Turvey victorious in Women’s National 50
National 10-Mile Champion Anna Turvey (Tyneside Vagabonds CC) added the National 50-Mile Championship title to her list of 2018 achievements with victory in Leicestershire on Saturday.
The 38-year-old from Newcastle clocked 1-49-49 to win by 1-10 from Emma Lewis (The Independent Pedaler), while Alice Lethbridge (Drag2zero) took third.
“I enjoyed my ride, which means maybe I should’ve gone harder!” said Turvey, a full-time optometrist. “But I’ve not done many 50s so I was conservative up to the turn because in the past I’ve made the mistake of going off too hard.
“There was a tailwind to the turn, and I wanted to save something for the return leg so I could hit the headwind hard.
“I knew there was a chance of a medal, but I always just try to do a good ride for me, and if it’s good enough, then great.
“I’ve only done about three 50s so far, so I only had a vague idea about pacing. I know what I do when I’m out training for two hours, so I tried to go just a bit harder than that, and thankfully it worked out.”
Turvey will now prepare for the Chronos des Nations in France on October 14, before a winter of training in the hope of selection for Ireland at next year’s World Championships.
Multiple national champion, Lethbridge led Drag2zero to the women’s team prize once again, with the winning trio being made up of Liz Powell, fifth with 1-55-07, while Vicky Gill was sixth in a time of 1-55-50.
The title race was due to be held earlier in the year, but emergency roadworks on the course forced organisers to postpone the event until now.
* All reports are copyright of Cycling Time Trials/Snowdon Sports. Not to be used without permission.
* A full gallery of images from this event by Kimroy Photography is available here