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Having turned professional at the
start of the year with Servetto Footon AluRecycling, just out
of the junior ranks Abby-Mae Parkinson jumped in at the deep
end with her first races. Starting with the Women's World Tour
Gent Wevelgem before the biggest women's one day race of them
all the Ronde van Vlaanderen.
We started the journey to Belgium at 5am on Friday and arrived
at the house where we were staying at 8pm (15 hours in a
van!). With just carrots, apples and pasta for dinner it was
an interesting first meal with the team!!
Gent Wevelgem
I was extremely nervous as it was my first race of the season
and also a Women's World Tour race, a massive jump in at the
deep end, but great that my team, Servetto Footon
AluRecycling, have the confidence to put me in these races as
a first year U23.
Jolanda Neff had told me it was her first race just a few
years ago, which made me feel a little better! Pre-race
meetings and dinner conversations are all in Italian which is
very hard but having Jolanda to talk to was a huge help, even
though I was kind of star stuck at first she's super friendly
and such a lovely team mate!!
I surprised myself and actually really enjoyed the race. It
was flat and fast for a while before we turned into a cross
wind where it split up just before the climbs! I managed to
find myself in a group with fellow Brit Dani King and my
Italian teammate Katia Ragusa. I ended up 75th, which I was
really pleased with... I had finished my first classic and WWT
race! I stayed over in Belgium between these two classic races,
which saved me two, more 15-hour journeys back and forth to
Italy.
Flanders
Ronde van Vlaanderen was crazy, the morning of the race we had
so much press buzzing around the camper and we were asked to
sign rider cards as soon as we popped our heads out of the
door! Something I had never ever experienced. The atmosphere
was amazing, I was so excited yet still nervous to get racing,
this time the pre-race meeting even was translated into
English at times. Which does help (must continue with my
Italian CDs).
The race started off pretty calm on the big open roads but as
soon as we turned onto the smaller roads it was carnage almost
coming to a complete standstill on the first climb before the
field being torn apart from one cobbled section to another!
It's the first time I'd raced on proper cobbles and they are
just as hard to ride on as they look!
I got pulled out just before the Kruisberg meaning I didn't go
over the Oude Kwaremont or the Paterberg, I was upset I didn't
finish but I think my legs were happy they didn't have to go
up those two final climbs! I managed quite a long way and I
guess I now have something to aim for... Next year (if I ride)
I REALLY want to finish!
Grand Prix de Dottignies
Grand Prix de Dottignies was completely different to the two
previous races. Eight laps of a 14km loop with about 700m of
cobbles each lap and a fair amount of wind. It was pretty much
pan flat so the race was really fast which wasn't ideal for my
extremely sore legs from Flanders the day before (and the
massive blister on my hand).
Miraculously I got round finishing 56th in the front group. I
even actually enjoyed the little cobble section and managed to
move up, maybe my old 'cross' skills coming into play! I just
managed to see my boyfriend Jon Dibben who is racing under 23
Flanders this weekend before we rushed off after the race for
an 18 hour trip home to Asti.
This coming weekend, we have a 3-day stage race in Southern
Italy, which should be good fun with the whole team. It's an
amazing new experience and so far, though tough, I'm enjoying
every minute of the Euro scene.
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