Handsling Alba Development Road rider Arabella Blackburn’s first ever Lloyds Tour of Britain Women stage was an eventful affair.
On the 158.9km stage starting and finishing in the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth, the 18-year-old made it into the breakaway alongside Picnic PostNL’s Audrey de Keersmaeker before being stung by a wasp and dropping back to the peloton.
The Scot eventually finished the race down in 96th place, 12 minutes behind winner Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-ProTime).
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“I’m just cycling along and suddenly get a really sharp pain in my leg and I was like: that’s quite unpleasant,” Blackburn told Cycling Weekly while warming down after the stage.
“I looked down, there’s this thing just stinging me,” she continued. “I had to flick it off and it must have left a sting in me or something because it just kept throbbing and throbbing and throbbing. I did ask for some antihistamine, but I never got that. So, I just kind of bit my lip and kept going, but it’s quite painful.”
Blackburn continued with De Keersmaeker for a while longer, before being dropped by the rider who went on to claim the Queen of the Mountains classification for the day.
Racing for more than four hours, the opening day of the race was Blackburn’s longest in her career. Recently second place in the Curlew Cup, Blackburn only turns 19 in December.
“It was quite painful. I was just kind of suffering quite a bit… It’s my longest race, so it’s just been a really hard day out on the bike… I think I might have been stung once before, but I’ve never had it that painful before. So yeah, first time for everything,” she added.
The teenager is one of Great Britain’s brightest young talents and shone at last year’s Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda.
While this is the biggest and hardest race of her career to date, Blackburn is keen to show her face at the front of the peloton in the rest of the race.
“I think I’d like to get in some more breakaways this week,” Blackburn said. “I think that’s a nice way to approach the race and I don’t just want to sit in the bunch and roll around. I’d rather actually go and do some racing.”
“It was really nice to be off the front and all the crowds were amazing when I was out there.”
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