The Bordeaux-Paris meeting at Palmer Park in Reading combines arguably Jan’s two strongest disciplines, with a scratch race qualifying the top nine riders (Women and U16 Boys) for a derny paced final.
Jan qualified easily for the final and then settled into the 20k derny race. Jan told us, “I felt good in the final and was loving wearing the Elite National Champs jersey. Graham and I know each other well and so I understood the move he made with 13 laps on the board. We were going very fast when we came alongside the second place rider, but at that moment the rear wheel of their derny punctured and the driver lost control of his bike. Graham was forced to reduce his speed and he was also pushed up towards the fence. With no brakes, I found myself running up alongside him and I, too, was moved up the track, but there was very little space and I quickly found myself pinned on the fence. It all became very “exciting”, and it is the most frightened I have been in a bike race, because we were going so fast and with motorbikes involved, any crash is going to be very serious. Happily everyone stayed upright but when we tried to get going again, Graham’s derny refused to co-operate. After picking up another derny, Graham got me back into the race, but sadly did not have the confidence on this borrowed motorbike to push up to the speed we needed to challenge for the win and so we had to settle for second.”
Thank you very much to the team sponsors:
