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[maryka]

Just a reminder to our racing ladies that the Essex Giro race is at the end of July but entries are due by July 10. No entry on the day.

This is one of the National Series races consisting of three stages over two days: a short individual TT followed by a Hog Hill circuit race on day 1; and a longer flatter road race on day 2. See http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/18566/Essex-Giro-2-day-Womens-Stage-Race for more details.

It's one of our LWCR races, so you'll be getting points for KW towards the team prize at the end. We're only 30 points out of the lead, so if we can get 3 or 4 riders out we might be able to clinch it!

Also on the LWCR calendar is Hog Hill next Thursday July 1 and the Richmond Park TT on Sunday August 8 for road bikes only. Hog Hill is enter on the day but the TT you need to enter in advance, see http://www.cyclingtimetrials.co.uk/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ti4TBmQmZMU%3d
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[JimLey]

First day of this one today, and I think Sabine showed herself to be a bit of a TT'er Despite the hills, the rain and very wet corners for the earlier starters, she came in in the top 20 of a very strong national series field. Maryka was 7th just 35 seconds ahead.

Unfortunately Sabine was caught out by the super fast start to the 2nd stage, and then later lost her chain to lose the group she was with - not knowing about the lap out for the mechanical!

Maryka was a little more successful, despite a puncture on lap 3 - which she rode with for a lap before deciding it was actually a puncture... Eventually coming in 3rd, and now sitting in 3rd,4th or 5th (depends on the bonus seconds in primes, I suspect 4th)

Tomorrow is a 100km road race, with some drags rather than hills.

[maryka]

Quick race report:

Early start this morning, 9am for the 3-lap ITT at Hog Hill. We arrived in drizzle and misty rain and it got worse before it got better. The track was soaked for the early starters (I went off 16th, Sabine 17th in a 50-rider field). Knowing the anticlockwise course pretty well I didn't think I needed a warmup lap though later sort of regretted that as it was so wet the corners were a bit tricky. Warmed up and stayed dry on the turbo instead.

My legs felt pretty awful and the word "shocker" was in my head, but my watts proved to be pretty good and I came in 7th only 25 seconds off the leader. Sabine had a storming ride coming 19th I believe, pretty well done for someone who professes to hate the hills and corners and TTing!

The afternoon circuit race was run clockwise -- which I'd never done and with the wind today was way harder than the regular way -- 45 min plus 5 laps, so about an hour in the end. They gridded the first 4 rows as this was a National Series race, and it went off hard. First 3 laps took 10:12 which was only 4 seconds slower than Sabine's TT time! It never really settled down until all the primes were over after lap 10 and then it was just staying near the front and out of trouble til the final lap.

My puncture on lap 3 had me wondering what was going on. My tire did not look or feel flat yet I was losing the back end on every corner, literally skidding across the now thankfully dry ground. Weird. Let the group get a small gap on me as I didn't want to kill anyone, then came in for a wheel change on lap 4 still not being sure it was flat! D'oh Took me over half a lap to get back on as well, as the pits were at the top of the hill we were all descending in the tailwind at 40mph and I no longer had my 11-tooth gear!

On the final climb -- by now I had sussed out where to be on the somewhat technical and tactical alpine bends towards the top -- I got in a good position about 5th wheel and went as the top Maxgear sprinter/climber went, then just hung on through the bends. She seemed to blow at the same time her teammate overcooked a corner and hit the grass, so that put me past the two of them and into third, though thinking back I should have had second. Can't complain though, the 10-sec time bonus gains me some places on GC so we'll see what tomorrow does. Both Rapha with the blue Look Mum No Hands leader's jersey and Maxgear with their strong team have reasons to control the race, so I think I will just sit back and be patient.

Bit of a strange day to feel fairly crap and have some bad luck with the puncture but ended with probably my best result all season. Fickle, this cycle racing stuff!
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[sabine]

short race resume from my side,...

