Round 2 @ Cyclopark

The 2nd round of the league went ahead at Cyclopark yesterday as part of the Winter in the Park Series run by Finish Line Events who very kindly put on an extra race just for LWCR.

Riders woke to yet another cold wintery day but the race was to go ahead as planned. In the end thirteen riders made their way by train, bike and car to the circuit from London, Norwich and Kent to line up for the start. 

The field split in two almost immediately with the lead group made up of two Les Filles RT, two London Phoenix and a Pearson CC rider. Alexie Shaw (Les Filles RT) pulled away from the others to solo her way to an impressive win which puts her in top place on our leader board. 

A battle for second place between Charmaine Brown (Pearson CC) and Michelle Forster (London Phoenix) was decided on the line with Charmaine winning the sprint. Nicole Oh (Les Filles RT) and Bella Leach (London Phoenix) took fourth and fifth. 

Nicole clearly enjoyed her ride.

A second small bunch which rode most of the race together then sprinted for sixth with Nikki Engelbach (Les Filles RT) taking the honours before the rest of the field made their way over the line.

The weather had been cold but not as brutal as at Hog Hill and riders soon warmed up in the cafe. 

Well done to all.

Results 

1	231	Alexie Shaw	Les Filles RT
2	242	Charmaine Brown	Pearson Cycles
3	89	Michelle Forster	London Phoenix
4	229	Nicole Oh	Les Filles RT
5	93	Bella Leach	London Phoenix
6	85	Nikki Engelbach	Les Filles RT
7	241	Michelle Sellars	Goscomb - BSR
8	240	Tabitha Rendall	Club Cyclopark
9	84	Rachael Cottier	London Phoenix
10	82	Rebecca Carter	Goscomb - BSR
11	94	Louise Marsden	VC Norwich
12	99	Jennifer Smart	VC Norwich
DNF	86	Sophie Faldo

Round 3 will take place at Hillingdon on Wednesday 17th April - maybe spring will have started by then....

Rankings will be updated shortly. 

With thanks to John Mullineux at UK Cyclesport, Dave Hayward Photography and Huw Williams for reports, results and photos and thanks again to Finish Line Events for hosting the race. 

Change of start time for second race

RACE 2 @ CYCLOPARK WILL NOW START AT 3:45PM.

3/4 Cats will get a two minute headstart and the race will last 45 minutes plus 5 laps.

This is to make sure that all riders who turn up get a place and will now mean that the race is women only.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Rankings for last week's race will go up tomorrow afternoon - apologies for the delay.

Meet and Greet ride blog from Les Filles RT

Kate Sloan from Les Filles RT kindly wrote up their Meet and Greet ride which took place a couple of weeks ago. 


On February 17th it was Les Filles’ turn to lead a LWCR ride. As I’d not planned a ride for more than 2 people before and wanted to help introduce more women to cycle racing, I volunteered to help out with the ride. After considering my list of potential routes that I knew I wouldn’t get too lost on, which pretty much boiled down to either a nice flat ride to Windsor with plenty of potential café stops, or a six hills route down in Surrey that usually leaves me needing a 12-hour sleep, I decided the former was probably best for an introductory ride. All the details went up on the LWCR facebook page and I kept checking who had said they were attending. As the date drew closer, I got a little concerned that no-body wanted to come as we hadn’t had many people signed up at all! There was no point in all the worrying, however, and on the day we had 16 women and 2 men (including our DS in his pink Les Filles Gilet) turn up, as well as our new mascot, Marcel the Marmotte, who had been transported from France by Anna’s parents. It was also the first time I’d seen our team in our new kit, and I thought we all looked super smart and ready to race this season. 

Marcel the Marmotte

We were really lucky with the weather that morning, as the sun had also decided to show up, having hidden away behind the rain for the previous few weeks; a perfect day for a ride. It was great to see such a variety of women cyclists out, from last year’s league winner Lydia Boylan, to new racers, a first time road bike rider, and a lady training for a summer charity ride. Our numbers slowly dwindled along the road to Windsor, with girls having to go to work or do some other training, with those remaining warmly welcoming the arrival at Cinnamon café in Windsor arcade. Quite a revelation to me, as for the whole of last summer I had been going to a different, and much worse coffee stop! I’ll know where to go in future now though! After a nice natter and some food (including some free cake, thanks to the lovely people in the café), we set off for home. A few girls preferred getting the train home, so Nicole and Vikki took them to Virginia Water train station (as the Windsor one was closed) and planned to 2-up TT it back and meet us somewhere en-route. We had a good ride back to Richmond, arriving back at the park at about lunchtime, but never managed to find Nicole and Vikki along the way. In all, a good fun ride and hopefully encouraged some of the new girls to try out racing.

The Café Stop

All the rides have now taken place and hopefully a few women have benefitted from them. Lots of clubs have regular weekend rides which are a good introduction to group riding so do look up your local club and find out what they're up to.

Marshalls needed (in June)

YOUR LEAGUE

NEEDS

YOU

TO

MARSHALL

LWCR has offered to provide marshalls for one of the Crystal Palace Crits that are being run by Dulwich Paragon on Tuesday 11th June in return for using one of their races as part of the league calendar.

The Crits run every Tuesday throughout the summer and only happen thanks to a whole host of volunteers so please help us make sure these very popular evening races can continue.

Volunteers from affiliated teams or individual affiliates will be awarded points for marshalling which will be count as a counting 'race'. Marshalling points will be worked out at the end of the season as an average of your best 3 results from league events.

Marshalls will be needed from 6pm on the day and should be done by 9pm at the latest.

Tabitha Rendall will be co-ordinating marshalls so please let her know if you can help on the day by contacting us on hello@londonwomenscycleracing.com