Still improving...

There has been a break from the national Series races the last couple of week, but the next round of the CDNW Women's road race league approached fast.

Pimbo startline - boiling!

This was the 4th round and was taking place back at Pimbo - the same course as the first round back in March. I found the first round intimidating and was nervous about it and was pleased to stay in the bunch and not get dropped. Now 4 months later I was confident that I wasn't going to get dropped as I knew the other riders well and felt happy that I could stay with them. So the next task was to see just how far up the field I could get. The course doesn't really lend itself to a successful breakaway so I was fairly confident that there would be a bunch sprint finish. I know that I can finish pretty quickly if I get myself in the right position and haven't worn myself out earlier in the race, so I was trying to ride intelligently throughout the race to save myself enough energy.
The race was animated mostly by the Maxgear girls who had decided that they were going to send a rider off the front in rotation - which theoretically would work well to tire people out, but the peleton was happy to reel them back in steadily each time. The other reason was so that they could win the prime points - which Jo Blakeley duly did. But most of us also knew that one of the team Lauryn is a very good sprinter so it would likely that they were looking for her to take the sprint. This information meant that I also knew that the wheel to follow if possible was that of the Maxgear train.
The day was roasting and we were racing from 12noon - phew! Even i took 2 bottles with me and threw one off my bike to Andy in the final few laps. The laps steadily ticked down and although feeling pretty hot, I was also feeling fairly in control of myself - I done a couple of the chasing down turns and was finding moving around the group pretty reasonable.
The last prime came at 5 laps to go and I was aware that this would be a danger point for  a group getting away so I made sure I moved close to the front and in the event the push from the prime was relatively easy to cover as lots of the other girls had the same thoughts.
As the last lap came around I was determined to get myself to the right place. The pace went up and I kept moving forward. Heading round the bottom end of the course the Maxgear girls formed up a line and I managed to muscle my way onto tail only to lose it a little further on with other riders riding in less than the straightest of lines I opted for some self preservation. We turned the final bend in to the finishing straight - it's long and gently uphill. I was still near the front of the group and so I was in a great position when Gina Riley went long, 4 of us kicked and locked onto her wheel. The line was approaching and I waited and waited. Lauryn went and I stayed tucked in right until the last moment before fully putting through some power. I shot past the other riders and crossed the line alongside Lauryn but in second place. I was pretty happy with that, although as Andy's (not very high quality) film shows I was moving quicker than anyone else over the line, so maybe if I'd gone a bit sooner.......... ah well - if I'd been offered a 2nd place finish in one of these races at the start of the season I'd have taken that quite happily.

Since that race I've had a couple of outings to Tameside and Litherland and done OK. Managed to rack up some more points and even managed to win the race within the race at Litherland - although there were only 2 of us in it so it doesn't really count!
Last weekend was the first event of the Manchester Wheelers 130th Birthday celebrations with a day of racing at Tameside which for some reason I ended up being the principal organiser - all went well thanks to loads of help from lots of other people and the amazing sunshine!
Happy to get that out of the way this week has been a time-trialling week, with the Club 10 on monday night (I was 10 secs down on my PB, but that's OK) and then last night was the Club Hill Climb on the Cat and Fiddle. The ride starts on the Macclesfield side and finishes at the top - obviously! Last year it was bonkers as there was a huge storm that kicked off when we were all riding. The descent was terrifying.
Last night was the opposite end of the spectrum - amazing sunshine and hardly a breath of wind. My time last year was 30:24 so I was hoping to go under the half hour this year. I warmed up on a turbo before heading to the start. It was a very social evening, so plenty of banter before the off. Under instruction from Andy I didn't go mad to start the climb, steady pace but trying hard. Last year I got caught by the first bend (about 1 mile in) so I was happy at that point that I still seemed to clear. Soon after that I could see someone ahead of me who I reeled in and overtook before the half way mark - a good confidence boost. There were people handing out bottles in the layby at the half way point and cheering everyone on and then there is a little bit of downhill - click up into the big ring and pick up some speed!

Something about that body language says "TRYING"!

Around this point I was overtaken by one of the clubs mountain goats, although I stayed in sight of him for quite a while. The last point of note was the cafe where cake was waiting and Andy was cheering - and then just the final drag to the summit. I tried to keep my cadence up and the speed somewhere reasonable, passed another rider in the last stretch and crossed the line. Looking down at the garmin I knew I'd gone under the 30 - very happy! My official time turned out to be 26:36 - I couldn't believe it nearly 4 minutes off my time. I call that an improvement!

This weekend it's time to get thoroughly beaten at the National Criterium/Circuit Race Champs in York. Wish me luck!

