How Team Bicycling Won Brompton Worlds
Everyone is still hyped up about Peter Sagan’s epic attack and Coryn Rivera’s brilliant ride in the break at the 2015 UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia, but people are missing out on the real underdog story: how Team Bicycling won Brompton Worlds.
It was a gloomy, rainy night as I, Elspeth Huyett; advertising account manager Alex Jarman; and Editor-in-Chief Bill Strickland fumbled through practice runs of unfolding the Brompton bicycles we'd be racing with. Not familiar with Bromptons? They're foldable bikes with tiny wheels that are all kinds of badass. They’re easy to unfold, but when you’re dealing with race nerves, an uncomfortable uniform (a suit was required attire for the event), and the pressure of an entire magazine's hopes and dreams, it can get a little complicated.
But we had a plan. I was fresh off a week of racing in Ireland and we thought I could pull off the women’s win, so Alex and Bill were going to help get me to the front group and then let me seal the deal. It didn’t exactly play out like that, though.
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Every Brompton race begins with the competitors lined up on one side of the road, with the folded bikes on the opposite sidewalk. We sprinted to our bikes at the gun and began unfolding—and let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty. Alex and I got on the bikes first and, while we were waiting for Bill, Alex decided to taste some Richmond pavement—he flipped over the bars and into the barriers. He hopped right up and I spent the next 10 minutes laughing uncontrollably as we chased down riders.
The bikes are incredibly fast for having such comically tiny wheels, and genuinely fun. We climbed the cobbled Libby Hill and descended through the turns of Richmond on the 10-mile course, passing more and more riders.
As we got to the base of the final climb, I got my chance to go. I crossed the line as the first woman, and the Brompton World Champion USA winner. That’s not all though; our skilled squad managed to snag the team win as well.
Now, I’m off to London next summer to compete for the overall World Championship title. In the meantime, check out this video Brompton put together of our race and try not to catch the Brompton racing bug. Bet you can’t resist.
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