York Sport Cycle Circuit Race, 2nd attempt

After enjoying my first bike race last week and spending all week thinking about race tactics and possible race scenarios, I decided to have another go this week.

When race day came round, unfortunately the weather in Leeds took a turn for the worse and it was raining on and off all day. I’ve done plenty of chain-gangs in the rain so I wasn’t worried about the conditions, but I was concerned that no one else would turn up. I shouldn’t have doubted my competitors though, as although there were fewer riders than last week, eight women turned up to race including albaRosa team mates Lindsay and Emily.

This week we were set off in two groups, a five and then a three. After winning last week, I was in the second group. The first job was to catch the first five women and working reasonably well as a group of three we managed catch and pass them. The next thing to think about was watching the lap numbers count down from 10 laps to go. One of the girls attacked a couple of times, so I started to be a bit more cautious, watching out in case she tried again. As the pace was slower than last week I felt very comfortable and thought about breaking away myself. In the end though, I decided to wait for the last lap. Going into the final hairpin I went hard, coming out I saw I had a big gap so I kept going to the finish to take my second bike race win. Well done to Lindsay and Emily who both enjoyed the race and felt more confident than last week despite the wet weather. Also well done to all the albaRosa guys, it was great to watch the men’s race- that was so much faster than the women’s and see lots of pink and black albaRosa zipping past.

So, time to get out cycling and think about next week’s tactics!

Results here