Alexandra Tour of the Reservoir

This weekend saw the first round of the Women's National Series, the Alexandra Tour of the Reservoir 2-day in Northumberland.  I'd missed this race last year with racing Energiewacht Tour so was really looking forward to it as the parcours were far more appealing than racing in the gutter on the flat roads in Holland!

Stage 1 was a kermesse style race, 10 laps of a 3km circuit.  It went off from the gun!  As soon as the flag dropped it was strung out and I was immediately in the red trying to move up the bunch and get into a safer position before we hit the circuit.  First time over the damn wall, fighting the crosswind and onto the descent dodging the potholes before bearing right over a little bridge, then a rider in front slid out on the corner.  I managed to dodge round but found myself chasing and the pace was so high that the leaders were soon riding away.  No one was really willing to chase as several teams had riders up the road so the group I was in stayed mostly together for the remaining laps (give or take a mechanical here or puncture there) and an hour later it was over.  Corrine had a great ride and finished 4th!  The short stage meant plenty of time for recovery (a 2 hour nap for me) and focus on Stage 2, a 90km road race consisting of 4 laps round the Derwent Reservoir.

We woke up to a dry, but cold Sunday morning.  When a man walked past at sign on cheerfully saying "have a good race, hope you get it finished before the snow comes", I thought he was just having a bit of light-hearted banter.  Oh how wrong I was....

Before I go on to describe the attritional Stage 2, there's a wee anecdotal clip to share.  The relevance of this will become clear as you read on, but makes me laugh at the random things that pop into my head at times!

http://youtu.be/Bkyyp6eBqUQ

The start of the race followed the same route as the previous day, but wasn't quite as manic.  Either that or I was more prepared and made it my sole focus to stay near the front of the bunch, especially as we went into the grounds of the Reservoir as the first testing climb was not long after and positioning would be key if you didn't want to get shelled early on!  I'm not quite sure when the rain started, or the snow, but I think this race is up there as one of the hardest races I've ever done, purely for the brutal conditions!!!  I thought racing in 37 degrees heat in France was bad.  This was the polar opposite (pardon the pun!) and most definitely worse!!  The pace was high in the first lap and the bunch had thinned out by the time we started the second lap.  There were a few attacks but nothing was really sticking until Joanna Rowsell's attack, that was to prove the race winning move.  Nikki Juniper jumped away and bridged solo to Jo and the two of them stayed away for the rest of the race, big kudos to both!!  As we descended from the village of Edmundbyers there was a big crash that took out about half the bunch.  I'd been playing it a bit canny on this descent each time.  It wasn't massively technical but it was wet and I knew that I could move up again as we turned left into the grounds of the Reservoir.  This meant that I saw the crash unfold before me and very luckily managed to avoid coming down in the mass of bodies and bikes strewn across the road.  The sound of carbon and bodies hitting tarmac is pretty horrendous and you just have to block out the screams from fellow riders.  As hard and unethical as it sounds, you just have to ride away.  All I remember seeing is a white bike flying up in the air and instinctively following the wheel in front as we dodged past it and began the chase to the riders up the road who had been ahead of the crash.  It took a pretty big effort and used up a few more beans than I would've liked to catch the group in front and I owe a big thanks to my team mate Bex for helping me out in the chase!  

As we rode along the top of the Reservoir in the most exposed section of the course the cold really started to sink in and I realised just how wet and absolutely freezing it was.  I think it had even started to snow at this point.  Sometimes in a race, I can be quite oblivious to the rain, but not then.  I remember looking down at my hand after struggling to feel my right shifter and seeing my fingers all curled up.  See the relevance of the clip above now!  At least those 5 seconds of thinking I had a claw hand to rival Jim Carey's took my mind off the searing cold.  Every time I tried to change gear all I succeeded in doing was pulling on the brake as I couldn't feel anything at all.  I came up with a bit of an unorthodox way of changing gear, but needs must, and I knew that if I could just make it to the final lap then it would be ok as there was no way I was getting that far and not finishing.  So that's when it became a psychological battle as well as a physical one to keep turning the pedals and remain focused when the cold just sapped every bit of energy you had.

Conditions were "challenging" to say the least... (Photo credit: Huw Williams).

The pace going up the climb on the last lap split the group and 4 or 5 riders opened up a gap.  This shift in pace actually helped bring some of the feeling back into my fingers, but also the burning pain you get with the return of sensation after being numbed by the cold.  The 3 km to go sign was the most welcome sight all day as we started the last descent from Edmundbyers.  With less than 1 km to go I decided to have a wee lie down on the bridge before the final climb up to the damn wall where the finish line was.  I think I just came into the corner a bit too hot, saw the wall coming at me too quick and with the cold and wet combo didn't manage to brake in time.  I hit the curb and blew my tire.  A get down so close to the finish was less than ideal but at least I didn't take anyone else down with me.  The Aprire/HSS Hire team car very kindly stopped and was met by me saying on repeat "I want to finish, I want to finish".  So they changed my front wheel, helped me get my shoe back on and I was able to ride the 500m or so up the hill to cross the finish line.

I won't dwell on the aftermath, it wasn't pleasant and I don't think I've ever been that cold in my entire life!  I think the entire peloton would agree, and a big thank you to the medical staff, team support crews and race helpers for coming to the rescue of so many hypothermic riders!  Respect to all the riders who raced in those conditions and thanks to my team mates and Phil for a great memorable weekend of racing!  Onto the next one!

Thanks for reading,

Jools.