1. Stage TT: knew the corners more or less anti clockwise, luckily nobody was around me otherwise they would have hear me screaming myself through the corners, because it was so wet and forces were pulling, but a friend told me once, you can't win a race if you are braking, therefore didn't had a different choice

Also it was good that we hadto ride only 3 laps and Jim was telling me the laps or I would have been even more confused at the third lap, in which lap I'm already .

2. Stage Circuit: Back to reality about my fitness level, because I have to admit I was already slowly loosing the connection to my group I was going around all the time, when at the top of the hill, which really killed me (clockwise) my chain dropped, ( because of my great shifting skills ) and we were already in the 5 laps to go phase, when you can't have anymore a mechanical anyway,if I understood it right afterwards. Therefore all further words would be an if, if, if- story.

[maryka]

Today's stage was pretty tough, a lot tougher than it looked from the car anyway! 92kms, 5 and a bit laps of a lumpy course with one mile-long climb at 5% for the finish/lap.

40 started the race, about 8-10 went out the back within a lap (first two laps were at a pretty torrid pace), then we settled in. Lots of attacks, lots of chasing back, but the final climb was so selective that it didn't really matter. I felt comfortable (4th in the first prime), but knew I wouldn't win this one, just too many punchy sprinters who could climb! So I tried some attacks, joined/encouraged some breaks, but mostly felt happy to sit near the front and keep an eye on what was happening as I knew nobody behind me in GC could get any significant time on me unless I completely blew on the final climb.

Given that, I told Natalie from Twickenham that I would try to give her a hand winning it over the Rapha and Maxgear teams since I thought she could do that better than I could! She's also gunning for National Series points, which I'm not. She had come 2nd in one of the primes so had built up a lead of 4 secs over me that I was unlikely to take back anyway.

But we couldn't do much about Anna from Maxgear who's the full package of climber and sprinter... she walked away with both primes and the win by a mile. In the end, I held my 5th place overall GC with Natalie in 4th, but both of us over 40 secs back from the top 3 who were only separated by a few seconds in end.

All in all a good race, my best result so far this season and what a great time to have it, at a National Series race. Legs felt pretty good today though my attempt to lead out Natalie up the climb backfired a bit and I finished 8th in the sprint. Still, not disappointed with that and quite pleased to have raced something with a good quality field, fairly contested and officiated and with some tactics and teamwork.

Sabine lost the bunch early on the climb but came back and picked up lots of riders who went out after her -- in fact riding through them! -- and finished around 35th I think.

This race clinches (I believe) the LWCR league title for me but next week the RP TT is the final event where I'll know for sure.
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[andyedwards]

Great rides - both of you. Maryka spot on, as always. Sabine - improving week by week. Great stuff.

BC report here:
http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20100801-Report--Essex-Giro-Womens-2-Day-0

[maryka]

I had peered over the shoulder of the chief judge at his laptop screen after the awards, but since then I see the time gaps have been changed. So the winner was Anna from Maxgear by 1 sec over Kara, then Emma from Rapha another 3 secs behind that. Pretty close all told!

The full results including all time gaps and stages are here at LCS:
Day one
Day two and overall

Sabine ended up 31st overall, beating some "names" so nicely done there. And with that and the RP TT next weekend, she's setting herself up for a top prize in the LWCR as well!
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[Mark Dempster]

Good result Maryka well done...

The real test will be 3 laps of RP tomorrow though

Also well done Sabine, now do you believe you are a good rider?

[JimLey]

[Mark Dempster]

[JimLey]

Looking at the London Womens Cycle Racing League points, Maryka is unassailable in first.

Sabine needs to finish better than 8th to be unassaillable in 5th place, however for her to actually be in any danger Vikki Filsell of Pearsons would have to win the event.

If Emily finishes 1st or 2nd she could be 6th or 7th depending on other results, but most likely she'll be in 8th - a very good result considering she's not done the full set.

For the team competition it looks like barring an extremely unlikely set of results which includes Pearsons riders not bothering to turn up and Sabine, Hilary, Maryka and Emily taking the top 4 spots the Wheelers will finish 3rd.

It is possible the results could be fixed by Pearsons and KW to drop the Rapha riders in 2nd and 5th down to 4th and 8th, but I suspect that's not going to happen!