Bedford 3 Day with Team OnForm

This Bank Holiday weekend saw the most recent round of the women’s team series, the Bedford 3 Day. In it’s 25th incarnation, the field of 90 starters arrived bright and early in the nearby village of Renhold for the first of 5 stages over three intense days of racing. The first stage was a 2.7km prologue time trial. We rode out to the start all together and set off one after the other in minute intervals, rallied on by the remaining teammates yet to commence their ride. “Number 70!”, I rolled up. “How do you pronounce your first name?” the starter asked. I wish that more people would ask that, rather than just jumping straight to the conclusion that I’m called ‘Shaun’ (last time I checked, Shaun wasn’t a girl’s name).

Anyway, quickly I was off and on the short climb which formed the first 500m or so of the course. Team manager Simon had briefed us before the start not to go too hard up

Time trials hurt!

here, a mistake which I had made in last year’s edition of the race. I reached the top of the climb feeling comfortable and continued to put the power down, reaching the finish suitably empty with the metallic taste of blood in the back of my throat. We regrouped and rolled back to the HQ, mostly coughing a lung up from the effort and pedalling excruciatingly slowly. A sure sign that we had ridden the time trial properly! Upon our return, we quickly retrieved the results and to our delight, we had managed to place 3 riders in the top 6, including Amy in the yellow jersey!

Stage 2. Approximately 60km around the relatively flat Great Barford circuit. The pace was quick from the off, with plenty of representation at the front of the race from teams obviously keen to challenge us for the race lead. However despite this, the peleton remained largely together, with only the efforts for the Sprinter and QOM jersey causing any real gaps in the field. The speed of the bunch had caused several riders to get dropped, but the group was still a reasonable size coming into the final half a lap. Throughout the race there had been more than enough twitchy riding, plenty of riders clearly not confident in riding shoulder to shoulder with their compatriots. In the final couple of kilometres, tired legs were matched with tired minds and lapses in concentration became apparent. Several squeaky moments later, something had to give. To my right, a shriek followed by the horrendous sound of bikes and bodies colliding with themselves and the tarmac. Slightly put off for a moment, I slipped back in the bunch a little and lost my teammates in the melee of the fast moving peleton. Dodging through gaps, the sprint was opening up ahead of me but a little out of my reach. I managed to claw my way to 8th position behind Tamara Davenne, the winner from Team Vision Innovative Leisure. As soon as I crossed the line, my attention turned swiftly to seeking out the rest of my teammates to ensure we had all escaped the crash. Luckily we were all unhurt, as well as successfully getting 4 of us in the top 10, and ready to roll for day 2.

Day 2, stage 3. Team time trial time! Simon said to us on our training camp back in February how much he would love for us to win the Bedford team time trial. We rode out to the start met by a stiff crosswind, practicing our formation and changes. Anna set us off at a rapid rate and we continued to build strongly until we were inside the final kilometre of the 6.6km course. Lucy drove hard sacrificing herself, giving it everything during her final turn. We finished fast enough to win the stage comfortably as well as all move up significantly on the GC. Couldn’t write a better script, right? We rolled back to the HQ to the beaming faces of Simon, Neil and the rest of our support team for the weekend. Time to chill before stage 4.

Stage 4, the penultimate stage. 80km around the Keysoe circuit. The strong winds of the morning had continued into the afternoon. With a significant climb to the finish line, as well as a tough open crosswind section over the top, we were anticipating this stage splitting up significantly more than the road stage of the previous day. We may have been looking strong in the GC, but if we allowed any breakaway to achieve a significant advantage, we were in danger of losing this, even if we had a representation in this group. We decided that the best tactic would be to keep the front of the race together as much as we possibly could. There were again Sprinters and QOM points to be contested. In stage 1, I had decided that I would like to compete for the Sprinters jersey, but when it came to the sprints I found myself royally swamped and unable to get out to contest the points. “Oh well”, I had thought. But with the help of my teammates, I was delivered to the Sprint line perfectly to take the first 5 points. Back in the game! On the following lap I was second over the line to Jo Smith of BowlPhish Racing who then became the leader of the competition. The bunch seemed generally much calmer than the previous day, however the commisaires did have to stop the race with a little under 2 laps to go to caution a few riders for persistent crossing of the centre lines in the road in the face of oncoming cars. With half a lap to go, I saw the tall figure of Amy fling her hand in the air. Her chain had dislodged itself and become jammed and she was dropping rapidly backwards through the bunch. But as quickly as the panic had begun, it was over as Karla Boddy, guesting for Les Filles, had kindly pushed Amy while she reached down and got her chain back on without even having to stop. We hit the final climb still in a reasonably large bunch. No one wanting to hit out too early, the bunch became even more tightly packed as everyone jostled for position. Charlotte Broughton of Ford Ecoboost was the first to jump and held on to take the win by a clear margin. Anna rolled in 5th and myself 8th. Not our best results individually for a road race, but we still held the race lead with it all to play for in the final stage on bank holiday Monday.

Last day. Only one stage remaining for today, thank goodness! I think there were a lot of tired bodies that morning. Luckily for us, we had had the fantastic support of Gareth and Phil, our team masseurs, giving us both pre and post race leg rubs to ward off any excess fatigue in our muscles, making sure we were fit and ready to race to the best of our abilities each day. Our plan was again to largely keep the race together as much as we possibly could, to let the other teams bring the race to us. In the first part of the race, we had everything covered perfectly. Then came the small matter of attempting to take the Sprinters jersey from a significantly trailing position. Coming into the final stage, I had 8 points, Jenny Corser of Team RGB Building Supplies had 10 points, and Jo Smith had 12 points. I had a bit of a task on my hands, I would realistically have to win both of the sprints to take the jersey. With the help of a mini lead-out from my teammates, I took the first sprint convincingly. It was now 13 points all, game on. I had to take the last one. The run in was fast, and I wasn’t excellently positioned. Amy did a fantastic job of pulling me up to where I needed to be very quickly, but the effort of doing so took the sting out of my legs. I hit out for the sprint early, and Jo came around me in the closing metres. I was a little disappointed, but it was well deserved by Jo, especially after she came so close to clinching it last year before being knocked off her bike on the final stage.

We continued to keep to race together until the final climb, and truth be told by the last lap I was absolutely swinging. Ford Ecoboost came together in the last couple of kilometres and organised a perfect lead-out for Charlotte to take another clear stage win, and we all rolled in with the bunch. Amy 2nd, Anna 5th, myself 10th. While we didn’t manage to take any road stage wins, we did what we set out to do and successfully defended our yellow jersey and GC dominance.

I think it’s safe to say, we were all a bit knackered. But our faces above and the beaming smiles of our team staff when we rolled back to the HQ said it all. What we had managed to achieve this weekend was about as close to the definition of teamwork you can possibly get. It may sound like a massive cliche, but we couldn’t have done it without the help of all of our many helpers throughout the weekend. I’d like to give a special mention to Paul, our mechanic, driving all the way up from Plymouth to help us. Being a mechanic is often a thankless task, with the work done often going unnoticed unless if something goes wrong. All of our bikes worked seamlessly through the weekend thanks to Paul and we really do appreciate it! The passion and heart that Simon has poured into this team to give us the opportunities we’ve got now, to do so much with so little budget in comparison with some of the larger teams is incredible. Oh and one final thing, Janet, Anna’s mum, makes the best millionaire shortbread. If you ever need a pick me up after a hard race day, Janet’s sweet treats are where it’s at!

See you next year Bedford!