Race Reports – Jenny Corser Update

Jenny’s fantastic season continues! 4 Races in a week!

Race 14 July Velopark    1st

Race 16 July Velopark    1st

Race 17 July 25TT          2nd vet

Race 19 July Westpoint  3rd

I’ve done four races over the past week, its been a rather busy week!  I’ll highlight a few of the race differences…

 The first Velopark race was a small field and was slow paced with fast sprints and of the four was the least unremarkable and the most incident free.

The second race by contrast was fast…super fast. There were only 4 women and so they combined us with the 4th cat mens race. This meant holding on for dear life but still being able to keep up with any breakaways. Towards the last quarter of the race I was at the back of the bunch going into a corner, when well ahead of me there was a crash. One guy came down and took the rider out behind him, I think. The group sprinted out the corner and it was the hardest push ever after that to stay in contact- but I did. I even had a bit for the end sprint where I believe I was 6th or 7th in the mens race. (all credit to the guys, I didn’t spend time on the front, but still had a fair bit of interval training keeping up with the group)

In the warm down lap I stopped to see the crash victim who was with the first aiders. I won’t include any of the medical details but we waited for an ambulance for 30 minutes at least…

The third race was my first official individual tt and first 25m tt. In my enthusiasm for all things cycling a few months ago I purchased a second hand tt bike from a bloke on eBay…and had not really cycled it more than once. In retrospect I can question this wisdom, or lack of it, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.

The race the evening before with the men was fast 40km/h av, and the tt the next day necessitated a 5am wake up. My legs weren’t that happy. However by far and away the worst pain in the time trial was the saddle pain. The ill fitted bike with mens saddle dug deep into me with each pedal. After 20mins I had to stand, shift my position and at times stop pedalling. It was agony.

As I went along I wondered if this is just what timetrialling is all about , enduring uncomfortable saddle pain, and maybe I just need to “man-up”. And I really tried to, but the end was blissful, blissful relief. I think Im heading for a bike fit and new saddle soon…

The forth race was at Westpoint. It was really lovely to have some support from some of the MDCC members, and some people who Ive met on MDCC rides, but who aren’t members.(yet) Thanks Martyn, and thanks Richard- who shouted go Jenny as I passed (was a bit confused about who was shouting initially).

Anyway Westpoint was all going well, final corner I was forth wheel and gearing up for a big sprint, as we exited the last bend, when the front cyclist went down hard in the corner. It didn’t look good. The two behind her took evasive action swerving hard to the right to avoid hitting her which left me needing to swerve even harder right into the grassy verge. (better than than colliding). I wondered what was going to happen next- was the race going to be neutralised or an extra lap added (as it was right at the last corner). However the second rider (now first) sprinted off for the line, the third rider took off in hot pursuit, and I the decided I’d better chase- but I was still on the grass- which is never a good start for a standing spirit. I was third. Everyone then went back to check on the fallen cyclist after we’d crossed the line.

She was wounded but OK, thankfully.

 So thats the report for the four!