Jessica Allen wins Essex Ladies Women's Road Race

 

A bright breezy morning greeted the 50 or so starters of today’s Essex Ladies Giro incorporating the Junior Women’s National Road Championship. Halfords/Bikehut showed their colours from the start as Lizzi Armistead and Jo Rowsell led the bunch out of Saffron Walden towards 3.75 laps of a 16 mile undulating course that appeared not to have a single piece of flat road in it.

 

World Team Pursuit Champion Rowsell, whose brother won the Junior RR title today, was coming off a hard week of track work and was doing her job for the team early on, being content to drift out the back in the latter half of the race.

 

The early part of the race was fast and aggressive with several riders, most notably Armistead, trying to get away from the main group which was continually dropping riders from the off. Armistead and team-mate Katie Colclough did manage to get away on the second lap but lost their rhythm when the race was temporarily halted. The main contenders for the day were soon back together, which was how it stayed until the final circuit.

The demanding circuit quite literally split the bunch apart into two groups due to the unrelenting pressure of the junior riders showing their older opponents some aggressive riding. Four in particular Hannah Mayho, Katie Colclough, Lucy Martin and Dani King, who all finished up in the top five.

 

Towards the start of the final circuit Jessica Allen sensed a brief lull in proceedings and decided to take advantage; with the contenders for the junior title starting to mark each other Allen soon had a sizeable gap which she continued to extend all the way to the finish.

 

With Allen on her way to a solo win of the Essex Giro, her Halfords team-mates policed the small chasing group. Armistead decided to lead Colclough out for the junior title, but the finish climb, just off the main circuit, caught them out with its length and gradients, resulting in Lucy Martin (Dolan RT) edging out Colclough and Hannah Mayho (Longstaff Cycles-BH) as they tired just before the line.

Jessica Allen on her way to a solo win in Essex.

Lucy Martin leads the chase.

 

Martin was in the middle of the small group approaching the finale, but held on believing that Colclough and Mayho had made their moves a little too soon on the early slope of the climb, although she needed to see the photograph before believing she had won.

 

Mayho felt that the race would have suited her better if it had been a little tougher;  having just returned from racing in Belgium with a couple of wins while there she was a slightly disappointed in herself for not making more of an attempt to win this title before moving up to the senior ranks next year.

 

Pleased with her win of the Essex Giro, Allen commented that the terrain and the blustery wind which got stronger as the race went on made the event a tough one; she had had no particular plan for the race, her successful race winning attack being  a spontaneous move. She was thankful of the work done by her team-mates.

Victory for Jessica Allen.

Tight sprint for the Junior title

 

Essex Giro (National Womens Series Road Race).100km
1st Jessica Allen Halfords/Bikehut in 2 hrs 58 mins
2nd Lucy Martin Dolan RT @ 3 mins 11 secs
3rd Katie Colclough Halfords/Bikehut @st
4th Hannah Mayho Longstaff Cycles @st
5th Dani King I-team CC @3' 12"
6th Leanne Thopmson Lune RC @3'14"
7th Jessica Booth Halesowen A and CC @3'15"
8th Hannah Rich Pinarello Rt @3'16"
9th Annie Last Felt Racing @3'26"
10th Sarah Cramoysan Team Swift Allsports @st
11th Charlotte Blackman London Dynamo/Cyclefit @3'31"
12th Charlotte Colclough Private Member @3'33"
13th Corrine Simmonds OCRC @3'38"
14th Claire Thomas Edinburgh RC @3'44"
15th Katie Calvert I-Team CC @3'47"
16th Lizzie Armistead Halfords/Bikehut @4'31"
17th Corrine Hall Twickenham CC @19'08"
18th Emma Trott Halfords/Bikehut @st
19th Jenny Lloyd-Jones London Dynamo/Cyclefit @23'45"
20th Katie Fearnhough GS Surosa @23'50"

 

BC National Junior Womens Championship
1st Lucy Martin Dolan RT
2nd Katie Colclough Halfords/Bikehut
3rd Hannah Mayho Longstaff Cycles
4th Dani King I-team CC
5th Jessica Booth Halesowen A and CC
6th Hannah Rich Pinarello Rt
7th Annie Last Felt Racing
8th Katie Calvert I-Team CC
9th Corrine Hall Twickenham CC