Race Report | Bovingdon Bomber 3/4

Quick Recap of Bovingdon Bomber Crit!

Part of my getting better at technical skills is putting you in situations where you need them in a safe environment - aka, if you go close to the limit, you don’t get hit by a car. So I decided to join my “local” crit, “local” meaning an hour-plus journey either way. Bovingdon has two corners, one being a proper hairpin and one being a set of chicanes, but it also has passages where you need the power, too. The proper hairpin comes at the top of the climb (which was into a headwind), so the speed wasn’t too high, and the chicane was after a slight downhill, but you turn into a small incline. 

This race was part of the final preparation for the Para Nat Champs, and my TrainingPeaks form was -17. Expectations were low, but I still held the same objectives as I normally do: 1) Survive the first lap in the group, and 2) Feel more confident in my technical skills. 

Well, I failed to clip in and, therefore, didn’t make it in the group around the hairpin (which was the start of the lap). While it’s frustrating, I’d rather fail to clip in in this race than during the Para Nat Champs.

So I did a solo ride for 20mins where I did 274w average (277w NP) before I caught someone! I rode with him for 10mins or so before making our mini-race within the race more tactical. I wanted to test my ability to react and adapt to others, so whenever I was at the front of our group, I rode always looking for an attack to come and sat up whenever we were going into the wind to avoid wasting energy when he would be able to sit in my wheel without issue. In order to counter his kick, I rode the corners more defensively to ensure that I would stay ahead even if it was slower. There was no one behind and the people ahead weren't getting caught.

We messed around for about 10mins before I decided it was time to try and get away from him (I didn’t really trust my sprint). The first lap saw a small gap but very manageable for him. When I was at the front, I was sitting up doing 100-200w at most so I decided to use that as a “shock” attack off the front and while I got some distance, we got pulled over to finish our mini-race. So, technically I didn’t finish last! 

While I didn’t clip in and perhaps that could have changed the outcome of the race, I got a lot more confident going around hairpins (especially left-hand ones) where my disability slightly hinders me. I also set a lot higher power numbers than I was expecting which is a great outcome. The numbers in this race were similar to what I was expecting when fresh so I’ll be upping my target for the Nat Champs on the 8th and 9th!

Also want to give a quick shoutout to Becky, Charlotte and Louise who gave me some useful tips and tricks for cornering.