The Scottish Points Championships

After a nice 'relaxing' break from training which largly consisted on even more school work it was time to get back into bike mode and prepare for the Scottish 500m TT and Points race championships on the 12th and 13th of October at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow. The term 'eased back gentle' cannot be used in this case as I had 2 days with 5.30 start to do roller session before school, which actually I really liked as it: a) made me get up on time, b) meant I got training done before school and c) made me sleep better at night. Anyway on to the racing. On the Saturday I had the 500m TT which is basically 2 laps as fast as you can. As a more of an endurance based rider the 500m TT is not usual something i enjoy but surprisingly i loved the race and even better I set a PB and got 4th place which doesn't sound so good, but I was happy!

The next day was the points race which was my main aim for the championships. The race was being run over 20km (80 laps of the track), with sprints every 10 laps, now to put this distance into context, the Youth A boys (Youth A=under 16) who are suppose to be 'better' and 'stronger' than the Youth A girls only raced over 15km (60 laps) which is standard distance for Youth A boys and girls but because the Youth A girls race had been combined with the Junior girls (under 18) race we had to do the minimum distance for Junior girls, which you guessed it, was 20km. So it was going to be a long race, in fact the longest track race many of us had ever done!

I'm just going to pause to explain how a points race work for those who are unsure. Put the simplest way possible it's a endurance race run over a set distance with intermediate sprints at set distances and in each sprint the top 4 riders earn points, 5 for 1st over the line, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd and 1 for 4th. So this continues through the race and at the end, the points from every sprint are added up and the person with the most points wins. Another way to score points is by gaining the lap, which basically means you lap everyone in the race, but this only gains you 20 points which in a long points race would not seal the victory.

So back to the race, with there being 8 sprints in the race and a total of 88 points up for grabs it was going to be a full of race with the focus being on getting points in every sprint and winning as many as possible. I knew is was going to be a close battle as a new (well new to us) girl had arrived on the block, Hannah McDade, who had made the very long journey all the way from America to race the Scottish Champs, she had showed great sprinting ability in the sprint and 500m collecting the gold and silver medals respectively and if that doesn't dent my confidence enough she finished 2nd in the American Omnium Championships, furthermore she won the points race in that championships, making her literally one of the best Youth riders IN THE WHOLE OF AMERICA! And to really worry me, Rosa Martin had made to trip up from the North West to ride the champs, having raced Rosa a lot this year i knew she would be tuff to beat as she is a classy rider. And those were only the threats from other countries, the Scottish based riders have all taken a huge leap forward this year and with Katie McLean and Keira Johnston leaving the Youth ranks at the end of this season they both were looking to exit with a bang and are strong riders having both medaled at previous Scottish Championships in the last 2 months, also making leaps and bounds in great sprinting and awesome speed is Lauren Smith.

3rd Rosa, 1st Me, 2nd Hannah (l-r)

So it was going to be points, points, points in an attempt to win, however this is easier said than done as I discovered in the first sprint when I messed up and crossed the line 4th gaining only 1 point which put me on the back foot. The rest of the race is some what a blur, I know I won 3-4 sprint and at least got points in every sprint even if I didn't win it. A lot of moves went in the middle bit of the race as riders switched there focus to trying to gain a lap and i knew that with only a few riders willing to chase if the rider attacking gained over half a lap advantage the force would go out of the chase and the rider would gain the lap, so every time an attack went i chased, hard! Luckily for me there were some strong girls in the race who were fighting for the podium places so didn't want the break to succeed and we were back together for almost every sprint apart from a very good move from Keira Johnston which saw her stay away till the line. As i was scoring consistently i went into the lead by 6 points going into the final sprint so it was a final push to the line to try and get some more points even though it was in the back of my mind that I'd sealed the victory, but it's always nice to get the final sprint, alas I only got 1 point but still I won the race! I was so over the moon about winning as I'd put my all into the race and no one was making it easy! I'm pretty sure every single rider in the race tried some sort of move and everyone should be proud of them selves for managing the distance and getting points along the way.

Unfortunately this was my last race of the 2013 road and track session and I hate the fact it's the end of this years racing as it's been my best yet! But onward and upwards to hopefully an even better year in 2014! And for now its head down with winter training and the return sliding around in muddy fields at the cyclo-cross races.

Just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped me over this year, I couldn't have do it with out you all.

