Trying to keep up with Dame Sarah Storey
Mechanic, masseur (yeah right!) and emotional support in tow
(otherwise known as the husband) I arrived at York Racecourse ready for my
first ever road race- the Women's Tour de Yorkshire. In fact, not really a
tour, more of a circuit race around York. But at 4 times round a 20km loop
it was to be the furthest I'd ever tried to go fast on a bike for, by a
considerable distance.
Luckily I spotted team mate Amy Souter almost
immediately who was also just arriving, so we set up an albagirls team car base
camp. Team Pearl Izumi clearly looked to us for inspiration and parked up
nearby, a few more spare bikes and slightly smarter paint jobs but generally
pretty similar. At sign in we found the third member of our team Suzie Richards and
collected our race numbers 1, 2 and 3, good start!
Coffee, gel, warm up, clothes on, clothes off, on the start
line, off we go. I managed to get a good spot on the start line, at the front.
My aim for the race was to try and stay in the top 20 places at all times. I
found it easier than I thought I would to get up to the front, but more
difficult than I realised to stay there. I kept drifting back through the
field and then moving up again (in hindsight wasting valuable energy in doing
so). I made it round 1 lap yo-yoing up and down the field but early on in the
second lap I struggled to move back up and eventually dropped off the back of
the front pack completely.
A small chance to get back on arose when Dame Sarah
Storey(!) came past, I managed to get on her wheel but couldn't hold it all the
way back to the pack and so ended up forming a group with around 5 other girls.
We worked together over the next 3 laps, sometimes losing people and sometimes
picking others up until on the final lap there were 3 of us left trying to work
together/beat each other/make it to the finish line. Just before coming into
the finishing straight my little group caught Suzie’s group and a couple
of girls jumped away and sprinted for the line. There was zero sprint left in
my legs so I just tried to keep moving and use up every last little bit of
energy. It was a great feeling to have made it all the way round and
share the moment with my team mate Suzie. We also spotted Amy in the crowd
who unfortunately got caught up behind a crash.
One final memorable moment was cycling back down the
finishing chute to get back to race HQ. I think most people had already gone
back, so Suzie and I ended up cycling down together, with Suzie egging the
crowd on to give us a cheer, they waved and clapped as if we were the winners,
brilliant fun.