The final round of the Michelin National Women’s Series race from Saffron Walden in Essex was held in mild but occasionally atrocious conditions in and around the Essex rolling countryside.
4 ½ laps of an 8 mile circuit, with some short sharp climbs and a few rollers greeted the 35 starters as they headed out on an unusually long neutralised section of about 4 miles, before being given the flag wave to start. Immediately VC Meudon’s Hannah Bussey took off on what could have been a long day in the saddle, but she was brought back quickly and then a much longer and well timed effort from GS Strada’s Laura Bissell opened up a 200 metre lead, before she too was chased down.
The team from VC De Londres were hoping to keep the race together as much as possible, so all early attacks like this were nullified quickly. Their leading rider, Joanna Rowsell, recently back from national duties at the Junior European and Junior World Champs (track and road), had a healthy, but not un-assailable lead, in this National Series, with her closest rival being Kuota Luciano’s Melissa Mather.
Mather would have to win this race and Rowsell either not finish or be more than 16 places behind in order for her to win, which, given the strength of the VCL girls, looked unlikely. Some of Rowsell’s team did sterling work early on to bring back attacks, especially Emma Trott who chased down a couple of big attacks from Luciano. She then, after puncturing and losing at least 30 seconds, showed enormous strength of mind and character, to fight her way through the cars and back to the leading group.
With the race starting fast several riders were tailed off early and then when a big effort from Rapha Condor’s Caroline Kloiber mid point of race, had a small group of 8 lose touch as well. Kloiber had been suffering with a back injury from a crash in Belgium a week ago and had spent most of the first half of the race on or near the back but something stirred her into action to put in some digs off the front. Ufortunately the climbs weren’t long enough to cause much damage and the serious speedsters in the bunch were able to follow her.
Ex-BCF trackie, Lorna Webb, gave it a few hard digs on the front to escape but was also quickly brought back, either by a VCL or Kuota Luciano rider. The longest solo effort to stay away was from ex-time trial star, Sue Gray of Chelmer CC, who spent 10 minutes out front with a lead of 250 metres, but she couldn’t stay away either.
It was to the last lap where all the action happened and sadly the biggest drama was with 300 metres to go. With a bunch of approximately 20 riders left in the lead group, it was all together coming into the finish and as the sprinters let rip, the field spread itself across the road.
As with any bunch sprint there can be quite major differences in the top speed of riders and when the faster ones are boxed in they look for gaps. With riders all looking for “that gap”, to get clear air and head for the line, 8 or so riders came off with 5 riders hitting the deck very hard.
The carnage was a shock to everyone as bits of bikes were thrown up into the air, including half of a front carbon fork. Raleigh ERV’s Sophie Johnson clutched her badly cut hand and gashed leg in the middle of the road, as Caroline Kloiber, who had crashed last week, came down again, this time doing much more damage with a suspected broken collarbone, bad bruises and road rash.
Hannah Bussey also came down hard and there was no mistaking her clutching of shoulders as she too appered to have broke her collarbone. Others who were brought down, Laura Bissell and Lauren Davies, escaped with minor grazing. Davies did a great job of crashing on to the grass verge, getting back on to finish the race and then taking responsibility and control of the crash site, as a qualified A & E Doctor, she skillfully ascertained the damage that had been caused to various people, making sure no one was moved unnecessarily, especially Kloiber, who was clearly in a great deal of pain.
Beyond the crash were the riders un-affected who were still sprinting for the finish and it was Lorna Webb, who has spent all season racing in Belgium, who made the first move, put her head down and blasted for the finish line. She was chased hard by Janet Birkmyre, who is a known bunch sprint specialist and the VCL twins of Alice Monger-Godfrey and Joanna Rowsell. With Birkmyre closing on her, Webb held onto her slender lead to win by half a bike length from Birkmyre and with Rowsell pipping her teammate to the line for third.
Our best wishes to anyone who crashed and is recovering, sounds nasty.
Results
- 1. Lorna Webb, KSV Deerlijk-Gauerzicht
- 2. Janet Birkmyre, Planet X Cycling Plus
- 3. Joanna Rowsell, VC Londres
- 4. Alice Monger-Godfrey, VC Londres
- 5. Charlotte Coldough, Team QCP
- 6. Sue Gray, Chelmer CC
- 7. Jessica Allen, Abergavenny RC
- 8. Jane Kilmartin, London Pheonix CC
- 9. Melissa Mather, Team Luciano/Kuota
- 10. Lauren Davies, Agiskoviner.com
- 11. Antonia Burt, Twickenham CC
- 12. Jeanette Tebbutt, Team Luciano/Kuota
- 13. Louise Mahe, Sutton CC
- 14. Louise Eden, Seamons CC
- 15. Femke van Schelven, Team FBUK
- 16. Laura Bissell, GS Strada
- 17. Rebecca Stubbs, CC Giro
- 18. Emma Trott, VC Londres
- 19. Kimberly Kabatoff, London Dynamo/Cyclefit
