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Charlotte Broughton Repeats Win at Assen

Story posted August 16

One of the country’s up and coming young riders, Charlotte Broughton, followed up on her recent winning of the national under 12 road race title with her second consecutive win in the European Tour of Assen

The racing started with a one kilometre Prologue alongside the main canal in Assen town centre where Charlotte blasted the course and took 3.06 seconds off the time of the second place rider, the Dutch national champion Fleur Nagengast.



Wearing the leader’s jersey, Charlotte’s next stage was a circuit race where the finish was in a street lined with tall trees which in the bright sun shine, cast lines of shadow across the road. Unfortunately for Charlotte, she misjudged one of the lines for the finish and although she dominated the sprint to the line, she ‘sat up’ just before the actual finish line, giving her arch rival, Fleur, the win.

A place to place stage was next on the agenda for Charlotte and just before the start, the heavens opened soaking anyone out in the open. Luckily for the riders, the start was next to a school and the bike shelters were perfect for warming up on the rollers in the dry. As soon as the riders were off,  their parent's raced back to the finish where live commentary was being fed from the race to the sports stadium.

Although most of the commentary was in Dutch, both Daniel Tulett (Palmer Park Velo) and Charlotte Broughton’s names were being mentioned in every report. As the lead cars and out riders swept into the stadium, behind them Charlotte’s distinctive pink overshoes appeared around the corner. The Leicestershire RC rider was in the lead with Maikel Zijaard (the pink jersey holder) close on her wheel with Fleur a distant third.

Although she put in a fantastic effort, Maikel could not make any impression on Charlotte in the sprint and her win gave Charlotte a 4.06 second lead on the general classification. 



Another time trial was next at the Assen motor racing circuit and with Charlotte leading on the GC,  she was the last of the category four riders to race. In the damp conditions however, Charlotte over shot one of the corners, hit the grass and had to clip out of her pedals to steady herself and pevent a nasty fall.

She managed to keep going but approaching the finishing straight, she misjudged another corner leading into the finish chicane (with her head down) and again lost valuable time steadying herself as well as in the process, going the wrong side of a cone. Even with her mishaps, Charlotte still finished 3.75 seconds up on the Dutch Champion but a complaint was made that Charlotte had deliberately clipped the course.

Without talking to Charlotte to establish why, the complaint was upheld and Charlotte had a two second penalty imposed on her which reduced her lead to 5.81 seconds on the overall.



The penultimate race was a criterium round the village of Gasselte and by this time, Charlotte was tired after the weeks racing and the TT the day before. Worryingly, her right knee was swollen and painful and although she had been well placed in the sprints, when it came to the final sprint for the line, Charlotte could only manage 6th place with her rival Fleur in 3rd.

Charlotte’s knee was so swollen and painful that a race official insisted that Charlotte had to have treatment before they would let her go to the presentation ceremony. 

Last stage
Charlotte went into the last race on Saturday with only a 2.81 second advantage over Fleur and to win the overall, Charlotte knew the only safe way, with such a small lead, was to try to win. Dan Tulett and Charlotte dominated the early stages of the race, especially the sprints and on the last lap, the race was down to four riders.

The selection consisted of Charlotte and three Dutch riders and leading into the second to last corner, Fleur and a fellow Dutch rider saw Charlotte making a move on the inside, so they tried to block her. So Charlotte went round the outside and as she did, Maikel made a break for freedom.  Charlotte was in no mood to be denied though and chased her down and went around the outside on the last corner with Fleur close behind.

It was then a straight sprint of about 100 meters and Charlotte powered to the line winning from Fleur by an impressive 5 or 6 bike lengths. The win gave Charlotte the category four General Classification, the girls title too, second in the Sprints and second in the Special Sprints competitions. It had been a good Tour all round for the Leicestershire RC rider.

Charlotte streets her rivals in the sprint.

Charlotte (centre) adds another title from Assen to her collection.