Gifford Road Race
My first road race of 2020, just outside of Edinburgh. I have raced this event a handful of times, last year it was unfortunately snowed off when we were about 15 minutes from the HQ. Thankfully this year the weather was dry! Gifford Road race is a unusual event as the Women’s race is set off with the men 3/4. It does however make for a good training race, as the men tend to race at a quicker speed. Approximately 40 miles to complete on a rolling circuit in Scotland.
You can probably guess from this usually cheery picture of me to the right that I won the women event! I am pretty pleased to take the win but also proud of how I road the race. Racing in with the men can hold its challenges. The most common one being the lack of respect for women racing in a predominately mens field. For what ever reason some men don’t like it when you get involved in the racing (or as they would say get in the way) Never the less it does make you fight for you position, which in turn helps your race craft. I enjoy racing with the men as you have to make sure you read the race correctly, to ensure you are putting yourself in the right position at the right time. Having raced on the circuit previously I knew where the spilts may occur and ensured I was at the right side of the spilt. As if you loose the wheel it is very hard to get back to a storming peloton. As long as I kept track of the other women in the group, there were not many stresses through the race. Positioning for the finish is never my favourite part, but with a slightly uphill finish I even managed to sprint past a couple of the men to claim top Woman. And I am defiantly not know for my sprint! Great to win a race in the amazing kit!
