Round 5 - South East Regional Road Race

Saturday 18th May proved to be a warm if overcast day for the South East Regional Road Race on the Kirdfold circuit in Sussex. With a large field of 54 riders turning out for the race, it promised to be an interesting race. 

The bunch stayed together for most of the race with surges here and there shaking off a few unlucky riders at the back. When the final push for the finish came Lydia Boylan (Team CTC), determined to keep her SE Champs jersey, was first over the line. Karla Boddy (MG Maxifuel) was second and Alexie Shaw (Les Filles RT) was third. 

Unfortunately a crash further back as the bunch geared up for the last few hundred metres brought down a number of riders. Hopefully everyone's bruises are healing and they'll be back for more. 

Full results are given on UK CycleSport and updated rankings are given here.

Photos from Dave Hayward can be seen at Dave Hayward Photos and from Huw Williams here.

News Update

Rankings

The individual and club rankings have been updated and can be seen here. Alexie Shaw remains in place as league leader with Les Filles RT riders also in 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Unsurprisingly Les Filles RT also heads the club rankings but there are still several races to come. Plenty of other clubs are well represented lower down the rankings and its great to see riders turning out come snow, rain or sun to race. 

Remember you need to compete in seven races to qualify for the top 20 ranking prizes at the end of the season. 

Round 5

Round 5 is the South East Regional Road Championships this Saturday in Kirdford. The race is now full but there is a waiting list so if you want a ride it might be worth putting your name down. 

Marshalling at Crystal Palace - volunteers needed

The LWCR league needs to field six marshalls for the Crystal Palace Crits on Tues 11th June. League points will be awarded to anyone that marshalls as per this news item. PLEASE PLEASE let us know if you can volunteer as we need to co-ordinate with Dulwich Paragon and another club that will be providing marshalls on the same date. None of the races we do would happen without the goodwill and hard work of some people who work week in week out for nothing but the love of their sport so please give something back to them. 

If you can't do it yourself, please feel free to nominate a friend or partner but any male friends or partners won't get any points! Please let Tabitha Rendall know via hello@londonwomenscycleracing.com ASAP.

Rankings updated

Rankings after round 3 have changed slightly due to updates to the results from Hillingdon and can be seen here. Two missing riders have now been included. 

Alexie Shaw (Les Filles RT) remains league leader at this early stage with Nicole Oh (Les Filles RT) and Maryka Sennema (Kingston Wheelers) taking 2nd and 3rd respectively. 

Les Filles RT have a very strong lead in the team rankings thanks to good turnouts and impressive rides at each round so far. Kingston Wheelers is in second but only 1 point ahead of London Phoenix.

Let's see what round 4 at Elveden on Saturday 11th May will do to the rankings. The race promises to have a good turnout. 

Round 3 - Hillingdon Ladies Crit

Round three of the league took place on Wednesday night with not a rain or snow cloud in sight! There was however a super strong wind to contend with.

It was an evening that saw many great attempts to break free stifled. There was an early attack from the Les Filles RT girls Helen Ralston and Vikki Filsell followed by great efforts from Lydia Boylan (Team CTC) and Monica Da Polenza (WyndyMilla) (both pictured below), just to name a few. 

In the end, with all attacks defeated by the wind along the main straight, the race held together until the final sprint which was won by Lydia Boylan (Team CTC), followed by Abby Dentus (De Ver Cycles) and by a tyre width, Emily Barnes (Condor Cycles).

The final sprint

All in all it was a great evening of racing. 

Results can be found on UK CycleSport. 

Rankings will be updated on Friday. 

Thanks to UK CycleSport and Huw Williams photography for words and pictures. 

Updates on upcoming races in the LWCR league calendar

The next month and a half sees the next four rounds of the league so we hope you're all ready to race.

Our early season leader is Alexie Shaw from Les Filles RT. The Les Filles team is also leading the team rankings but with only two races so far this could change at any point. 

Round three of the league is next week: Wed 17th April,  at Hillingdon. Please see our calendar for details.

Round four is Elveden on Sat 11th May. This race has been lengthened to 35 miles and reports from the first two races are very positive about the circuit, the organisation and the venue. A full LWCR turnout should make for an interesting race. 

Round five is the South East regional road race champs on Sat 18th May. Online entry is now available here. Lots of riders are already entered so get your entries in. 

Round six is the East London Velo road race in Essex on Sun 26th May. Please get your entries in for this race by 10th May. The organisers really want to run this race but need to know that they'll get enough riders to warrant all the organisation that goes into running an open road event. The course promises to be a good one so let them know you're coming. 

Early June is quiet for the league but things will hot up again at the end of June. 

Online entry for the Richmond Park TT (round 8) on Sun 30th June is now open here. There is a limit on the number of riders so please get your entry in now so as not to be disappointed. Make sure you enter the Ladies Road category. 

Further updates will continue to be posted on this website, on our Facebook page and via Twitter.