There was a pretty poor show from Squadra Donne girls at the first race of the Women's Team Series in Windsor but with the team flying out to Malta the following day, it was always going to be a challenge to get everyone together.
Tamina and I were on the start-sheet and Jon recruited a couple of girls to guest for the team. It was fun to be racing on home-territory and lovely to have some support from the local guys from Team Quest, with whom I ride regularly, and Darren Hague (from Team Shutt), who came out to watch the race. There's nothing like a "Go Sarah" to spur you on and get the legs moving!
There were a number of nasty crashes in this race last year. Tamina and I had discussed tactics before the race and agreed that it would be important to stay at the front of the bunch in order to avoid crashing... I was particularly determined to stay out of trouble, in order to make it to the start of the Tour ta Malta next week! The course was around 8.5 miles (7 laps in total) with a couple of drags, a fairly straight, wide road through some little villages and then a sharp left-hand turn onto Drift Road (a straight, wide road) with a drag up to the finish.
I tried to stay towards the front of the bunch, which meant I had to work harder than if I'd sat further back but this did help in keeping me out of trouble...
From what I remember, laps 1 and 2 were fairly uneventful. There were a few attacks, but owing to the fairly flat nature of the course, nobody really stayed away for long. There was a big crash on lap 3. I managed to avoid it and chase back onto the leading group. There was a further crash coming up to the first prime (at the end of lap 3) and a small group of us (including Tamina and myself) got away. I was working hard - having just chased to catch this lead group, I was now riding with some of the strongest riders from the field of 80.
Tamina was riding really strong and initiated several attacks in the first few laps. Unfortunately, she was taken down by another rider on the fourth lap :-( There was another nasty crash further down the road on lap 4, which I avoided by the skin of my teeth (a flying bike hit me but I managed to stay upright!). I put in a bit of a sprint and caught up with the lead riders: a group of around 8-10 of us riding "through and off", trying to keep the pace up in order to stay away.
As we approached the finish line at the end of lap 4, the pace lifted and I found myself struggling and then riding on the wheel of another rider who was also struggling. We pinged off the back of the lead group but much to my surprise (I'm not sure why I was so surprised!) the chasing bunch were coming up behind us. I dug deep until the top of the drag and then <thankfully> was able to sit in the bunch and recover for a few minutes before trying to lift the pace at the front to catch the leading group.
Just after we had turned onto Drift Road, we saw flashing lights ahead. The race was stopped. The Air Ambulance was arriving. There had been a serious crash and several riders were badly injured. I think we were all pretty shaken up by the events of the race and worried about what would happen if the race were to restart. We waited for a good 15 minutes before the Commissaire announced that the race would be abandoned. This was a real shame but I was actually rather glad about this decision.
I really hope everyone who came off and was injured makes a really swift recovery... and that future Team Series races will be crash-free...
Sarah
Big thanks to Darren Hague for the photos.
