Big congratulations to Emma Towers on gaining points at her newly gained 2nd Cat status & coming 9th at the Guildford Town Crits tonight (10th July 2013). Report from Emma below:
This evening saw the annual Guildford Town Crit races in, you guess it, Guildford! A super short course (600m) that managed to pack a range of technical features including an uphill cobbled section and a 90 degree corner into a narrow alley way…
The kids went first and gave us an insight into the pain that went ahead – no TCC representation but great to see so many youngsters racing! The next race was the “Local Heros” support race – I think George and Jim were in this but I’m afraid I was busy getting ready so didnt see much, hope you guys enjoyed it!
At 7:30 Holly, Laura and I lined up on the cobbles to take on the Women’s race alongside Jo Rowsell and Hannah Barnes amongst others in a strong field. I was determined to get a good start from the 2nd row, but girls moving together in front of me and another slipping as she tried to clip in and almost taking my front wheel out meant that by the time I got going I was already watching girls disappear into the background. Bother.
Something in me stirred – I hadn’t come this far to ride around at the back! Luckily I’d had a good warm up thanks to Holly lending me some rollers (thanks!) and was able to pick up pace and start passing back markers. Chris had given me some good cornering tips and I was able to use these to overtake more using the freespeed from technique. I saw Laura up ahead also having a good race, caught up after a couple of laps and settled into a group of around 8 girls including her just off the pace of the 4 leaders.
It was tough – in summary, corner, short descent, corner, hill sprint, corner, cobbled hill sprint – repeat… After 6 minutes I was wondering when it was going to end. After 20 minutes I realised I wasn’t going to get pulled out for being lapped and would need to dig in for 5 more laps. My group had separated a little, 4 riders had gone clear and I was working just behind them with another girl. The crowd were great – so many TCC cheerers (thanks Denise, Liam + family, Holly’s family, Laura’s other half and anyone else who was there!) and I started to enjoy the pain. I crossed the line in 9th and Laura wasn’t far behind in 11th.
If you’ve got this far – here are my lessons:
1) Sprinting on cobbles? How does Cancella do it?!
2) Make sure you’ve cleared the corner enough to start pedalling again (a quick clip did wake me up again)
3) Apparently no one can guess my age when I wear kit – someone confused me for a junior, someone else called me Mummy…
Go TCC!
Emma