I arrived early at HQ early (I was told to turn up early to make sure I got a ride, having not pre-entered the race).
Anyway, the men's race was running late, and when signing on finally opened, I was told I couldn't sign on until everyone else had, 'come back in 20 minutes'. When I finally got my numbers (all 3 of them), it was getting late. Finally with 10 minutes to spare I was ready, or thought so, but unfortunately my numbers had been pinned to my base layer! I was now unable to pull the bib up on my shorts! So some last minute frantic number pinning was need to sort it. Finally with about a minute to spare I jumped on my bike and we rolled out of HQ.
We set out for 3 laps of a lumpy course, with one notable hill. First lap the bunch was together as we entered the climb. I found myself at the back trying to move up around those going backwards. There were riders all over the road that first time up the hill. It was quite tricky trying to get through the mass of bikes, the longer the hill went on the more those being shelled out weaved around in front. Over the top of the hill and the lead group had established a small gap and were away. I found myself in the second group on the road. As a group we worked well together and on the second lap just at the bottom of the hill again we made contact with the lead group again. By the top of the climb the bunch had split though, and we were back to being the second group on the road.
When we passed through the start/finish for the bell lap, we were given a time gap of about a minute to the lead group. As soon as we started the final lap, it was like a switch, everyone stopped working! I continued to push on, with only the help of Charlotte Walton. We kept going, then made a couple of attempts to get away, but it wasn'y going to work. I was fed up with just dragging them all along, they were capable of riding but preferred to just sit in for the ride.
Last lap and we approached the kick up to the finish. I was middle of the bunch and managed to make up a couple of places in the sprint for the line to finish 26th.
Iona
