The East Midlands/West Midlands/North East/North West/Yorkshire regional championships - or, more accurately, the half of England championships - was absolutely brutal. I learnt the hard way that registering my race licence to my home address in Derby, and not at my university address in Cambridge, meant I’d have to suffer hills rather than the flat. And hilly it was. The course was 6 times up an absolute devil of a climb through Windley – a way I’d pottered with my Dad on many a club ride, but never had to smack it up trying to chase girls significantly stronger, and I fear significantly lighter, than myself. I dug very deep for the first few laps, and managed to cling onto the main group. There was very little chance of me making the break, which went off into the distance, but I did a pretty decent job of sitting in as best as I could and using the descents, which I seemed to be comparatively comfortable on, to try and move towards the front of the group. This gave me some room to fall back through the peloton (which started about 50 strong and got progressively smaller each lap) on the climb. This yo-yoing seemed to be working quite well, even as I was blowing myself to bits on the hills.

Unfortunately, around 2 laps before the end, I had the same disaster mechanical I’d had at BUCS road race a few weeks ago – it turns out my Di2 charger was in fact the culprit, and I once again lost the use of my big ring. I attempted to coordinate a bike swap with my Dad who was watching on the side of the road through a dodgy Apple watch phone call, but he evidently didn’t trust me with his bike, and so another one-by moment it was. I managed to cling onto the group for another lap, wheel sucking and spinning to the extreme, but with around a lap to go, the bunch I was in spotted the break halfway down the descent. They started to chase, bringing the peloton as a whole back together, but I was out of gears, and unfortunately got gapped on the last descent of the last lap. I ended up finding a small chase group, and rolled in somewhere around 30th.

I was furious about the repeat mechanical, but proud of how I managed to cling on against some more experienced girls. My confidence, bike handling, and ability to dig deep has come on significantly in the last few months and, repeat trauma of the little ring and Windley aside, I had an amazing day out. How cool it is to be able to enter – and mostly get round save a mechanical – such hard and competitive races just two months into any bunch racing. Not sure I’d recommend to a friend, but I’ll definitely be back next year.

Freya Taylor

Regional Championships Road Race, 1 June 2025

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