Scottish TT and British Madison Champs

Been yet another busy couple of week!! The work load at school has picked up and unfortunatly i came back from School Games with cold so it was another 2 days of school and load of catching up on work and lots of recovery before the Scottish TT Champs the following weekend. The Time Trial championships is run on a hilly 13 mile course just outside Dundee with big open roads which on a windy day makes it torture. Well it was a windy day!! The whole way round the course it felt like there was a head wind apart from about 1km with a tail wind which on Youth gear restrictions makes your legs go like the clappers. I didn't get the time i was aiming for but still happy with a 38:37 considering the conditions and the fact i'd been ill, and even better i won the Youth A Girls Championship so was in all a pretty good day on the bike, and to make it even better my little superstar of a team mate Eleanor Strathdee won her 1st Scottish Title in the Youth B Girls Championship!!

 But naturally its not all hard work and suffering as a small group of the youth had a gathering on the way home to chat and socialise but mainly to eat lots!!

Next up was a couple of easy days and a not to successful outing to track league in an attempt to find some track legs before the day trip to Manchester on the 28th for the British Madison Championship. It was a 7am start to get to Manchester for 1pm which was a bit early considering we weren't racing till 6pm but both Rhona and I agreed we'd rather have been there early so we could just chill out and watch the races and get ready with lots of time, which was lucky as an emergency trip to Evans was required as it turned out the nuts on the wheel i'd been loaded for the race was totally worn out! The panic was over quickly and with bikes sorted, warm up a bit of hand sling practice done it was race time.

Photo Credit to Dawn Fry

Photo Credit to Dawn Fry

With 9 teams entered and only 7 turning up on the day we know it was going to be a solid race and straight from the start it was full gas or at least it felt full gas to me. Its hard to pin point when or even how it even happened but we ended up distance off the "bunch" of 4/5 riders  and we were struggling to get back but i felt quite strong so i got Rhona to rest up the track and pushed on and didn't do another change till i'd made up the distance and got back into the bunch. For then on it was a case of staying in the group until on the last lap it went crazy and we ended up in a
sprint for 6th/7th position and unfortunately got pipped on the line. But its all a learning experience and as a pair Rhona and I were the youngest. But we did our best and in total honest i cant wait for next years championship!! On reflection there are so many positives that i can take from the race and hopefully if i work on the bad things we can go back and kick ass next year, but can never be sure how the season will play out but for now its bike brain off for 10 days as i take my time off before winter training starts. Just wanna say a big thanks to my Dad for being the driver/mechanic/very loud cheerer for the weekend.

Sainsbury's School Games

The next week was a taper week before the main event of September the Sainsbury’s School Games, which is like a mini Olympics for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland (Ulster), England and Brazil, unfortunately there is no Brazilian cycling team so was the usual 1 team from Scotland, Wales and Ulster and 11 different English teams as England is split into regions.  The School Games was based from Sheffield University Campus and all 1600+ athletes from all the sports were in the same campus so was a great atmosphere and you sometimes got random cheers from other Scottish athletes as we were all in the same Scotland leisure kit which was actually really lovely.  The only done side to everyone being on the same campus was the shortage of buses and early breakfast, and as a result it was up at 5am everyday to be at the buses for 6.15am, but that’s just want you’ve got to and it didn’t matter to me as I struggled to sleep with excitement on the first night so getting up at 5 makes you sleep easier.

The first day was 250m street sprints in the morning and 8km crit races in the afternoon. The morning was just very stop start as you had a qualifying tt, then a quarter, semi and final all in the space of 3ish hours so it was I total I think I spend about triple the time I was racing on my rollers just trying to get the legs going before the sprints. I wasn’t holding out much hope of a high

finish so finishing 26^th wasn’t really a let down. 

