Team GB’s Charlotte Broughton and Grace Garner took silver and bronze respectively in yesterday’s road race which culminated in a sprint to the line at the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in Utrecht.
Day four of the event saw both the girls and boys compete in a road race competition for the first time in the festival’s history.
Speaking after the race Garner said: “We thought it would be a sprint finish and it was. I think we could tell that the other riders had sprinters which was why it was a slow race.
Garner also paid tribute to teammate Abby-Mae Parkinson’s contribution to the day’s successes: “The race spread out with 2km to go and Abby-Mae sat on the front and I managed to come through and get third. I am really pleased with my bronze medal and Charlotte got silver which is good too.
“Abby-Mae is such a good teammate. We couldn’t have done it without her today.”
Broughton also praised teammate Parkinson, “Abby-Mae is such a good person to work with in the road race. She worked so hard and stayed up at the front for a lot of the race,” said Broughton.
Joe Fry, Joe Holt and Ellis Kirkbride also took to the roads of Het Lint for the boys’ road race. It was a tough race for the trio who gave everything they had, but in a race filled with attacks and two crashes, the boys were unable to match the girls’ team with Holt finishing highest in eighth place.
“I was happy with the way I rode and the way that the team rode,” said Holt speaking after the race.
“I managed to keep calm throughout the race, I am normally quite an aggressive rider but I kept my cool in this race which is pleasing.
“It was a shame that I could not pull it off, I was a bit too far back on the last bend, we were sprinting for fourth or fifth in the end but I should have been a bit higher up but I'm really happy with the week, I would have liked to have got in the top 20 in the time trial but I ended up 36th.
“We don’t do that many time trials back home so I know that I need to work on that.”
