Celebrating Success - Meg Barker Back in the National Jersey

Meg Barker: Securing the National Jersey with 5AM Limitless.

Some races matter more than others.

For Meg, the National Crit Championships is one of those races. The kind you circle on the calendar. The kind that changes the feel of the season when it goes right.

This year, she came into it with good form behind her, but not exactly the smoothest build-up.

“I’d just come off the back of an altitude camp,” Meg says. “We spent three weeks in Andorra, and it wasn’t timed perfectly for Nationals because I got back in time to race the Nocturne and Colne. So it was a bit of a balance between coming back at the right time and not missing the other races.”

The training had gone well, but there was still a lot in the legs.

“I felt like I was in a good place, but I was also still a little bit tired off the back of a big block of racing, travelling, training and more travelling.”

Then, on race day, things did not exactly feel promising.

“In the morning, I did my pre-race ride and I texted my coach saying, ‘I feel terrible. My legs haven’t felt this bad for ages.’ So I was shocked that I could race well in the evening.”

But cycling is funny like that. Sometimes a bad pre-race ride is not a bad sign at all.

“Sometimes it does work like that,” she says. “A bad pre-race ride actually means you’re going to have a good race. Luckily, it worked out.”

A race that never really settled

Even with good form, Nationals is hard to predict. There are team tactics, riders coming in from different race programmes, and people you do not normally see on the crit circuit.

“I was a bit nervous,” Meg says. “Nationals is a bit unpredictable. Some teams had a lot of riders. I think one of the teams had nine riders. Some of the WorldTour girls do it too, and they don’t normally race the crits through the year, so you don’t really know how they’re going to ride or what kind of form they’re in.”

Once the race started, it was full gas.

“It was one of the hardest crits I’ve ever done. Physically, it just stayed on the whole time.”

There were constant moves, with riders trying to force the race apart.

“People kept trying to get away, and there were a few girls where it was pretty clear that was their plan. I just followed them for a lot of the race and tried to keep it together as much as I could, or at least make sure I was always in the front group.”

With the pace so high, Meg expected the bunch to split.

“I was surprised it didn’t split more, to be honest, because it was so hard. But it did manage to stay together.”

One lap to go

When the race came into the final lap, Meg found herself right at the front.

“I just tried to stay near the front, and then I ended up on the front with a lap to go,” she says.

That could have been a problem, but the course helped a little. Around the back, it was tight enough that she could control things and get a small moment to recover before the sprint.

“It was fairly tight around the back of the course, so I could keep it a little bit slow and recover a little before the sprint. No one really made much effort to move up, for some reason. Or maybe because it was just too tight and they couldn’t.”

Then, just before the last corners, the sprint started to open up.

“Luckily, a couple of girls came past me before the last couple of corners, and I fought my way through so I didn’t get boxed in.”

Caris Lloyd went early, which gave Meg something to follow.

“Caris Lloyd went for quite a long sprint, which worked out perfectly for me because I could follow her and then just nip out a bit later.”

It was close all the way to the line.

“It was really tight. I came past her, then she came back past me, and then I went back past her again. I wasn’t sure I was going to get it.”

But she did.

Why this one means so much

Winning Nationals follows you around for the rest of the season. Every start line, every race photo, every pinning-on of a number comes with the jersey.

“Winning Nationals is amazing,” Meg says. “It’s the one you want to win because you then get to wear the jersey for the rest of the year, so it kind of stays with you all year. The excitement for each race is that you get to wear that kit.”

She had won the title before, back in 2023, but did not get as many chances to race in the jersey as she would have liked.

“I won it before in 2023, but I didn’t get to race that many times, just through circumstance, racing track and things like that. So I’m pretty happy that I’ve done it again and that I actually get the opportunity to wear it more.”

And there is already a little bit of looking ahead.

“Hopefully next year, races like the Nocturne return again, and I can wear it pre-Nationals next year.”

How it started with HUNT

Meg’s relationship with HUNT actually began with that first national crit title.

“My partnership with HUNT started when I won the national crit title in 2023,” she says. “At the time, I was riding as a privateer on my own equipment, and I had bought my own HUNT wheels to race on.”

After the race, HUNT got in touch.

“HUNT messaged me to say well done, and they offered me a new set of wheels and a little bonus to celebrate the result, which I thought was amazing. I hadn’t experienced something like that from a company before.”

That first message turned into a longer partnership.

“That’s where it started, and here I am three years later, still racing on HUNT wheels.”

Before the Nocturne, Meg got the new 5AMs.

“I got the new 5AMs just before the Nocturne, and I’ve had some good results since then. Whether that’s coincidence, I don’t know, but I’ve had a lot of compliments on the wheels and they feel pretty quick.”

For Meg, it comes down to trust. When the race is hard, fast and unpredictable, the equipment needs to be something she does not have to think about.

“It’s just really good to be able to race with confidence in your equipment and to know you’ve got some of the best equipment on the start line. Then you can trust that if you’ve done everything you need to do, the equipment isn’t going to be the thing that lets you down.”