The real excitement was in the boys final as Jack Carlin had made it through to the A final so was fighting it out for 1^st-4^th position. This being Jacks aim for the weekend we were all pretty excited about the idea of a medal as Scotland has never won a medal at the Road Inter Regionals before. So naturally we won our first medal in style with Jack finishing at least a bike length clear to take the gold! And we were finished there! Rhona and I had both qualified for the A final of the girls crit race with 26 qualifying and on the tight circuit 26 was a lot. We’d been given team orders to stay at the front and I was to act as lead out women for Rhona in the final laps. It was a high paced race and staying near the front was a struggle but we both managed, with 2 to go I had Rhona on my wheel and was sitting on at the front next thing I’m boxed in and people are attacking us, so its guns out to try and get back in control. Unfortunately just as I was about to get back to the front the girl in front of me over cooks the corner and we both end up on the grass, adrenaline pumping I hope back onto the track and nail it causing the back of the string of the line. With one to go all I could think was I’ve got to get to Rhona!! And the last lap was a flat out effort to try and catch as many people as possible and to help in some way with Rhona’s sprint. Luckily Rhona is a class rider and managed to get 3^rd in the sprint and I finished 10^th so a strong team ride and another medal! It was by far the best race either of us had ever had against the British girls and I think we were happier with 3^rd and 10^th than the girls who finished 1^st and 2^nd! The rest of the day was a bit of a blur and next thing its 11pm I’m shattered but so happy with the day and buzzing for the challenges to come.

Day two. Time trials. And hills. The individual TT was in the morning and over a course of about 2km with the 1^st kilometre all up hill then a little down, sharp right hander, short punchy up, then down hill sprint to the finish. It was an interesting course and rather painful to say the least. I was 16^th off and set the first time under 5 minutes of 4:57 so when I got back I got to sit in the hot seat and after no one else turned up I sat there on my own and then had to sit in 2^nd and 3^rd as I got beaten by riders which look really sad as I sat in the 3^rd place chair with no one in 1^st or 2^nd. In the end I was 15^th which I was really happy with and even better as we had 3 riders in the top 20 we were seeded 4^th for the team time trial which meant we started 4^th last which was a real shock to us. The team time trial was over two laps of a hilly course which was then used for the road race the next day and started and finished at the same points as the individual TT. I was really honoured when Chris (Team Coach) and Sophie (Team Manager) made me team captain for the TTT so I was in charge and was responsible for getting the team round and making sure it went smoothly, which it did right up till the last corner but I’ll get to that in a minute. We had a good start and got into a good rhythm up the climbs and after the 1^st lap we had the fastest time so was looking good and we really flew round the last lap and as we reached the sharp right hander at the bottom of the decent before the short climb, disaster struck! Rhona lead through the corner (with Kiera Johnstone on her wheel then me) and took a bad line so panicked and changed from the big chain ring to the little and dropped her chain! In hindsight it was really lucky Kieran had backed off Rhona’s wheel going into the corner as it prevented a crash and meant Kiera and I got up the hill as Rhona did the fastest under pressure ‘put the chain back on and get up the hill’ routine I’ve ever seen. We then had to get down the hill to the line as Rhona smashed it to get back to us but managed it just before the line. It was a highly intense final kilometre but even with the mechanical we finished 4^th! And with a 12 second gap to 3^rd we figured the chain slip didn’t lose us the medal. But still 4^th against the best girls in Britain is pretty good considering 2 of the team are still youths next year!

Day 3. The last days always sad cause after being with the same people for 3 days the team sort of become a slightly dysfunctional family and its always hard to go from staying with a group of 1600+ athletes who all understand the sacrifices that are required to reach the high end of your sport to back to lessons and school and homework. But everything must end so best to bow out of a high, so onto 40km in the freezing cold, 45mph wind and even a little rain.  The race rolled out with a neutral start and soon the race was on and straight away it was echelons with the strong cross wind. The first half of the race passed with no major events and as I was staying in the top 15 riders incase the group split what I didn’t realise was that slowly the group was getting smaller and smaller. Soon the race light up and annoyingly I got distanced on the decent for some reason but no matter, another girl and I worked together and got back in and the next time down the decent the group split. Coming onto the hill that lap I was in the last group with a group in between the leader and myself. I drilled it up to this group that had Rhona in it and got her on my wheel and pushed on dropping most of the group with us until we were back in the front bunch. And breathe. That was 2 laps to go and coming onto the hill with 1 to go the fireworks had started in the lead group and the race had exploded all or the place. I got stuck just behind Rhona’s group and with some loud cheering and hoar honking from the GB coaches driving the support car I made it to their group of 7-8 riders. Now was the tricky bit, I’d been given team orders to help Rhona in the final sprint and for that she needed to be as high up as possible and with the leaders I sight and strong crosswinds I got Rhona to sit in my wheel and just went for it trying to a) drop the girls in our group and b) get back to the leaders. It went almost to plan as we dropped all but 2 of the girls in the group so going onto the descent Rhona went for it and I just sat on the back on the 2 girls try to slow them down so Rhona could get a gap and going onto the finishing climb one of the girls got away and I went after but couldn’t quite close it before the line. But hey I was happy with 14^th! And I thought our race was mad only about 15 of the boys actually managed all their laps and Stuart Balfour put in an awesome ride for 4^th!

