While a number of PFO members were enjoying the delights of Hurstwood night and day events on the last weekend of November, Kay and Emma travelled to Spain to compete and complete the final event of this year’s City Race Euro Tour series.

For those not familiar with CRET, it comprises nine races across European cities. This year’s venues were Turnhout (Belgium), Matosinhos (near Porto, Portugal), Budapest (Hungary), Gdansk (Poland), Graz (Austria), Lincoln, London, Sintra (near Lisbon, Portugal) and finally Toledo (near Madrid, Spain).

Competitors can complete as few or as many of the series as they wish; the best five results count toward the overall ranking. To make travel worthwhile for competitors and supporters, the race organisers put on additional events the day before each round, which helps in getting a feel for the type of courses planned.

Toledo

Kay and Emma flew to Valencia on the Friday, picking up a hire car and driving four hours to Toledo, stopping briefly for a leg-stretching run en route. Toledo is steeped in history and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986. It is a walled city with the river Tagus running in the valley below — and besides its gothic cathedral, it is renowned for making swords, as well as for its hills, cobbled roads, streets and alley ways.

The city race took place largely within the city walls, although the longer courses ventured outside and down to the river before returning to the inner city. Consequently, you are either going uphill or downhill, with very little flat.

Defending the titles

Neither Kay nor Emma needed to race that weekend — both already had unassailable overall leads in their categories, having completed seven races: Emma in the Elite Women’s and Kay in the Veteran Women’s. Nevertheless, they took to the very hilly, cobbled, wet streets and alleys of Toledo to seal their positions and complete the series.

They were rewarded with certificates at the prize presentation after the race. Not only did they both win their overall categories, but they retained their overall winning titles from 2024.

For the record, when both were in the Elite Women’s category in 2023, they took first and second overall.

So, just in case you wondered why they weren’t at Hurstwood, they were busy retaining their hard-won CRET titles and flying the PFO flag in Spain.