Young Brits Tackle Racing in Belgium
Story posted July 23, 2009; thanks to Bryan Taylor
Over the 18-19 July weekend, Belgium was hit by a storm of noise as young British riders Melissa Bury, Hayley Edwards, Harriet (Baz) Owen & Penny Rowson showed up for some kermesse action. On Saturday, we made the short journey to Veurne for a 57km race. The race started at a blistering speed compared to most girls races.
Aided by strong winds, after only one lap, the field of around 60 riders was split into four groups. Baz had managed to make the front group of around a dozen riders and Melissa was desperately trying to get across with another girl. The headwind down the long home straight put paid to her efforts as the 10 euro primes on offer every lap meant the front group weren’t hanging around.
Baz had to fight hard to hang on for the first few laps as the likes of Kelly Markus were nailing it for the primes and causing the gap to the second group containing Melissa to open to nearly two minutes. But Baz played a canny race and came good as it went on, testing her sprint for a prime with a couple of laps to go, but otherwise not doing too much work into the wind.
As the sprint started, Baz was pushed out wide and close to the barriers but found room and crossed the line in 2nd position, but more importantly 1st in the Under 16 category, so we now had to find room in the car for a trophy and huge bouquet of flowers. Melissa’s group was the only other to go the full race distance and this had halved in size as a result of plenty of attacking riding. Melissa had managed to respond to the attacks to finish well in 10th place in the Under 16 category.
On Sunday we had plenty of time to kill, so headed to the Tour of Flanders museum for lunch and to try and catch up on Brad Wiggin’s exploits on their TV, but the Porsche owners club outing weren’t so keen on the Tour De France so after lunch, we headed to the race early to give us plenty of time to check out the circuit and get an idea of the race from some of the British riders in the senior womens race before ours.
Penny Rowson in action
Having assured the girls that their races never go up any big hills, this one certainly did. To make it harder, the field was close to 80 riders with around 20 who hadn’t raced on Saturday, with some good names in there too. Some confusion over the whereabouts of the start left the girls further back than we’d have liked on the start line but the pre-race preparation meant they knew where they had to move up by to ensure they hit the climb in a good position and not be caught behind weaker riders.
They all managed this and over the top of the climb the first time there were already a number of riders shelled out the back. Whilst Baz and Melissa struggled after their great efforts the previous day and slipped back a little further each lap over the climb, Penny and Hayley were having much better race than Saturday, with Penny hanging on for all she was worth to the shrinking lead group every time up the hill and fighting to get back on when dropped one lap.
Hayley slipped back to the second group but after a less than happy race Saturday where she was effectively taken out of the race early on by a less than sensible move by another rider, she was determined to make up for it and won the sprint from her group. With big time gaps appearing, only the front group completed the full distance with Penny managing to stay in that group with the race being won by Rebecca Talen from South African Junior champion Michelle Corbett.
18/07/2009- VEURNE
Under 16
1. OWEN Harriett 01:40:00
2. MARKUS Kelly
3. VAN DER PEET Joyce
10. BURY Melissa
Junior
1. STEGINK Ymke 01:40:00
2. BAMELIS Sanne
3. VANDENBORRE Jolien
19/07/2009- MAARKEDAL
Under 16
1. TALEN Rebecca 01:52:00
2. BOGAERT Lisa
3. LODEWYKS Steffi
21. OWEN Harriet
24. BURY Melissa
Junior
1. CORBETT Michelle 01:52:00
2. HANNES Kaat
3. VERHESTRAETEN Karen
13. ROWSON Penny
18. EDWARDES Hayley
Melissa racing hard in Belgium
