European Masters National Champs by Janet Birkmyre – 2nd August ’10
Four European Masters titles and two European Records – it has been a huge week! I travelled to the Manchester velodrome for the first race of the European Masters Track Championships, having left Great Witley in Worcestershire at 6am that morning, travelling, via Bury St Edmonds for a family funeral – not the preparation or the circumstances I would have chosen.
It was a very sad day, but the buzz of the event took my mind off things – there is always an amazing atmosphere in the velodrome for Masters events. This year, there are over 200 riders from 12 European Nations, contesting 46 separate championships in 5 days – and while the racing is fierce, the mood off the track is always wonderfully friendly and social.
My first event was the Points race, over 50 laps and with 5 sprints. There were some new faces this year and even though I had done some research on the riders I had not met before, it is impossible to know how the race will play out until it is on.
As ever the first sprint is a telling one, you find out who has good legs for sprinting and immediately afterwards, who is up for attacking to get a lap. I took the first sprint without working too hard and then set about covering the moves, which came in from Orla Hendron, who had travelled from Ireland and she worked hard during the race and secured a bronze medal in doing so. Then there was my old friend and rival, Jayne Paine – Jayne knows how to dish out the hurt and she continued to turn the thumb screws throughout the race, earning herself 10 points and a silver medal in doing so.
In the final reckoning, I took 25 for the overall win and worked hard in between times to go with the attacks. It was a hard race with an average speed of 39 km/hour and one I am pleased to have been part of.
The price of the win in the points race was a very sore pair of legs, so after sleeping in my Skins compression tights it was back to the velodrome for some active recovery in the morning and then more rest to prepare for the 500m TT. One of my season’s goals is to break my world record of 37.239 for this event. My legs however, thought that that was a ridiculous aim for these championships and were protesting loudly during warm up. In the event I posted 37.443, to take my age group title by just over 3 seconds. I have two further opportunities to ride a 500m event that will be recognised by the UCI, the British National Champs and the World Masters, so it is not over yet!
After a rest day (for which read a chance to catch up on work!) it was back up the M6 to Manchester for the sprint competition, a full day of qualifying and sprinting that started with sign on at 11 am and finished with a podium presentation at around 10 pm!
I made life easy for myself by qualifying fastest and was delighted with a PB of 12.268 for the flying 200m TT – a new European Masters Record. This earned me a relatively easy passage through to the final where I met Cheryl Owens (GB) in the gold medal ride off. Cheryl is never to be underestimated, so I needed to stay sharp, but was I able to secure the gold medal in two rides.
Late to bed and with only a FGS! recovery share and a rather sad and sorry chicken sandwich for dinner – liberated from a petrol station on the way home – my thoughts turned to the pursuit. This was always going to be my hardest event, especially with my two closest rivals sitting out the sprint event and arriving with fresh legs.
However, as defending champion I have the privilege of riding last in qualifying and was able to ride a more measured effort that would get me into the gold medal ride off, without completely emptying the tank.
Three hours later, battle for the medals commenced, with Jayne Paine in the home straight and me in the back straight – a replay of last year’s final, but as I knew Jayne is going even better this year and I would have to do something special to win. As a more sprint based athlete, I tend to start fast and fade towards the end, so it was no surprise to see my husband, who was walking the line for me, indicating that I was up for the first 3 laps, then I was even and then the pendulum swung the other way and I was down. Lap 5 and 6 and I was still down, even though I had upped my pace and my legs were screaming for mercy. Two laps to go has always been a do or die moment for me, one voice says ‘enough, this is just a hobby, you don’t have to hurt yourself like this, settle for silver and the pain will end’ while the other one says ‘you can’t give up the fight now and stand on the second step of the podium, you must dig deeper, go!’.
Happily for me, the voice with the greater volume on the day was the one that made me push on, left me gasping for breath and my quads screaming in protest, but got me the title by just 0.766 of a second.
Best regards
Jan