National Series Racing

Flipping heck I was supposed to write about all this in more than one blog and some time ago - but anyway here we go.......

So last time I wrote I was about to get stuck into the next of the Women's National Road Race Series with the 2-day Surf and Turf race.
The weather forecast wasn't particularly helpful for the Saturday in Blackpool (Surf!) - but thankfully it was wrong and it was dry, vaguely sunny and only a bit windier than you might expect from being by the seaside. Stage 1 was the worlds shortest time trial - 1 lap of the cycle circuit - the entire field of 60 riders was only split by 15 seconds and I was at 6 seconds down and in 34th place - as I had hoped difficult to lose a lot of time!
Stage 2 was the crit race around the very same 1km circuit that we'd done the time trial on - and to be honest I was a little bit concerned about there being so many riders of the circuit. It's not super wide and the 2 corners are reasonably tight. My fears were not entirely unfounded as the race saw 3 crashes, one very early on where 2 girls from the same team took each other out (they jumped up quick and carried on), in the last 10 laps which involved 2 or 3 people who didn't get up quite so quickly but were ale to finish and then the last one was the lone leader at the time who overcooked into the final bend on what I think might have been the last lap - oops! Anyway, I was worried I wouldn't be able to hang on in there with the sort of riders that are at the national series races, but despite a couple of yo-yo's off the back I managed to grit my teeth and come home with the peleton and a 36th place.
Day 2 (Turf) was a road race on the Nateby/Piling circuit that I raced on earlier in the year as part of the CDNW Women's League - but this time we would be riding an extra lap of the course to give a 53m race. Once again I was aiming at managing to stay with the front group and not get tailed off and with some big efforts and determination by the time we were heading to the finishing straight for the last time I was well ensconced in the group. The sprint finish was inevitable and the group accelerated towards the line......I decided I was going to give it everything I had left and just kept increasing my speed. As the line drew closer I gave myself a bit of a talking too and held my nerve, getting faster and faster. I could see lots of people going backwards and the line was approaching fast, I knew I was nowhere near the front, but also I was nowhere near the back either - as I crossed the line I could see I was definitely in the front half of the group and right in the midst of the sprint. I do not envy the judges trying to sort that lot out! But I ended up 22nd in the road race - pretty happy with that and overall 27th on the GC. Quite a substantial improvement on the last National Series Race up in Perth. I felt as thought I'd accomplished my mission to make sure that I stayed in the race and didn't get tailed off. Next mission is to be a bit more part of the race, get myself closer to the front and not be afraid that the rest of the field is so much better than me.

Start line

I only had 2 weeks to contemplate this resolution as the Curlew Cup was the next event in the series. A big road race up in Northumberland. The race was being run in conjunction with the Beaumont Trophy  which is one of the Premier Calendar events (mens big races), so the whole event was BIG! Really well organised with an incredible number of motorbikes from the police and the National Escort Group out on the course looking after us. The course was "rolling" and very, very windy, each lap was 13.6 miles long and the speed went from 12mph into the strong headwind to 40mph down the tailwind descent - phew!

This being one of the bigger races on the calendar for the women there was a really strong field and once again I was nervous that I just wouldn't be fast enough either on the uphill or the downhill! It was not an easy day out on the bike, there were definitely a couple of moments where I wasn't sure I was going to hang on, slipping a few metres off the bunch on one of the ascents the only thing that made me dig that bit deeper was knowing that Phil Leigh was in the neutral service car behind me and wanting to make sure I was doing the Manchester Wheelers jersey proud for him, being an ex-president, one of Andy's race mates from years ago and the person who sorts out the kit for the club too - it would have been a bit embarrassing to give up without a fight. The race was 4 laps long and had an intermediate sprint each lap - I so nearly got caught out by the first one as the pace rocketed and then the course goes up a short sharp hill. The next 2 laps I tried to make sure I was closer to the front to make it easier to stay in the wheels and it worked. The last lap came around and I was praying that the speed wouldn't be stupidly high up the climbs, a small breakaway had managed to get clear on the last lap and there was riders from all the big teams so there wasn't much chasing going on, so speed was reasonable and I knew I was going to make it to the end without getting dropped. My next thought was how brave could I be on the descent, could I weave my way through the group a bit and try and stay with the acceleration into the finish?
I moved forward a bit and held my nerve to the finish, accelerating as hard as I could through the gaps that started to open up. I came over the line in around 18th place in the peleton, which gave me a finish position of 23rd - nice! What would have been even nicer would have been 3 places further forward and I'd have made it into the prize money too! Note to self - get forward sooner - make life easier for myself!