race quite early so we could drive a lap as the road surface is known to be quite poor with some very large potholes. Fortunately, all the major potholes were getting fixed right there and then. The race began neutralised out of the village where the race got underway. We raced down the hill to be neutralised again for the first lap over a tight bridge as this was where the potholes were. There were moves constantly going and slight gaps opened up throughout the race, but nothing was sticking. I tried a few times to get away as it really is a course that lends itself to a break.

Then on the second to last lap one of the riders from Alba managed to get away. The main group wasn’t really interested in working together so we would close the gap but then it would open back up again. We didn’t ever catch her so we were left sprinting for second place. I thought we still had one more lap to go so came into the last 400m in last wheel and had to start my sprint here when I realised it was the finish. I managed to get to third wheel but then blew up. 400m is a long sprint on the flat, never mind uphill, but anyway an important lesson was learnt and next time I will try and count the laps myself as well as listening out for the last lap bell. I was very happy to have finished 4th and am looking forward to seeing what I can do in the rest of the series.

Kim Baptista

Straiton Struggle Road Race, 22 Apr 2023

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