Tuesday 13 August 2013

Dishforth Bike Race and Semerwater Swim

Semerwater, Raydale, North Yorkshire
Last weekend ended up being a weekend of racing for me. On Saturday I competed in a women’s 40min bike race at Dishforth, North Yorkshire and on Sunday I took part in a 1.5km open water swim at Semerwater, also in North Yorkshire.

The bike race was pretty uneventful. The course at Dishforth is flat, wide and without any tight bends. There were a couple of attacks, but no one got away. There were also a couple of primes on laps 2 and 3 but the prizes weren’t attractive enough to encourage everyone to go for them. There were 25 women in the race, the largest field I’ve raced against so far and the group stayed together for the whole 40mins/5 laps. So the race came down to a sprint finish on the final lap in which I finished 2nd to Iona Sewell of GB Cycles. Well done to the other albaRosa girls who competed: Vicky Clark who set the pace for most of the race; Lindsay for getting stuck in despite miscounting the laps; and Claire who enjoyed her first ever bike race. Personally, I felt a bit underwhelmed at the finish, neither disappointed nor satisfied. In hindsight I think I should have tried to attack a few times to make the race a bit more interesting. Next time…

On Sunday, I enjoyed the open water swim much more than the bike race. The course was either 1 lap (1.5km) or 2 laps (3km) of Semerwater. I signed up for the 1.5km option. There was a mass start of 75 swimmers, but with a very wide range of abilities there was no fighting at the start. I had a good start and got to the first buoy in 2nd place. I then passed the man who was leading quite early on and held the lead to the finish. There were a few ducks which crossed my path at one point but apart from that the only event of note was my disastrous exit from the water where I stood up, fell backwards and then resorted to crawling over the slippery rocks to get to the finish. Not the most elegant way to finish a race. I then watched my friends come in, in 3rd and 7th positions in their first ever open water swim! A leisurely lunch in Bainbridge followed by a hilly cycle back to Otley was a good way to fill the rest of the day.

Dishforth race report and results.

Semerwater race results.

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