Following on from Savannah Hewson’s success at the Full Gas Hillingdon Winter Circuit Series #4, Liv AWOL riders have been in action at several races across the country, and a couple of the new Junior riders have already posted wins.
On Saturday 20th January, at the Full Gas Hillingdon Winter Circuit Series #6, new riders Zoe Brookes (cat 3) and Elizabeth Marvelly (cat 3) were racing on familiar ground, home to their former club, Hillingdon Slipstreamers, with Zoe taking the win, and Elizabeth joining her on the podium in third. Afterwards, Zoe tweeted “Great race at Hillingdon today, super happy to get the win and brilliant for the team for Libby to get 3rd as well 🌟 Great photos by @Frankies_photos 😊”.
On the same day, on the opposite side of London, two events were running at Redbridge Cycling Centre’s Hoggenburg Circuit. In the morning, under horrendous conditions of freezing rain, the Lee Valley Youth Winter Races #2 featured youth development rider, Harley Pell. Despite the conditions, the race was an exciting affair with two breaks off the front. The front three got away, but Harley managed to hold off the other girls taking fourth place overall.
At the same venue in the afternoon, for the East London Velo Winter Series #3, Savannah Hewson and Rosie Wallace were racing. “15 times up @TheHoggenberg and still managed to grab second place in the cold and wet. Really unlucky for Rosie (4th), puncturing mid-race.” tweeted Savannah.
The following Saturday, 27th January, road action moved to Lee Valley Velopark with the Full Gas Lee Valley Winter Circuit Series #9. Rosie and Savannah were back in action together, but less successful with a larger field, finishing 14th and 17th respectively.
The action switched back to Hillingdon on the 3rd February, for the Full Gas Hillingdon Winter Circuit Series #8. Fourteen women took to the field, including three from Liv AWOL. Zoe Brookes, Elizabeth Marvelly and Rosie Wallace, with Zoe on the podium again, this time taking second. Elizabeth was 9th and Rosie 11th.
Once again, the racing was back to Lee Valley Velopark for Full Gas Lee Valley Winter Circuit Series #11 on the 10th February, and once again, it was wet! Connie Hayes was out for her first road race of the season along with Savannah Hewson and Elizabeth Marvelly. Photographer (and racer) Honor Elliott took some great photos as the action unfolded, available to view on her Flickr, and for which we’re very grateful to have permission to reuse on this blog.
The race was run in a handicap format, so the Liv AWOL riders along with the other Cat 1, 2 and 3 riders were started over half a lap back on the Cat 4s.
However, Connie along with Project 51’s Megan Panton broke away and bridged the gap to the Cat 4s and by the final sprint, Connie was only 5-6 bike lengths back from the winner.
Taking 7th place, Connie tweeted after, “Such a good race today. Promising start to the road season for me.” Elizabeth and Savannah were 14th and 15th respectively.
After a 4-day training camp in the Peak District (more to come on that soon), Elizabeth and Savannah were back on their old stomping ground once more, for the Full Gas Hillingdon Winter Circuit Series #10. With a familiarity of the track an advantage, against a field of 10, Liv AWOL’s Elizabeth Marvelly took the win, and that was without her new team Liv Envie bike. She modestly hinted at the reason for her success on Twitter with “Thank you @Stalbanscycles for fixing the Planet X so I could have a bike to race on today while you’re fixing the racing bike! It did the trick – you always do the best job 👌”. I suspect it wasn’t all the bike that contributed to her success and makes you wonder how much better it could have been if she’d be on the Envie!
And so to the first road race (non-circuit) of the season for Liv AWOL riders. Hannah Graveney and Rosie Wallace joined 40 others on the start line for the South East Road Race League (SERRL) Newchapel Kermis. On an 80km long course, Rosie finished 23rd and Hannah 30th.
Of course, Road isn’t the only discipline that Liv AWOL riders are active in just now, and a report on other activities will be posted soon.
Featured photo by Honor Elliott
Special thanks also to Frankie Snell’s Photography for use of the two great Hillingdon win shots! Frankie is a 14-year-old aspiring sports photographer. Check out his Facebook page.
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