Banbury Team Series race - A hard day out

Nicole reports on Round 4 of the Women's Team Series...


I couldn’t believe it when I pulled back the curtains this morning to find winter had returned for our Team Series race – 12deg and pissing rain. Four days ago I wasn’t even going to race. There was a nasty crash on chaingang training on Tuesday night that left our team mate with, amongst other injuries, a jaw broken in 3 places and a broken larynx. I escaped relatively unscathed, just some cuts and bruises and a bung shoulder that I couldn’t lift or use very well on Wednesday – not very helpful when you’re a Physio! However, by Friday I could ride my bike, and whilst getting out of the saddle was a bit of a problem, I thought I’d just give it a go, as Team Pink’s numbers were quickly dwindling.

Nikki and I set off up the M40, with Nellie on board, in plenty of time to reccy the course. Besides some questionable road surfaces and a few potholes, it looked pretty benign… until we got to the climb. HOLY SH*T!! A road sign at the bottom read 14%, which would have been ok had it ended after the first kick up and corner, but it just kept going and going. At this point I thanked the fact I had a compact and 27 cassette, whilst Nikki reaffirmed her love for her triple. As neither of us were particularly talented at climbing, Nikki suggested it wasn’t too late to bail out and head to the nearby Bicester village for an afternoon of shopping!

Back at HQ, we met up with fellow Team Pink member Kate, signed on in the cosy warm HQ, then huddled into the car to change, being reminded of Bedford all over again. After a short warm up and race briefing, we were off. Unlike Bedford, I felt safe in the bunch today. I think everyone knew that the field would get split up as soon as we got to the first climb, so just all rode over to it nicely.

I went backwards, as I so often do on climbs. But to tell the truth, the pain really started after pushing over the top, and having to chase to get back on a group. There is nothing worse than time-trialling on your own in the wind and rain, so I worked hard to get on to a small group just ahead of me. This group caught another group, and soon after we hit the start/finish line, the group had swelled to about 15, who were working hard to chase the leading group with through and off. I was dying and struggling to come through, but somehow managed to hang on, receiving a much appreciated push from one of the other girls (not sure who) at one point when I was flagging. We caught the front bunch just as we turned the corner for round two of the 14% climb.

I lost this expanded group within about 100m, slugged up the climb, then started to chase again. This time I only picked up 3 other riders, but we worked together for almost the entire 20km-ish lap to bring us to the bottom of the climb again. I wasn’t sure I’d make it up the climb for a 3^rd time, so I just looked at my front wheel and told myself I was doing Marmotte training. A few people from the group behind passed me on the climb, but I managed to get back on at the top. It was only a few km to the finish, I sprinted up the final short sharp climb with whatever was left in my legs and came 38^th. My team mates Kate and Nikki were only a few minutes behind me.

My shoulder started hurting as soon as I stopped (gotta love adrenaline), and despite it being by far the hardest race this year, in almost the worst conditions, and finishing well down the field, I kind of enjoyed it. Nikki and I decided that we deserved a KFC stop on the way home (would never happen if Coralie was driving!), refuelling on mini-fillet burgers and chips. At least it’s an extra long weekend, so plenty of time to recover!