We all hope for fairy tale endings. Unfortunately they are hard to come by. My last race before I ventured into the unknown and moved to a city over 100 miles away from my forever home in the north; The Scottish National Road race champs in Fife which my team mate Amanda had set out as a target from the start of the year. I knew this would be an amazing chance for me to try and pay her back for being such an incredible team mate all year. Sadly we were both hit with a bit of bad luck and she came down ill the week before with the cold, and I too picked it up just the night before and on race day felt seriously run down. My heart rate had been 26 bpm higher than my normal resting heart rate so I knew I was in for a tough day out. I wouldn't normally have started when feeling that rough but I had it in my head I was going to do my absolute best to be there in the race if Amanda needed me! So i took to the start line. The race started nice and steady, I jumped on Amanda's wheel and tucked in so that if she ended up on the front I could quickly move up and shelter her to help conserve energy. But the race was picking up speed as we turned left and headed towards the first hills of the day. The group immediately split up and sitting too far back, I lost a few places, which meant when the gap opened up I didn't have the strength to bridge back across to help my team mate. I could see them edging further ahead, but my breathing was all over the place and the cold I had burning inside made me very weak. I fought hard, but making no inroads into the gap of the leaders. I bit back tears of frustration as I realized how useless I was to her miles off the back and I was just doing more damage to myself so I stopped at the side of the road. My first ever DNF. The pain and frustration still hasn't left me but with the races we still have left, I have to try and let it go. Amanda still put in a fantastic brave ride to get 7th - so proud of her!
I left the North of Scotland just a week later. The first few days were tough. My head was all over the place as I came to terms with not seeing my family and close friends every day. But once i got past the first few days I started to settle into the Stirling life. It would have taken a lot longer but I joined Stirling bike club who immediately welcomed me. They were all so friendly. The first Saturday we went out and did 65 miles at 18.5mph. If that doesn't cheer you up what will? It was brilliant and I was super keen to join them again.
My final road race of the season was also just round the corner. And to my excitement happened to be back home in the North. So to make it a fun filled wkd I visited my family the night before, had a driving lesson with the best instructor I could ever ask for and then got a lift to the race with my (choose from the following friend/cycle mum/minder/manager) - Sheila!
The road race was 34 miles of rolling terrain (2x17mile laps) and ideally started in the middle of the afternoon. Perfect - gives the weather time to warm up right!? Not a chance. We set off and the heavens instantly opened. Freezing cold rain lashed down and streamed down our faces as we tried to see the road ahead. Some of the girls high up on the series overall standings attacked early on and got a noticeable gap pretty quickly. With no one looking interested, as it was so early on, I came to the front and charged after it bridging it on my own with the peleton hot on my heels. The plan was to keep the race together so I could make my move near the end. The effort to catch actually didn't take that much out of me ( i think mostly because I was so cold I couldn't feel the pain or my lungs!) and I quickly jumped onto the leaders wheels and tucked into the group neatly, but in fact it actually helped me warm up a bit. 20 minutes in to the race and we were all like drowned rats. Puddles in the shoes and shivering like leaves. The hills were actually rewarding by this point; our minds were focused on dragging our cold bodies over the hills while staying in contact with whoever felt like it might be a good time to put down the hurt and drop some of the weaker riders. Attacks were launched over the top of the first hill and into the descent, I lost the wheels and my glasses were steamed up and I couldn't see who was who. The gap opened up too quickly and before I knew it I was on the wrong side of the split. I chased after them but I was literally just holding them in sight and not making a dent in their lead - they were just too strong. I looked round hearing a shout from behind - and smiled. My team mate Amanda was coming across the gap to me on her own. We had distanced the rest of the race and could now help each other to get back up to the front. She is so inspirational , and it gave me another reason to fight hard to get back up to the head of the race! It was such a courageous effort as she was riding on already tired legs after having won the other 3 events she had raced in that wkd! Fully motivated and driving on we held the gap at about a minute doing a perfectly well tuned 2 up TT effort while maintaining our lead on the riders behind who were desperately trying to claw us back. The last few miles really hurt - but I tried to imagine the tiredness Amanda must have been feeling after racing hard all wkd, I had to keep pushing on. She kept encouraging me and letting me know how many miles we had left, getting closer and closer to the line all the time. We looked round with a mile to go and knew we had both secured another top 10 in the Scottish series. It was a very special moment and we agreed to cross the line together! It's been so much fun racing with each other this year and sharing this journey with someone so special is the most rewarding thing in the world.
