Team News – Women’s RT WNT

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February saw the launch of Team WNT at the UK headquarters in Sheffield complete with a team and staff ride in the Derbyshire Peak District.

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Team News – Women’s RT WNT

Team WNT is a new cycling team predominantly concentrating on National level women’s cycling events. The team for 2014 consists of; Team manager Marcus Nainby and riders Sam Burman, Elisa McDonagh, Sophie Lankford and Victoria Williams.

Team WNT

Pictured L-R; Sam, Marcus, Elisa & Sophie.

Whilst at WNT the team got to see the whole range of metal cutting tools and associated products WNT develops, makes and distributes as well as meeting the technical support and sales team.

Then onto the Peak District where Marcus was under strict instructions to keep the distance under 40 miles for the staff, so was a little unpopular when he announced they would be heading straight to Castleton and up Winnats pass with its maximum gradient of 28%!

On the next decent we had the first crash of the year with Sophie narrowly missing a dry stone wall, we later discovered, after two very hilly rides in the Peaks, she had badly hurt her wrist and had a suspected broken scaphoid, it hasn’t stopped her racing though!

Thankfully the rest of the day was uneventful and enjoyable, the sun even made an appearance.

Elisa then went on that weekend to race the first of the CDNW women’s events at Pimbo finishing safely in the bunch. She also raced the next CDNW at Saighton but after getting caught behind a crash spent the race chas-ing the main field, it was a good training exercise though and gave her a very good workout!

The teams first big race of the season was the women’s team series rd1 at Redbridge in Essex, this short, hilly circuit race proved to be a frustrating experience for Sam who made a few small mistakes and paid heavily for them but both Sam and Sophie learnt a lot and were able to move on quickly as round was only a week away.

Elisa had planned to race both of these events but was unfortunately ill. The day after Redbridge Marcus with the support of Sam raced the first of the Altura Nutcracker mountain bike cross country races held on the Dalby forest world cup course, racing in the senior sport class Marcus spent most of the race battling for a top 10 placing until a jammed chain on the last lap dropped him to 11th place, which he held to the line.

The women’s team series rd2 was held at Virginia Waters in Surrey with the racers doing 13 laps of an undulat-ing course followed by 5 laps of a finishing circuit giving a total race distance of 53 miles, both Sam and Sophie were up for the challenge and very quiet before the start.

Sam was having a really good race staying at the front of the bunch with Sophie just a bit further back, biding her time.

Unfortunately for Sam on the second of the finishing circuits disaster struck as she caught her wheel on another riders quick release, breaking some spokes. After receiving some help from the excellent neutral service team, she tried in vein to regain the fast moving bunch but for a rider on her own in the closing stages of the race this was never really going to happen.

Then disaster number 2, a lap later there was crash in the bunch, Sophie got caught in it receiving someone’s knee in her eye!

The next race on the teams calendar is the Cheshire Classic on the 27th April www.cheshireclassic.co.uk although we all hope to be coming in regional events in the meantime. Additionally to just competing Elisa is trying hard to develop women’s racing in the UK and as part of that is holding a women’s only race coaching session at Darley Moor on April 13th.

Thanks to all our sponsors and those that have helped us out in getting this team off the ground, we are all looking forward to an exciting season of racing.

 

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