The JGCC road race, a regional event in the west of Scotland, doesn’t tend to make headlines. Starting at a bowling club outside Kilmarnock, it loops eight times around a circuit, and costs £25 to enter. You won't find any elite riders on the start list. Instead, the field consists of amateurs representing their local clubs, open to those with cat-two licenses down to cat-four. It was here that Lauren Dickson made her racing debut last year.
A former triathlete, the Scot turned up a total stranger to cycling events. She chose to enter the ‘open’ race, not realising it would be primarily male. “In triathlon, you’re never in a bunch of like 80 people travelling at 40kph. It was a big shock,” she says. “But the actual racing side of it I loved.”
