London Bike Show Rapha Elite Women’s Indoor London Nocturne

Outline of the course www.londonnocturne.com

I love doing things that are a little bit different, so when I heard about the UK’s first indoor criterium – the Rapha Elite Women’s Criterium at the ExCel - I had to have a go. The race was only 25minutes + 5 laps, so I figured that track league speed, combined with long base miles would suffice in off season.

The day before we were due to travel the forecast was for heavy snow, so it was touch and go whether we would be able to get there. I had taken the day off work and didn’t fancy spending it sat at home not racing, so went for it!

The conditions on the M6 were interesting. The outer lane not in use as it was covered in an inch or so of snow, but the traffic was quiet and there wasn’t much snow south of Birmingham.  We arrived in plenty of time to have a look around the bike show.

Watching the 2^nd cat race and fixed bike race (yes that’s with no gears or brakes) before ours was interesting to say the least. There were a number of crashes and anyone who came off on ‘the paint’ was losing a LOT of skin!





Me cornering - obviously to fast for Towse

Rider briefing - mostly telling us not to run over their
feet!

I made sure I got a place on the front row on the start line – I couldn’t mess it up after coming all this way. The whistle went and I got swamped. I had the worst imaginable start ending up in the back quarter of the field after lap 1. Not the start I was aiming for..
It took 4-5 laps of riding as hard as I could and negotiating passing riders in the corners to bridge to what was left of the bunch – all of 3 riders! I sat in to recover and realised Clemence Copie was away, so made an effort to get her back with the others, but I was already suffering from having to chase back on. I looked over at the clock, expecting us to be half way in  and it only showed 5 minutes! The course was quite twisty and technical in places, although the corners were painted with a red paint with grit in it to make the corners more grippy which worked well (as long as you kept it upright). The only issue was coming onto and off the painted areas – cornering too early or too late would mean sliding out on the concrete - in the first few laps of the race I nearly decked it a fair number of times!        

In the closing stages of the race my legs were buckling but I just about managed to stay with the other 3 riders finishing in 5^th. The race was a bit of a shock to the system, but saying its off season I’m pretty pleased with my result!

1	Clemence Copie	High Wycombe Cycling Club	28:26
2	Alice Barnes	23C Orbea	+33
3	Louise Mahe	Team MuleBarGirl	ST
4	Alexie Shaw	Les Filles Racing Team	ST
5	Nicola Soden	Champion System/Maxgear	ST

Click here for full results