Margaret Wright Memorial Road Race, 2 Jul 2023

Sunday I raced the Margaret Wright memorial race in Oxfordshire, along with 5 of my teammates. The race was on a rolling course which featured a really fast descent and a 7% climb on the last corner, that was 200 metres from the finish. Coming into this race I wanted to use this race as a “final prep” type race before Tour of Wales GP J/U23 nationals which is 6 days after this event.

My team manager explained to us that we should use our numerical advantage and control the race from start to finish; keep racing aggressively and make it attacking, rather than wait for a bunch sprint. So for the neutralised I made sure to be positioned towards the front. As soon as the neutralised ended, my teammate decided to start the race by setting a fast pace. Once my teammate came off the front, other riders attempted to attack to keep the pressure on but were immediately brought back to the peloton. My teammate Laura and one other rider went off the front. It was mine and my teammates’ job to control the bunch to help Laura as much as possible. Laura and her breakaway partner were soon out of sight. We got to the climb and the pressure was on, the bunch started to string out. I didn’t realised how steep the climb was until this lap, but I knew to keep towards the front and I would be fine. We came on to lap 2 and it was clear other riders wanted to bring back the breakaway. A rider from Le Col went to the front of the bunch, and did the work by herself to bring back the breakaway. As soon as the breakaway was caught, she made a break. No one chased her, assuming she wouldn’t get far because of how early into the race we were. Little did we know was that she would get a 5 minute gap (solo) and win the race. The pace eased up a little, helped her build a gap. I got to the climb and I started feeling better on the climb and was in a better rhythm.

My teammates and I were still controlling the bunch, so far our plan was working as much as it could at this point. The race was less active for the next 3 laps (1 lap we were riding hard, the next it eased up, then it went back to hard). On lap 4 I noticed a Laka rider attempting to form a breakaway. I decided it was my turn in my team to try something, so I followed the attack. I ended up bringing my teammate Harriet with me, always nice to have a teammate with you in a breakaway! There were 5 of us and we had a small gap for a little while but were caught just before the climb. It was this time up the climb I knew it was time to sit in and recover, ready for the finish which was 1 lap to go.

On the last lap my positioning wasn’t as good as it should have been and I found myself towards the back of the bunch. The pace had definitely increased, especially within the last few kilometres. I knew I needed to be closer to the front of the bunch before the climb as I knew that’s when the sprint will begin. I tried to go around the outside but riders were strung out across the road, while an early attack was made with 1km to go. The rider was caught but the pace just continued to stay hard and by the top of the climb I just didn’t have the legs for the last 200 metres. I just rode as hard as I could to the finish, crossing the line in 19th, with my teammates also in the top 20 and Harriet finishing 3rd

I was quite pleased with how I rode personally as well as my team. I got to properly experience riding for my teammate while keeping a race hard and aggressive- something I’m not quite used to. Always a little frustrating to not have anything left in the tank for the final few metres but lots of positives to take away ahead of nationals in the following week.

Amy Harvey