Sunday was the penultimate round of the women’s team cup series which was held in Huntingdon. Tim knows this course well so he gave me some useful pointers and an overview of the course, which was really beneficial (thanks Tim!) The course appeared to be very flat with a bit of a drag at the feed zone and on to the finish. I knew that this race was most likely to have a bunch sprint because of how flat the course was, plus it was 35° so I didn’t think many riders would want to attack in the heat.

As it was so hot, I did a shorter warm up than normal (about 15 mins in total of rollers & neutralised). We had a long neutralised and as soon as the flag was lowered, the pace picked up immediately. I was sitting in the middle of the bunch, and Team LDN was at the front dictating the race. I was sort of expecting this to be the case as they were the team hosting this race. My aim was to just stick in, watch their moves, and stay with them. There was a lot of attacks going on but I just kept trying stick in for as long as I could. We got to the descent and I got dropped along with another rider from Saint Piran. Being one of the only of the riders on junior gears made it difficult to keep up with everyone else on the descents. It was like I’ve ran out of gears. The road flattened out more and I stuck on to the riders wheel and got pulled along a bit. I thought it was a bit weird to be getting dropped already as I don’t normally get dropped this early into a race, but I just kept chasing, the group was only about 50 metres in front. The Team LDN car pulled up beside us and told us to sit behind their car and they can pull as along. So without any hesitation we both got towed by the team car and was back in the group. I managed to make up a lot of places by the feed zone/finish line, as I felt good on the uphill drag. I was sitting comfortably in the top third of the bunch until I felt a riders had on hip and she attempted to push me to the right hand side so she could take my spot! With a little bit of shouting later, I managed to move up even more closely to the front and away from that rider!

On lap 2, I got dropped on the descent again and I had to chase back on the back of the bunch, but without the team car this time. There was lots of attacks still going on, which made it quite grim to chase especially in this heat. There was one attack that turned out to be the winning break, but little did everyone else know that it would have been successful. An attack was made by Heather (Team LDN) and she got quite a gap in front, although she was still in sight. There was a second attack made by Laura (Pedal Mafia) who chased down Heather and caught up with her. Whilst the pair rode away from the bunch, the pace was more controlled to allow them to get away, plus I think it was fair to say the heat was getting to everyone by this point. I was quite relieved the pace had eased up. I knew I was also due for a new bottle so I threw one of my bottles to my mum, and was ready to get a fresh bottle for the next lap.

For the next couple of laps there wasn’t much going on in the bunch, there was no chasing so the gap between the peloton and the breakaway reached about 3 minutes. I could feel the fatigue starting to kick in so I was refuelling, and when we got to the feed zone I got a fresh bottle of electrolytes from my dad. I successfully managed to grab it and not drop it. We had about 2 laps to go and I only had 1 teammate left in the bunch with me so I knew I needed to keep sticking in and to help out my teammate for the day (Harriet) - pretty similar to my previous race. We got to the descent and the pace had ramped up by quite a bit, and again I got dropped and this time I just couldn’t get back on. I was stuck in no man’s land with no riders near me to work with. Luckily I only had a lap and a half to go, and the bunch was still in sight so I had a target to aim at.

On the last lap I lost sight of the group so I had to ride my own race. As I was on my own I just gave it all I could, and rode it like a solo TT. When I was approaching the finish I received a lot of encouragement from Alice (Awol O’Shea) which I found very motivating, especially as it was last 200 metres to the end, and the heat was unbearable at this point.

Overall, this wasn’t my best race, but it wasn’t my worst either. I think the heat got to me so I didn’t do as well as I normally would. But I’m still pleased with mine and the teams result and I’m ready for the next race.

Amy Harvey

Team LDN Team Cup Huntingdon Road Race, 14 Aug 2022

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