KingstonWheelers.com

[maryka]

Just a quick report, I'll write a full one on my blog later today.

Three of us from KW entered the rainy SE RR: Leona, Lise in her first ever race, and myself. It was a pretty small field of only 30, but with some big names (Charlie Blackman from the Dynamos and Janet Birkmyre who won the national circuit champs at Hillingdon recently, plus Natalie Creswick from Twickenham). I knew that Charlie would try to make a break for it early on, but together with the Twickenham girls we brought her solo attack back after she dangled 100m in front of us for nearly a lap.

After that it settled down quite a bit, but with Jen Hewitt from Sigma Sport supporting Charlie, I figured I'd better give Natalie a hand (who was spending too much time at the front as usual! ) So I took to the front for the last lap with Lise's help, pushing the pace and setting up a bunch finish where Natalie nipped Charlie at the line by half a bike.

Lise herself finished 7th -- had I known she was that much in the running, I would have tried more to help her instead of Natalie -- and Leona finished a strong 10th, easily ahead of a few girls who've beaten her in the past. Jen Hewitt, Alex from Twickenham and I finished way back in the pack, our work having been done.

I've got mixed feelings about this race; had I saved myself more in the last lap instead of driving the bunch, I could have had a better individual result. At the same time, it felt good to be working for the eventual winner (as I was never in danger of actually winning myself given the bunch finish!) So it was my most enjoyable race so far, and finally I got to experience some semblance of teamwork and tactics that I've been looking for all season. It was also great to see Lise and Leona's result, 2 teammates in the top 10 -- can't complain about that!

Later in the evening I also did the Smithfield Nocturne race which went surprisingly better than expected. Legs felt really good and strong, I was really only let down by my awful cornering skills. I took forever to get clipped in at the start, meaning that I had to chase on for about 5 laps which I did pretty easily as the girls getting spit out the back helped me to leapfrog into the main group. Caught the main group and sat on the back for another few laps til I nearly lost my front wheel on the tight bend. After that I was much more cautious and ended up losing ground and having to chase after that corner on every lap. Decided it was best all around if I just hung out at the back so nobody else would suffer from my bad cornering!

With about 10 laps to go, a break of 3 girls went and the rest of the bunch chased. Then Charlie got taken down on a corner, slowing us a bit, and that meant the break was gone for good. I sat tight at the back on Natalie's wheel for the last 10 minutes and just enjoyed the atmosphere -- great crowds, a whole group of KW fans on the pub corner getting louder with every lap, and my legs getting lots of sprint and acceleration practice (new 5-second power records!) Afterwards I joined everyone at the pub to watch the men's elite race and marvel at how fast they took those same corners.

125kms of racing this week, average speed 37.5km/h
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[steve saunders]

Good to see you guys getting stuck in and some nice results in there as well! There is a lot of potential for a very strong KW woman's squad...
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www.theroadcyclist.com

[charlie35slr]

Well done Maryka. My children were well impressed to see a racer wearing Kingston colours at the Nocturne, although sadly none of the kudos rubs off on me:

Her (9 years old): was that a Kingston Wheeler?
Me: yes indeed.
Her: is that the same Kingston Wheelers that you ride with?
Me (brimming with pride): that's right!.
Her (after much deliberation): are you sure?

Crushed!

Congrats again, it was great to have somebody to shout for!
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Charlie Whitfield
Condor Acciaio

[cat]

Well done to all the girl's racing last weekend! I am getting back into training so hopefully shall be joining you all soon!

[leona]

some pics on the surrey league website. for some reason i really look like i'm suffering in all of them! anyway, these 2 are particularly good i think!
http://surreyleague.co.uk/thumbnails/2009/jun6/jun6-10.jpg
http://surreyleague.co.uk/thumbnails/2009/jun6/jun6-11.jpg
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My marmalade's called Nigel And my toast is called Elaine
I bet my butter wishes it had a proper name.