Iona at Peterborough Crit

Iona at Peterborough Crit

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Dishforth and St Oliver's Mount circuit race weekend, 31st August and 1st September.

End of August, little over a week until Ras na mBan, and Brit, Jo and I were back at Dishforth Airfield for a jam packed weekend of Crit racing!

First thing first tho, Brit manged to forget her wheels!  Packed the bike, but no wheels!  Luckily she'd remembered the spares!

Race 1 women were set of a minute after the 4th Cat men.  The circuit is a 3 mile loop of a very windy exposed Airfield!  That morning tho, it wasn't particularly windy for there!

The race started fairly steadily, with the three of us happy to let the other set the pace.  Half a lap in tho, and it was Jo's job to attack first.  That she did, taking Sian Botteley of Squadra Donne with her.  I was straight on to Sian's wheel.  Sian took over the pace, and then I took up the pace form there.  Into the finish straight and Jo attacked again, and we must of had a gap, as there was, Jo, Sian and myself then, Brit behind, shouting, go, go!  Brit and I came to the front to take over from Jo, and in doing so Jo just didn't quiet make it across to our wheels.  And that was that we we're away!  Two up TT, for another 4 laps!
                                      We're away!
                                   
                                     Come on Jo!  End of lap 1.

The Break!

Last lap and into the finish, and Brit got the sprint for the win, me in 2nd!  Jo came into finish a very consistent 4th, beaten only by Sian in the sprint!

After a chilly 2 hrs wait, and by this point the wind had really picked up it was time for race 2!
This time due to lack of women staying to race the second race, we we're set of with the 4th cat's!
From the gun, Neil one of the York University riders attacked!  Brit was straight on his wheel followed by me!  Within a quarter of a lap we we're away!  The 3 of us working well together.  By the end of lap 3 of 5, I think we were both stating to struggle to hold his wheel as he powered into the head wind!  I was counting down the laps, by the last lap, it was just a case of survival.  We were in no danger of being caught by the group behind, it was just surviving the headwind and not losing the wheel in front!

Second race of the day, and our little escape group!

With  no bunch finish and so no need for a lead out, I was determined to try beat Brit in a sprint!
Brit went one side, I went the other, and I managed to hold a slight lead, and finish first!  Brit second, and Jo 5th!  Another good day's racing.

Now for day 2, race 3!
St Oliver Mount, Scarborough!  Only 5 girls signed on, so we're asked, do we want to be set off with 4th cat's!?  No I say, Yes says Brit!!!

                                     All ready for the start!

Anyway, more girls sign on and we're set off separately.  Oliver's Mount we raced the top circuit only, so no steep hill for us today, which I'm always a little disappointed about!

The circuit is a slight drag up, into a headwind for the finish and a fast slight decent into a sharp 90deg left hand bend at the other side of the circuit.

                                     Early on!

Again the 4th cat's were set off a minute ahead of us.  We set off, and quickly our group was down to 6 riders, myself, Brit, Katherine Broadbent, Rachel Bamford, Sian Botteley and an RST racing team girl. We then lost Sian, and were down to 5.
A little undecided as to how we were going to race this, have an easy race, or attack!  We knew it was going to be a lot harder to shift, either Rachel or Katherine form the group!

Brit then got board!  I was on the front, so not ready to jump away, then Brit attacked and I didn't go with it!  The others just watched her go!  Rachel and Katherine shared turns on the front, I was quiet happy to sit in or on the front and slow it down.  Brit was just dangling out front, and I just had to wait for the opportunity to jump across the gap.
If i went now, I would just drag the others with me!
Few lap's later the RST racing team, girl who had just been sitting in, she attacked up the drag on the finish straight.  Rachel went after her, but hadn't closed the gap.  I went straight down the inside, past Rachel, up to the girl who had attacked and kept on going!

It took a couple of laps, but I eventually closed the gap to Brit.  Now it was just a case of staying away.  That second half of race, i found a lot harder, having had to bridge the gap.  So Brit rode the up hill into the wind, and I rode the down, and that worked quiet well.  Brit having worked out that if we did 26 mph down the hill and 21, up that if we were going as fast as we could, then they couldn't possibly catch us!
It worked we stayed away!  Last time into the finish hill and we had caught a small group of 4th cat's, and I tried to use them as a lead out for the finish.  No beating Brit in another sprint today, it wasn't going to happen,today she was the stronger today!  A well deserved win for Brit, and another 1,2 for Geoffrey Butler Cycles!

Iona