Crit racing has always been a bit hit or miss for me in the past. Sometimes you can turn up with a full field, but other times I’ve raced with as few as four entries. On 9th March, it was the first round of the Fusion Media Women’s Series with a Cat 3/4 race and E/1/2/3 race. Only being a 4th Cat, I booked onto the 3/4 race last minute. It was a bit of a journey down there, but with a busy field it looked like it was going to be a good day of racing.

Understanding the British Cycling Race Categories
4th Category – A new cyclist to racing with their first race licence, who is yet to collect 12 points from racing.
3rd Category – A cyclist who managed to collect 12 points in a season holding a 4th Cat licence.
2nd Category – A cyclist who has managed to collect 30 points in a season holding a 3rd Cat licence.
1st Category – A cyclist who has managed to collect 200 points in a season whilst holding a 2nd Cat licence.
Elite – A cyclist who has managed to collect 300 points in the previous season with either an Elite or 1st Cat licence.

More info can be found on the British Cycling Website.

After travelling down with one of the RAF Cycling riders, we went to try and wake ourselves up with some coffee before getting ready to race. The coaching session was occupying the track, which was a great initiative to introduce cyclists to racing in a less daunting environment of riding at max effort for an hour like in a real race.

My start to the race didn’t exactly go to plan. Before even getting onto the start line actually. My gears were not operating like they did the night before. After some help and manic laps to see if I could get them to work, I had one gear to ride with. It was safe to say a warm-up definitely did not happen, and it took me until the second lap to find a gear that worked. If its not already obvious, I was definitely not with any of the leading groups by this point. So it was a case of try and work with whoever else had got dropped too.

For a while there was three of us working our way round the track taking turns on the front. With the gear I had, I needed to get out of the saddle to maintain momentum going up a slight incline on one part of the track. Something my legs screamed about every lap. I’d gone from zero to max effort in a very short period of time and it looked like it was going to be that way for the next hour. The wind was picking up, but we kept pushing.

Once the lead group and the main bunch lapped us, I just wanted to stay as high up in the positions as I could, which meant making sure it remained just the lead group and main bunch ahead of me. After a long stint, three became two, and eventually two became one. However, shortly after the main bunch passed me so I could sit on the back and stay out of the wind. As long as I didn’t interfere with the racing or the finish this was fine. And it was such a relief to be able to sit on the back of a large group after pushing into the wind for so long.

The more the race went on, the more confused I got regarding who passed me and where I sat position wise. I knew I was near the back, but that was about it. It also got quite confusing when the three rides in the lead group got mixed in with the main group. I wanted to make sure I stayed out of their way.

With every lap I was looking at the time ticking by as we approached the hour. We got close but there was still no ‘5 laps to go’ sign. I just wanted to cross the finish line. Eventually a ‘3 laps to go’ appeared and I knew I needed to stay out the way, or at least stay at the back, of any likely sprints taking place.

The end of the race was a blur really and I don’t actually know how the end of it panned out for the other riders. But I’d got to the end of a race I genuinely didn’t think I’d start an hour before.

Thanks to Fusion Media and Santini, a competitive day of racing was had with the E/1/2/3 race also being a full field, meaning riders could collect maximum points for their performances. With one of four in the race series complete, the attention moves to the 2nd round on 16th March which takes place at Darley Moor. More info on the coaching session and the race entries can be found here.

I really hope women can get behind this series if they’re thinking of racing, as it was the first event in a long time where a variation in abilities meant everyone could give racing a good go. Yes, the fast girls were competing to get those top 3 positions, but everyone’s got to start somewhere.