An experience I’ll never forget… for good and bad reasons! As usual I was unbelievably nervous… shaking like a leaf and thinking of any excus
e to not race. But then I decided, there are no points on offer – so nothing to lose - and I can do the distance at a fast pace relatively comfortably when I’m rolling with the boys, so why not? I tried incredibly hard to make myself ‘numb’ to the feelings, not thinking about where I’d like to come or how I’d like to perform (obviously deep down I knew), and decided it was a ‘get round’ job.
We drove up and stayed in a hotel as a team the night before the race, which was actually lovely and super enjoyable and took my mind off of things a bit. On my way to the hotel, I drove the course… big mistake: I knew immediately it was not the one for me! It wasn’t just hilly – there were fairly sharp inclines at the bottom of every descent, which meant very little opportunity for recovery. Yes, I get up hills reasonably well because I’m light and fairly small, but I’m definitely not a climber.
I also knew I was going into the race not in the best shape… I’d been croaking like a frog all week while teetering on the edge of another cold, and I had a pulled piriformis muscle - look it up – it’s in your bum - which was struggling to heal, and I’d had a bikefit the day before, not exactly ideal as my body is very susceptible to small changes. And I was in the phase of my menstrual cycle where I fatigue more quickly and recover more slowly - so not ideal. But another reason I was less stressed than I expected to be, was because I wasn’t even sure I’d get round… but I did!
So, the roll out started, 5km neutralised or something, the vehicle was trying to keep everyone together but it did cause some swamping and poor riding so that was where the ‘sketchy’ began.
About 2km after they released us there was a fairly big crash going up a hill, taking down six riders and splitting the bunch. It happened just behind me and hearing the clattering of bikes freaked me out. However, people at the front took it as an opportunity to push on a bit to carry the split in the bunch, which happened and I managed to stay with it, but unfortunately the race was then brought to a stand-still for something – I think it was a tank - to cross the road…. SO annoying because that allowed the dropped riders to get back on, and therefore the sketchiness to continue! Although it did allow some of our team to get back in the race... pros and cons eh?
The first 2.5 laps were very sketchy, people cutting others up and moving off their line without looking…. I wondered how some of the riders were allowed to race because their bunch etiquette was awful. A few more crashes happened, and I tried to stay up the front, remembering that before the race, a friend of mine had said ‘whatever you do, stay in the top 20 riders,’ so I tried my best. At first, I was scared and sat further back but I quickly realised the further back I was, the greater the danger.
Most of the riders were looking out for each another, calling out potholes and oncoming vehicles, although, there were a few riders who wouldn’t move over to allow other riders to get out of the way of oncoming vehicles… so stressful.
There were some riders who would sprint off the front up the hills and then ping out the back at the top… so frustrating, because they didn’t try to or couldn’t hold the pace on the flat, which made for a lot of inefficient riding!
Three laps in and I’d witnessed just about all the bad riding, near misses and heart thumping moves I could take. I was comfortable on the descents/false flats and some of the climbs, not so much on the steeper hills, but I dug deep. I also didn’t use my little ring, just churned away… poor life choices? Stupidity? Who knows?
With the last lap bell ringing in our ears, people started to get twitchy. I found myself a wheel and stayed with it. Unfortunately, it was the wrong wheel…. A break went in front of her, and she didn’t follow it, so I had to go around and bridge myself back on, thankfully riding her and some others off of my wheel, thinking this was THE MOVE! But by the time I had got across to the break and recovered, everyone sat up. Which was really frustrating.
The race continued at a comfortable pace from there, I was fighting for a wheel a lot of the time and thankfully, one of the LDN ladies helped me out and gave me her wheel coming into the last climb. However, with such little race experience I missed her moving through the bunch and got boxed in coming up the last climb (the worst one) to the finish… Unfortunate but it wouldn’t have made too much difference because I had nothing left for a sprint, except cramp. So just rolled over the line in the saddle.
I was over the moon that I finished my first ever road race, and not only that, but I got a top 10!! Insane right?! Little me… up with the big dogs! The second 4th cat over the line in a 2-3-4 race as well... absolutely felt mega!
However, now all the feels are coming through and I’m gutted I couldn’t finish the job off. I know I have a strong finish on a good day, and I knew going into the race I was like Bambi on ice, but there is always the competitive side to my brain wanting more.
Now I know I can get round a road race; I might just surprise myself and enter some more! You might be seeing me… hopefully on even better days!
Rides bikes, eat cake, be happy :)
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