Nicola picked me up on route to Perth, managing to
get 2 bikes and 4 sets of wheels all in a 107! Squashed in ready for the
three hour trip, it was then I went on a license hunt and having to repack the
car for a second time.
Finally getting to Perth on the Friday afternoon,
signed on, rode the circuit, had tea and got ready for the 9 o'clock start.
Mentioning no names but one of the Maxgear girls did cable tie
the spoke to the forks when attaching a transponder!
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| bicycles.org.uk/copgp |
Race time. It started hard with riders getting
shelled out of the back, up the climb there was quite a bit of gravel this
caused two crashes at different points in the race luckily I squeezed up the
inside and on the mud avoiding both incidents. Halfway through the race Jo
appeared next to me, explaining she had shipped (dropped) her chain, stopped got
it back on and then chased back on to the bunch, that showed real strength
until her bottle dropped off and she looked for it, managing to chase back to
the bunch for a second time, I was sat in seriously amazed!
With 3 laps to go the bunch started getting tighter
making it more sketchy, suddenly there was a crash on the flatter section of the
course. Unfortunately I was directly behind it and heavily braked, clipping
out (pulling my hip in the process) limping around the accident I
then had a small chase back to the bunch. Coming into the sprint
finish there was two girls away therefore I decided to sit in, saving my legs
for later races but still getting the bunch time on the General
Classification.
Meeting up with Jo after the race I had a
sudden panic that I had not seen Nicola and Frankie since the early
crashes, luckily they were waiting for us at the head quarters and had only been
separated from the bunch by the crashes.
Getting to my room I went to sleep, this was
probably not the most ideal of things to do considering I still look asleep
on the time trial pictures! The start of my time was at 7:30. The course
was a short climb then very technical section with a dead turn, speed humps and
a paved section, not suiting my strengths but being only 1.1Km in total
and not loosing too much time to the leaders.
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| andyw39.smugmug.com/ |
A quick brief for the Sunday's race it was time
to go to bed. Sunday arrived too fast! It was raining as we (the Maxgear
girls) walked a lap of the circuit looking at drain covers and pot
holes, this wasn't filling me with too much confidence, but after warming
up I was stood on the start line ready to go while wishing I'd worn
long fingered gloves. As the whistle blew we were flying round the course with
no time to think about pot holes and loosing my back wheel at one point on
a grid. I was loving the course although I could not feel my fingers
or toes and only thinking about staying with the riders in front. Finding it
a tight circuit and being hard to move up the bunch, I was at the back
unfortunately the girl ahead of me dropped the wheel and I couldn't get
around her until it was too late, this only happened in the last lap
which also meant I achieved 16th place in the criterium race.
After the race, Frankie (the brainy one to keep
warm) gave me gloves as I shivered and struggled taking my numbers
off. Getting to the car I was very muddy and shaking, where Nicola even rapped
herself in a bike towel to keep warm, putting full heating on in the car we made
it home where my mum had made a lovely curry. Overall I Finished 18th on the
General Classification with Jo 24th and Nicola 30th it was a good
weekend bike racing, now its back to work to afford it!
Love Eve
