Let's start 2 days after the Milk Race, back at Lower Withington for the last of the TLI series - and it was grim! Damp, cold and unplesant. The field was so small that we all got set off in one group, but almost certainly because of conditions it all stayed together for the whole race. I skulked around mostly at the back of the group feeling vunerable to the chance of getting knocked off by someone else, there were a few near misses over the race but luckily we all made it home safely - and with the 1st woman prize money in my pocket.
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| Sarah and Jo at Curborough |
Next up was a trip to the Curborough Sprint Circuit near Lichfield - and a great team of 4 Wheelers ladies - woo hoo! None of us had ever been there before, but we were pleased to find an interesting circuit which was mostly nice and wide and with a good surface. The 3 women's race had around 15 riders with quite a spread of speeds. The team plan was to get one of us in any front group that managed to get away, and happily I managed to be in it. There were a couple of strong 1st cat riders who were continually attacking a driving the pace up, but I tried to do a good job of being close enough to the front of the group of 7 to make sure I stayed with them, chasing a few of the attacks down in the process. On the whole I was riding a good race, spending very little time on the front, at around 2 laps to go I was on the front for around quarter of a lap, which wasn't a bad thing except when I dropped off the front I ended up near the back, I knew I needed to get back up to the front ready for the finishing sprint, which was uphill and with a tailwind. I tried to sneak up, but some of the other girls were doing the same thing and I wasn't strong/brave enough to do it on the sharpest bend heading into the drag to the finish. I didn't allow myself to pushed back any further and went as hard as I could to the line taking back a lot of distance in the closing metres but it was only good enough for 6th (well 5th if you believe the official results) - and when really I should be happy to I was downright annoyed with myself. I was stronger than some of the others and I was definitely faster at sprinting but I messed up my chances by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not going hard enough a little bit earlier to move up the group. If I'd been offered this result 3 or 4 months ago I'd have been really happy and I should try and look at the positive aspects of the race - but it left me feeling a bit fed up to be honest!
Bah!
The next event was the Holme Valley Wheelers Stage Race -opened up to make a women's race too I'd been looking forward to it with a bit of trepidation! I'd been to check the course out with Heather and Fred a few weeks ago so I knew what to expect - HILLY!
The race started with a 10m TT - great you might think, been doing alright in the TT's, hopefully I should be able to turn in a respectable time. Oh dear - how wrong could I be! The course was fairly rolling so times weren't expected to be stunning, and I was just on my standard bike unlike some people who had the full TT set up. I set off, didn't feel like I was flying. Could hear some rattling from the back end of my bike - but ignored it, I'd worry about it if my wheel fell off! To cut a long and tortuous story short, I felt like a bag of spanners and rode only marginally better than one. I was overtaken by 3 people and had the dubious pleasure of being the lantern rouge, propping up the General Classification. Not the start I'd been hoping for, god only knows how I rode it so slowly, but 6 minutes down on the winning time is frankly appaling!
Frustration - oh yes I was a grumpy Taylor after that!
Photo here from Ed Rollason: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ed_rollason/8993460125/in/set-72157634021582590
But, it was time to pick my bottom lip up and refocus for the road race in the afternoon. 30 miles (3 laps) which sounds fine, until you look at the course - hills, hills and more hills - although the upside being some great downhill too! Aim for the day- do not get dropped! Mission all going according to plan, staying in the front half of the field for the first lap until the long drag round the bottom of the circuit, I could feel the peleton starting to thin around me and I just kept moving forward, going round people and making sure I wasn't going to drift off the back unintentionally. All good. Lap 2 bit less successful, again I moved around people, a group of 5-6 riders got distanced and then a little bit further on, nearing the top of the drag and just before the turn into the finish road (also uphill) I found myself gapped - but with 3 other riders. We didn't panic and blow up, but once we'd turned back onto the downhill we chased, and chased, I put in some big turns keeping the pace really high on the downhill sections and we managed to get back to the front group - phew. Unfortunately after the really fast descent the pace eased a bit and the other riders that had been distanced also managed to get back onto the group which left a front group of around 18 to head towards the finish. Again the long drag whittled it down but I wasn't for letting go at that point and pushed hard to stay on the back of the group. I kept on all the way to the finishing straight, the group was strung out at this point and I had a couple of girls come past - no problem I thought I'll sit in until right near the finish - which is exactly what I did and managed to slingshot myself past about 4 riders in the last 50m.
I came over the line in 12th and the last of the group to get the same time at the finish pretty happy with that. Of course, even though there were some big time gaps through the field it wasn't going to be enough to move me massively up the rankings but I did jump from 37th to 20th on the overall.
A day of very contrasting halves and one which left me feeling again a bit frustrated by my poor performance in the morning, I think I may need to do some work on this time-trialling stuff.
Next weekend is the next round of the National Series with the Surf and Turf 2 day - 1km prologue, 45minute circuit race on the saturday and 53m road race on the sunday - luckily the TT section is so short I can't possibly lose much time!
