Rider Chat – Abby Mae and Nikki 1-2 at Ryedale

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Talking to two riders from the same team who dominated the Women’s Ryedale, Nikki Juniper and Abby Mae Parkinson

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Rider Chat – Abby Mae and Nikki 1-2 at Ryedale
Report and Result Here

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The Ryedale course in North Yorkshire is one of the toughest in the racing calendar and two riders who dominated the Women’s race were winner Nikki Juniper and Abby Mae Parkinson who was second as well as the 2015 British Junior Road Race Champion.

Both ride for Giordana Triton and broke away from the rest of their rivals and stayed away to the finish to both cross the line winners. Nikki, the women’s national series victor again, won the race in 2014 solo and so finds the circuit to her liking. “I am so proud to come back and get this again, it’s amazing” she told VeloUK afterwards.

“I wasn’t expecting that! It’s only 39 miles so it’s about going hard or going home. It’s a really tough circuit and I’m not built for climbing (she is really LOL) but seem to be able to put the power down. As long as I ride it hard and no-one can attack, then I am happy”.

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“It worked too and I managed to get over the top of the climb and open up a gap and Abby really dug in and got on my wheel. She’s a fantastic little rider.”

“It was tough out there for us as the gap hung at twenty seconds for ages and in my head, I was telling myself I have to get it to the minute. Then we didn’t hear anything for ages and then they said you have two minutes.”

“That gave us some room to play with and I said to Abby Mae, let’s drill it on the down hills although I knew she was on junior gears. It worked amazingly and I am so proud of the girl”.

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“We have two juniors in the team and wanted both of them to be up there and one of them to have the jersey.” This the team did with Elizabeth Holden getting the silver medal and Abby Mae the jersey.

Annasley (Park, 6th) was amazing out there too and pinging off the front and we were really trying to control it but also aware that we didn’t want to do too much as one of us had to be fresh to do something”.

“Every time I have come here, I have had the series wrapped up so I was quite relaxed about it all. I had no pressure except for the juniors where I was to play a team role and I love doing that. They are so good these juniors”.

“They want to learn, they have a give it a go attitude and they are not afraid. That’s really good to see…”.

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1-2 as well for Giordana Triton with Abby Mae in the jersey and Elizabeth Holden (left) second

Abby Mae Parkinson

One of those juniors Nikki rides with in Giordana Triton is Abby Mae Parkinson who is the 2015 British Junior RR Champion thanks to her digging in and going with Nikki when she got away. “I am so thrilled to win this championship” Abby said afterwards in between getting hugs from all the well wishers.

“I have been working for this for the whole winter and everything has been towards this, the climbing and so on. I’m just so over the moon I could cry!”

“The first climb I didn’t feel too good but I kind of expected that and then on the other two climbs on the big lap, I thought I must be going alright. I wanted to make it hard the second time on the big hill and we split it down to 13 and then Nikki (Juniper) kept pushing over the top and I just jumped across to her.”

Abby makes that sound quite easy but Nikki’s solo win in the same race in 2014 showed what a great athlete she is so it was a huge achievement for the junior to do that. Asked if there was a plan for the 1-2, Abby Mae replied “No. I didn’t know how my legs would feel. I did the time trial on Wednesday and I was unsure how I was going”.

Abby, who can do a 21 minute ten so is hugely talented, added that she was happy it was raining at Ryedale for the start. And how it rained with heavy rain falling out of the sky whilst the girls warmed up. “I was happy because the harder the better … I like it when it’s a bit grim!” said the Yorkshire champion.

Finally, how was it to ride with the National Series winner in a two up time trial to the end? “Nikki was looking after me so much. I was going through when I could and on the hills I was digging deep and giving everything I could to stay on the wheel. “

Congrats to them both and the team on a great result for them. To see the report and result from their race, click here

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