Rider Report: South West Women’s Road Race Series

2013_March22_Cycling_Components_Banner

The SWWRS Race 2 went off with a bang, or a metaphorical bang of speed if you like. There was no messing around says Elena Bremer (Exeter Wheelers) !

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Race 2 Report; Spring is Finally Here! – Series Website

Written by Elena Bremer (Exeter Wheelers)

The race was the first crit in the series, held in the sunshine at Merryfield Airfield near Ilton; it’s a cracking little 5km circuit and there’s not a hill in sight, but the wind up there does plenty to make for an interesting race. We had a good turn out with 17 riders signing on from far and wide, with a bit of team representation from VC St Raphael and Exeter Wheelers, both with four riders. The race was 40 mins plus lap, which worked out as 6 laps at an average speed of 35 km/h. And have I mentioned- the sun was out (intermittently)!

Photo album from Anne & Richard Owens

So there we were riding like bats out of hell when what should happen- the lead girls took the wrong turn! I hate to say it, but you know…I told you so! Everything calmed down a bit while everyone got back together, but that didn’t last long. Soon enough the attacks started going off the front, with the VC St Raphael riders invariably involved. There was also a strong showing fromVittoria Bossi (Zippi’s Ladies) , Katie Curtis, Adele Martin (Hope Factory) and Louise Benn (Exeter Wheelers).

However whilst some of these attacks looked like they could be trouble, none of them stuck for more than a lap, with various people doing the work to chase them down. By our 4th or 5th lap Ayse Vahiboglu (Exeter Wheelers) was driving the pace up and stringing out the field. This stopped the attacks going for a short while, which was a nice relief. The field was now getting pretty twitchy and nervous coming into the bell lap.

In the final lap Marianne Britten (VC St Raphael) went on the attack, with Katie Curtis bridging across to her about a third of the way round. These girls looked for all the world like they might stay away- gaining 200m or so on the main field. However there seemed to be enough people in the group who wanted it to come down to a sprint. With about half a lap to go the main field started to put the hammer down, and with about 400m to go and going into the final corner a last ditched push from Claire Elworthy (Exeter Wheelers) all but closed the gap.

By this point the sprinters were all moving up the group, myself included. The sprint started straight out of the final corner, with about 250m to the line. I could pretend I knew what happened, but I wont! All I know is Adele Martin came past at some point, and there a was a bunch of four just behind me so I had to keep the foot down!

So there we have it, the 2nd race of the series finished with Adele Martin (Hope Factory) taking the line honours, myself (Elena Bremer- Exeter Wheelers) in 2nd and Laura Clode (VC St Raphael) in 3rd.

Thanks to our sponsors Greens of Devon and the Bike Shed for providing the wonderful prizes of Flowers for the winner, Chef’s Garnish Boxes and Bontranger R4, R3 and R2 tyres for the top three. Thanks also to race organisers Somerset Road Club, and to the series supporters Alpha Vae Solar, Velo Brands and the Handmade Cyclist. Sign up to the series here for your chance to win some great prizes from these guys- it wont cost you a penny!

The next series event is the Div Champs on 19th May, hopefully see you there! See the bottom of the post for full results- if you spot an error please do correct me!

Also if you want to see the video of the finish here is the link;

1 Adele Martin Hope Factory
2 Elena Bremer Exeter Wheelers
3 Laura Clode VC St Raphael
4 Katie Curtis
5 Ellie Gilham VC St Raphael
6 Alex Sheehan One & All
7 Jenny Hudson VC St Raphael
8 Claire Elworthy Exeter Wheelers
9 Jess Hill Cardiff Ajax
10 Emma Sainsbury-Munn VC Bristol
11 Vittoria Bossi Zippis Ladies
12 Louise Benn Exeter Wheelers
13 Sally Edney North Devon Wheelers
14 Marianne Britten VC St Raphael
15 Mary Mcfadzean CS Dynamo
16 Sorrelle Johnston RU Training Today
DNF Ayse Vahiboglu Exeter Wheelers

http://swwomensraceseries.wordpress.com/enter-the-series/

 

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: , ,