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| Semerwater, Raydale, North Yorkshire |
Last weekend ended up being a weekend of racing for me. On
Saturday I competed in a women’s 40min bike race at Dishforth, North Yorkshire
and on Sunday I took part in a 1.5km open water swim at Semerwater, also in North Yorkshire .
The bike race was pretty uneventful. The course at Dishforth
is flat, wide and without any tight bends. There were a couple of attacks, but
no one got away. There were also a couple of primes on laps 2 and 3 but the
prizes weren’t attractive enough to encourage everyone to go for them. There
were 25 women in the race, the largest field I’ve raced against so far and the
group stayed together for the whole 40mins/5 laps. So the race came down to a
sprint finish on the final lap in which I finished 2nd to Iona
Sewell of GB Cycles. Well done to the other albaRosa girls who competed: Vicky Clark who set the
pace for most of the race; Lindsay for getting stuck in despite miscounting the
laps; and Claire who enjoyed her first ever bike race. Personally, I felt a bit
underwhelmed at the finish, neither disappointed nor satisfied. In hindsight I
think I should have tried to attack a few times to make the race a bit more
interesting. Next time…
On Sunday, I enjoyed the open water swim much more than the
bike race. The course was either 1 lap (1.5km) or 2 laps (3km) of Semerwater. I
signed up for the 1.5km option. There was a mass start of 75 swimmers, but with
a very wide range of abilities there was no fighting at the start. I had a good
start and got to the first buoy in 2nd place. I then passed the man
who was leading quite early on and held the lead to the finish. There were a
few ducks which crossed my path at one point but apart from that the only event
of note was my disastrous exit from the water where I stood up, fell backwards
and then resorted to crawling over the slippery rocks to get to the finish. Not
the most elegant way to finish a race. I then watched my friends come in, in 3rd
and 7th positions in their first ever open water swim! A leisurely
lunch in Bainbridge followed by a hilly cycle back to Otley was a good way to
fill the rest of the day.
Semerwater race results.
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