East London Velo Road Race – 26th May and Elveden Round 4 - 8th June 2013
Thu 13 Jun 2013
Hannah Ormesher - East London Velo Road Race – 26th
May and Elveden Round 4 - 8th June 2013
ELV RR
A glorious morning welcomed a large field of women riders to a 55 mile race at Hatfield Heath which formed 6 laps of a 9 mile circuit. It was a rough sort of square shape with a slight downhill and fast straight off the start line, a few left handers and then up up up a long drag with a few kickers thrown in the mix before a flatish straight to the finish. There was a pre-race fiasco with a rider forgetting her shoes and she asked around desperately if anyone had any spare. I had been out on the cross bike the day before and out of sheer laziness hadn’t taken my MTB shoes out of the boot, I offered her these (on the premise she wouldn't beat me!!) before we established that she was in fact a size 3 (I'm a 7). Not to fear, she stuffed them out with gloves and spare socks. Hardly ideal but at least it did the trick! The next problem was a lack of SPD pedals, she went off to try her luck before I realised (for some reason unknown) I had put a pair of new one sided ones that came off my MTB in my race bag. So smiles all round and off we went to the start line where we waited nervously and for what seemed like an age for the race to start.
The women raced concurrently with the men's race but a few minutes behind. The pace was incredibly fast from the word go and I was enjoying it. There was a strong field out, it was my first race actually on the roads per se and it was cool to be led by a motorbike and followed by a couple of support cars, one being a London cab full of spare wheels! I felt protected in a bubble of riders but had to keep an eye that I wasn’t getting pushed out to the side and over the middle white line as the make-up of the bunch ebbed and flowed. One thing I have learnt more from experience than watching races on YouTube/TV is how dynamic a group of riders is, the bunch really is in constant flux and you are required to concentrate hard to keep track of what is happening around you. What I glimpsed of the scenery was lovely but I wasn’t taking much of it in, too busy concentrating on hanging onto the wheel in front - more about that later. With an average lap speed of 23mph I knew I had my work cut out. If I could hold that in a race for 30 miles I'd be happy, let alone 55.
There was a crash going up one of the hills and I was glad to have avoided it, thankfully no one was hurt and I think most of those who came down managed to work their way back to the main group. An hour into the race and I was pretty tired from repeated hill attacks and felt like I was hanging on for dear life. I had been foolishly neglecting my drinks bottle and forgot to eat any gels and I started to feel a bit weary in the heat – lessons learned. Each lap was a cycle of me telling myself ‘just keep with them up these hills’, knowing I’d run myself to empty but could then recover on the downhill section. A few riders had already been shed and it was my turn next. Caught at the back of the group before a corner (I’ll put it down to inexperience and fatigue!) and then up a hill, I found the group charging ahead and all I could do was look on, out of the saddle and giving it everything I knew my game was up and I would not get back to them. This fate was sealed as the support cars came past me. Then, a few minutes after some lonely riding and thinking to myself, ‘Well, at least I know how much work I have to do’ and ‘That was the fastest I’ve ever covered 25 miles!’, I came to a fork in the road and realised I hadn't really been paying attention to where we were going, just that there was a marshal on each left hand corner. The race took in country lanes and they didn’t have any white lines to indicate which branch of the fork kept you on the same road. It seemed logical to bear left so that's what I did. It was a split second decision. It soon became apparent this was the wrong choice as the road was very unfamiliar. I knew then that I was officially out of the race and would just have to find my way back to HQ. As I approached a T junction to join a major road I realised it formed part of the course, I'd lopped off a big chunk and would now have to turn right and cycle along in the opposite direction to the race flow to get back to HQ! I tucked myself behind the traffic the best I could as the race charged past, sheepishly hoping no one would notice I was in fact once part of that race and was now going the wrong way! Woops!
I DNF’d but enjoyed the experience nonetheless and stuck around to chat with the girls afterwards (and get my shoes back!). The pace did not let up, 23mph average and the group just kept shedding riders off the back until it narrowed down to about 5 I think with a chase group behind. Very impressive riding from some of the big names in women's road racing. I cheered the winner over the line, Laura Massey of Abergavenny Road Club who was a few bike lengths clear in the sprint, and then made my way back home but stopped off in Hunsdon for a quick 10 mile loop in the sun taking in the canal at Ware to get my cycling fill for the day. Lots of lessons learned.
ER4
On
Saturday 8th June and with the unfortunate cancellation of the club 25 I
headed up
to the Elveden Estate for Round 4 of the series. I really enjoy riding
on that course and being able to roughly compare your performance each
race. I knew all the big names would be at the Hillingdon GP or the
Nocturne in London that evening so I grabbed at
the opportunity. It was windy out and the course is very exposed. I
warmed up and thoroughly hoped I would not be finishing this race on my
own. The race formed 7 laps of the course/26 miles.
The
first lap was gentle and we rolled round. On the second it picked up
and on the
third a split occurred up the incline on the first bend of the course. I
took charge and tried to get the roughly assembled group of 7 of us to
work together to see if we could get back to the lead group. They were
in view for a lap and for a while it seemed
we were gaining on them but then the support cars came past us and they
slipped out of view. The pace in our chase group was good, medium-fast
and sustainable. Communication in the group was pretty good and a couple
of us in particular worked hard to keep it
dynamic.
There
were a few opportunities where a St Ives rider and I plotted to break
away but
the group stuck to us each time we tried. I did however notice that on
the penultimate incline of the course I was coming away from them all
and opening up a gap, I eased off, took a mental note and decided on the
final lap I would attack here. After the incline
the course then levels out to a fast and slight downhill before ramping
up to the finishing straight. The bell rang and the last lap was upon
us. St Ives and I pushed up that first bend and the group seemed more
agitated than before. We picked up 2 new faces
that lap on the way through, one who'd been dropped from the lead group
and one who originally was part of our chaingang but had a chain come
off. These additions changed the dynamics as one was fresh from 10 mins
or so recovery waiting for us to come through.
Conscious of this I let her go as she charged ahead, she was a lap down
on us anyway. We approached the penultimate incline and I went for it
and to my delight saw a large gap open up! I was worried I might have
gone too soon as a few riders chased and came
up beside me. We caught the lap down rider before the final ramp up and I
used her as a springboard to propel myself over the line past the
others and take the chase group sprint! My grimacing soon gave way to a
massive grin as I couldn't quite believe my plan
had worked! In a state of bemused disbelief I rode a cool down lap with a
few girls from the group and we chatted away happily about the race. It
was a big personal victory for me in road racing, for the first time I
felt like it was all coming together and
I had been able to take control. I came 9th overall of 18 which gives me my first couple of BC points on the way to becoming 3rd
Cat!
I have managed to scrape into the Hemel Hempstead CC 10 on the F11/10 course near Tring this Saturday 15th
June. I won’t bore you with a report on that but will let you know how I get on.
Thanks for reading and for the interest club members have shown in my racing, I really
appreciate it!