And sadly that was School Games over but it was one of the best races I’ve ever done in my life! And we couldn’t have done as well as we did without our great team manager, Sophie Warburton and fantastic team coach, Chris Soper. 

Nationals, Inter Regional Track Champs and Scottish Champs

Wow! Its been a busy month and a half! It all started way back in mid August at the British Track Championships in Manchester. I had 3 days of racing with a day in between each so was a long week spent in Manchester. First up was the 2km Pursuit, it went not to bad apart from a run in with the pads on the last corner and I set a new P.B but finished quite far down the field so wasn’t to happy with it. The week only got worse from there as I fail to qualify for my scratch final and is safe to say I wasn’t to happy (sorry mum). So it all came down to the points race to save my nationals. I didn’t get any points which to be fair is kind of the point of the race but I did get in a few attacks and stayed in the bunch so that lightened the mood on the way home.

Most people would have taken some time off after the nationals but it’s all go for us youths as a week later I was off to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow to represent Scotland in the Inter Regional Track Championships.  Just to be selected for the Scottish Team was an honour as only 3 girls and 4 boys from the whole of Scotland made the team, and ERC/MCRT had 2 riders on the team (Ben Forsyth and me) more than any other team had. The racing kicked off on the Friday morning nice and early with a 6am start, oh the joys, and first up for me was sprint qualifying. I had ridden Glasgow enough to know the lines and had one of the better lines round the top of the banking (according to Tim Buckle, the hugely enthusiastic commentator) and set a P.B for my flying 200 so happy happy Emma and even better I qualified 8^th, which meant I qualified for the finals. Round 1 in the blue of Scotland Emma Borthwick, in the black of West Midlands Sophie Capewell, the under 16 sprint champion and 2^nd in the junior championships.  Well to say the odds were against me would be being kind. Anyway lots of sprint rounds later, I finished 8^th which for a non sprinter I’ll happily take.

Day 2 was more to my liking with the 2km pursuit in the morning and the Madison the afternoon. My 2km was sore. And slow. But onwards and upwards to the main event of my 3 days, the Madison. In preparation for the race Rhona Callander and I had done some hand sling practice so by race day we were pretty slick and had some of the best changes in the race (again said by Tim not me just being modest). I lined up right at the front so we got a good clean start and we were at the front of the race the whole time. Tactically we said we’d go for sprints and if a good break went we’d to and try to get the lap, well the the race went almost to plan and we got points and got in move to get a lap, unfortunately the race was blown apart and ‘bunch’ we were trying to lap was about 2 or 3 riders so was hard to tell who we were aiming to lap and unfortunately we didn’t quite make it. But we finished 5^th which we were so happy with as we were both at least a year younger than some of the girls.

 Day 3 was team day with team sprints in the morning and team pursuit in the afternoon. Rhona and I were team sprint team and came 10^th and with a new national record being set by the winners, it was a fast race. The team pursuit was one of my favourite races of the weekend as it was the only race all the girls raced together and it went beautifully, well in my opinion, we had a strong ride for 7^th with the fastest time the Scottish Female team has ever set in the Inter Regionals competition. The whole thing was an awesome experience and I didn’t want it to end! The whole team were stars and we came away as a team with a good medal haul and some new Scottish records, the whole thing would not have been possible with out our brilliant team staff Laura Irwin, Martin Harris and Leigh Marshall.

After two hard weeks at big events it was a recovery week before racing at the Scottish Criterium Championships at Ingliston. The race was a very tactical one and happily I won the race and as a first year A I get to try and defend my title next year. No rest for the Youth as the next weekend it was off to Dundee for 2 days of track racing, including the Scottish Scratch Championships. On the Saturday was the Championship race and it was a tuff race as I had to chance lots of breaks and going into the last lap had a perfect position sitting in 2^nd wheel with a small gap to rush out the last banking and got the line 1^st.