The first round of the women’s team series was the Dave Peck road race. I did this race last year, so I remember how difficult the course is, and didn’t get my positioning right when it was most important. I knew that the hilly sectors in the final 3kms were going to suit me, especially for the finish, so my aim was be close to the front as possible for the whole race.

On the day I decided to do a different warm up: about 10 minutes on the rollers and then the rest in the neutralised. However it turned out the neutralised was only around 5kms from the race course! We had a full field of 70 women, with some strong teams there too. As I’ve not really ridden in a bunch with 70 riders, I knew I just needed to be at least in the top half and it will be okay.

The race began, and I knew that team Hutchinson was going to put the pressure on and make it a hard race from the start. The first lap was very fast, much quicker than last year, but so far I felt fine. When we got to the climb, the bunch was reduced to about 40 riders. I was still in the reduced bunch, which I was quite surprised with. It then started to rain and the course was not in good condition, with massive potholes, gravel on the inside lines and the corners were greasy. There was a small crash just before a corner, which I managed to avoid. There was an attack immediately out of the corner which was quickly brought back. On the second lap the Hutchinson team were still driving it hard on the front, and my legs were starting to suffer, but I just kept sticking in.

The pace eased up a little so I quickly took a gel and moved up the bunch more. After a roundabout there was another attack and I was just off the back, but I managed to get into a small group who towed me back on to the bunch again. I was sitting comfortably until we approached the climb. Some riders started to drop at the bottom of the climb. I then lost the front group but managed to catch a small chasing group of about 5 riders.

The chasing group and I worked well together. There was another chasing group slightly in front of us, so we used them as a target. On the next lap, the spectators told us we were closing the gap to them. This was motivating, especially as I was running out of matches. When we approached the roundabout on the course, the red flag marshals told us to stop despite there being no cars on right. This bit of confusion interrupted our chase and we lost sight of our target. From then on we were never able to catch them. This was quite frustrating as some of the members of that group were able to catch up to the main bunch.

We decided to just keep pushing hard and do a chaingang (single pace line) as this was far more effective than doing through and off. Things was going well until our last lap where it began to rain again and my legs stopped working. I had some good sprinters with me so I knew it was going to be hard to win the sprint out of my group (each position is important in the team series as everyone gets points that count). As we approached the final kilometre everyone was getting ready for the finish. I managed to hold my position, sitting in third from the front up the climb. With about 250 metres to go Laura started to go for the sprint, so I went as well. I had to go on the outside so I wouldn’t get boxed in, which wasn’t ideal as I had a car suddenly coming towards me. I had to quickly get over to the left side of the road without causing a crash. I lost some momentum from this, but I did finish third in my group’s sprint.

I crossed the line in 44th place, so although the result doesn’t reflect much. I am happy with that result, and I can see a massive improvement from last year. This year was definitely more difficult, with the winner having over a 6 minute gap to secure her lead, and a much more tactical races. The racing was physically more demanding than last year, so many positives to take away.

Amy Harvey

Dave Peck Memorial Road Race (Women's Team Cup Rd 1), 23 Apr 2023

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