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On Saturday 9th of July I flew
out with the British team to Montichiari, Italy ready to start
my first European Track Championships, I was so excited! My
boyfriend was racing as well and he lives in the Academy base
in Montichiari so was really nice to get to see him as we
don't see each other very often! My mum and sister also came
out at the end of the week to watch the omnium it's always
nice to have your family there.
Day one of Euros started with the team pursuit. We qualified
fourth, just behind Poland, so we'd be riding against them for
bronze in the final. All of us were really determined to get
the bronze medal and our final went really well. We got under
2:40, which was our aim and beat the Polish team to take
third. This was our first major event doing the TP together
and to get on the podium was a great feeling and we were all
so happy! It was a great way to start the week off :)
After the TP I had two days to prepare for the omnium, which
started on Friday. I was excited to get stuck in. I didn't get
off to the best start, which I was pretty disappointed with. I
was seventh in the scratch and then sixth in the IP. I got a
two second PB in that which I was quite pleased with but
wasn't the time I was hoping for. The last event of the first
day was the elimination, which went pretty well for me, just
made a mistake at the end and finished fourth. I was going in
to the last day fourth overall, not too far from a podium
position.
The last day started with the 500 and flying lap. I got PB's
in both these events so was really happy with that. I placed
fourth in the 500 and third in the flying lap. Going in to the
points race I was 22 points behind third and 24 behind first
and second. The points race is one of my favourite events so
was really looking forward to it. I knew I needed to gain a
lap if I wanted a chance of getting on the podium. I waited
until about half way through to try and gain the lap so
everyone was a little fatigued. I gained the lap with a Dutch
and Polish rider and this put me in third place. I then just
gave it my all to try and win some sprints and bring my points
up more. I won the last two and secured my third place. As a
first year junior I was really happy with that but then was
also quite gutted, as I was only four points off the win. But
I've learnt so much this week and can take that on board to
improve for next year! The next morning we left Italy to
travel to Switzerland for the World Championships.
The World Championships kicked off on Wednesday with TP
qualifying. The track was 200 metre, rather then 250 so felt
pretty different. We qualified fifth which we were quite
gutted with as we went slower than we did at Euros. The next
day we would ride against Japan in the second round to try and
gain a place in the bronze medal ride off. It was all going
really well and we were on target for a PB, until we caught
the Japanese team and they're first rider changed and took out
Lauren Dolan in our team. We were gutted. But we didn't want
to just leave it there, so we asked for a re-run which we did
about 20 minutes after Lauren got taken out!! We went out
fighting, gave it our all and qualified fifth. We then went on
to secure fifth in the final.
On the same day as TP qualifying I had my points race. This
was my big aim for this trip. I got through qualifying okay
and was through to the final. I didn't have the best start in
the final, and my positioning was bad in the sprints and
wasn't picking up the points I wanted. I tried a number of
times to get away and a gain a lap but just couldn't get away,
and then I tried one more time and managed to get it and move
up to third with two more sprints remaining. I gave it my all
in the last two sprints and came away with a silver medal,
three points from the win. I was super happy with second, but
there's always that bit of disappointment being so close to
the win. Hopefully I can come back next year stronger and with
more experience.
After the points and TP my racing was meant to finish, but the
morning of the IP my coach told me I was riding it, which I
originally thought I wasn't doing. It was a bit of a rush to
get things ready to leave but got to the track with plenty of
time. As I was a bit disappointed with my time at Euros I
really wanted to try and better that time. I rode it a bit
differently to how I usually do and it paid off. My time was
2:26.957, three seconds faster than at Euros, so I was really
really happy! It ended the whole trip on a high! |
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