Ronde Van Wymeswold (and some crits), 14-15 Jun 2025

Ronde van Wymeswold

For my first stage race I had absolutely no idea what to expect. It was 3 stages, and I was really grateful to have been there with a team this time so I had some support!

Stage 1 was a rolling circuit of about 70km, with a few little rises and descents. It’s probably the first time i feel like I’ve truly been comfortable in a big bunch of about 80 riders. I spent the first 2/3s of the race hiding, and did a good job of moving forward before the last few laps, coming in 14th. I was pretty chuffed with that considering how big the field was!

Stage 2 was an ITT that evening. Not my forte! I tried to go just on feel without looking at data, as some funky imbalances mean that sometimes my numbers can be more of a hindrance than a help. I caught a few people, which I think gave me somewhat of a false sense of security, and ended up about 40th - although with more in the legs.

With hindsight, having something in the legs was probably a good thing for stage 3. It wasn’t a super hilly course, but all of the elevation on the circuit was in one ~100m elevation hill. Every lap saw another attack and a hideous pace up it. I was on my limit every time up and then spent the rest of the lap trying to recover ahead of the next time up it. I was really happy to have managed to stick in the main group up the climb each lap. I ended up doing a bit too much work trying to close some gaps on the flat after the climb on the last lap, and got dropped on the final descent coming into the finish with a few others. I was the highest placed Cat3, and ended up in the 20s on the stage. Considering the profile and the elevation - and the fact I’d been dropped - I couldn’t be too mad. I was overall 36th out of a start list of 80 something which is nothing to shout about, but I gained a lot of confidence with more experienced girls and had a great time doing it!

Crits

After the Ronde, I tried to recover for a bit, but as I’m on holiday for a lot of July and missing a lot of races, I thought I’d get a few crits in. Darley Moor 2/3/4 was on Sunday, and I felt strong and tried to ride a bit more of an aggressive race than I have before. I attacked hard on the last lap and got a gap, but I unfortunately got rolled and ended up coming 7th. Was still a lot of fun to give it a proper smack and go all in!

Last Thursday, I gave the MK bowl crit another go. This time there were only 7 of us annoyingly, but it was still a good fun race since the other girls were strong. I did the opposite to Sunday, and largely lurked in the wheels, wanting to see if I might be able to pull out a bit of a sprint. And I could! It was a close finish, but I ended up winning on the uphill sprint after sitting in. Although it was a tiny field, it was at the very least a fun training session, and it’s always nice to meet more girls racing.

Freya Taylor