Somehow, I got convinced into doing a crit race at hoghill… my most despised circuit! I’ve been kindly declining that offer for many months now, I did my first ever race there after riding a bike about 5 times and ever since, I’ve been scarred for life. It’s not all golden glory… no matter what stage you are in your cycling venture, it doesn’t get easier you just learn to work harder!
It’s like accepting you’re going to be tortured for an hour… actually when I finally gave in, I thought it would be 45 minutes, that extra 15 minutes is a reaaaal deal breaker! Too late though, I’d already entered.
Luckily for me, I went with my team and that makes everything somewhat better and I also went with the mindset ‘as long as I get round and my team wins, I don’t mind what else happens.’ It helped me control my nerves a lot better – high expectations gal over here.
We had a game plan – top secret, won’t share that here! I got an epic start and went from the whistle, sort of by accident, I got carried away ha! But actually, it worked in everybody’s favour because it broke up the bunch a little and made it a bit safer. We had a nice little six-person break, which was ace.
It quickly became apparent that the hoggenberg was as much torture as I remember it being… like burning your ear on the hair straighteners… over and over again, although it was more manageable this time. There were three teams in the break, two of us had numbers in the break.
There were a few fast laps to begin with, while everyone settled in. In the first few laps we got stuck on the front, as a team, pulling turns because the other team wouldn’t come through at all. It wasn’t so much a problem for us, but we didn’t want to be caught by the chasers and we knew it would be best, to get one of our superhumanly strong ladies off the front, in true TT style and seeing as the other ladies in the break wouldn’t pull through, we managed to catch them off guard and get someone off the front, while games were being played.
To which, we (myself and a team-mate) absorbed the role of ‘not pulling through,’ after all, we had a team mate up the road and were happy to not catch her.
Every lap, the other team would push a little up the hill, sweep into the bottom corner and try to attack on the descent to the bottom circuit as we followed and paid close attention. They’d then sit up into the straight before the hill and wait for us to pull through, allowing more of a gap to open from the break. Their teamwork was beautifully executed (like chocolate cake and ice cream), it just didn’t quite pay off on this occasion.
About 25 minutes in, I was already bored of torturing myself up that fierce hill and I couldn’t think of anything except wanting to stop! The circuit was covered in dodgy bits of grit and dirt, it gets used for MTB’ing/cross and at some stage I’m pretty sure I punctured (praise the lord for tubeless tyres).
My teammate consulted me on everything she was thinking, checking in on me as well – absolutely couldn’t ask for more! We tried a couple of moves to see if we could get away in a 2-up to avoid a sprint, evidently, they didn’t work.
I kept forgetting to check how many laps were left (remembering to check after grinding up the hill every lap was hard), and it wasn’t until the bell rang, that my arse kicked into gear! The other team started to pick up the pace, we just continued to cover moves, I was anxious coming into the last bends, not knowing how or where anyone would go for the sprint or even, if I had enough left for a sprint!
The sprint went pretty late, I had thoughts raging through my head like, going early and trying to hold myself away, but I figured it would be best if I waited for someone else to go, while praying I could drag myself to the line. Coming to the last bend of the hill one of the ladies wound up her gear and started to pull away, I hesitated a little bit and then thought ‘now or never baby’ so gave it as much as I could!
It was a hair-raising sprint! I had no idea how close anyone was, I couldn’t even remember where the lifesaving line was and by the time it started to flatten off, I was in too much of a spinney gear. I could feel myself becoming uncoordinated with the bike but knew I needed to keep driving and after what felt like an eternity the line sprung up and I couldn’t help but fist bump the air (naturally over stretching an intercostal muscle in the process)! I was SO immensely proud that our teamie had stayed away for 45 minutes TT’ing and WON the race, and we’d managed to help her do that (although all kudos go to her, because I’d never have stayed away alone like she did!!).
However, it did look like I thought I’d won… obviously I didn’t think that – she’s my teamie! But I was incredibly happy to take second aswell… a podium position at a disliked circuit was such a fabulous feeling and on top of that, as a team we got 1,2,3 … incredible right? We’re a blossoming family of athletes and the love I have for my teamies is growing by the day.
I told our team manager that I’d now be retiring from hoghill, reckon you can guess what his response was? I’ll probably be seeing some of you around.
Remember, whatever you put in, you’ll get out.
Rides bikes, eat cake, be happy
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