La Fleche Waltonne 13 June 2021 – BMCR A and B cats
On Sunday Welland Valley CC hosted the La Fleche Waltonne Road Races in Leicestershire, as a road race test event for British Masters Cycle Racing. It is a national event, and had a full field.
Addiscombe’s Marek Siwicki was in the field and here is his race report.
This is quite a fast rolling course with a tough 1km finish hill.
On the first lap I put in some digs but nothing too much, just wanted to position myself well for the hill. It is a single track hill so hard to get around people once on, and I was keen to try and launch an attack over the top of it if I could stay in.
I actually got up the hill in 2nd spot so then went to the front and increased the pace a bit.
Before long I found myself off the front with two other riders. A bit of through and off ensued, but the smaller guy didn’t want to do turns. I guess may have been struggling a bit with the pace.
I actually got up the hill in 2nd spot so then went to the front and increased the pace a bit. Before long I found myself off the front with two other riders. A bit of through and off ensued, but the smaller guy didn’t want to do turns. I guess may have been struggling a bit with the pace.
Unfortunately, it was not to be and before long I looked back and we were being tracked by the bunch.
2nd lap and my positioning on the hill was not so good and it was much harder to get back up to the front. I could see a few failed attempts to get away. I had a couple more attempts but people were not letting it go.
Had another dig on lap 3 and got a small gap but not enough, but I kept near the front through Walton and that meant I got onto the finish hill again in a good position.
I took it relatively easy up it this time and filtered through so could take hill slower. Saw my mate Matt from Verulam at the back, he was finding it pretty tough, was getting whipsawed on every corner.
Next lap not a great deal happened and I didn’t have a great position for the hill and legs were starting to groan a bit. Rowan Horner had a go off the front but soon he got brought back.
Now on the last lap and not fancying a hill sprint, I gave it one last go and attacked on the climb a bit out before Walton. No one reacted and I seemed to have a reasonable gap, motorbike let me through so I put head down and smashed it.
Just as I got to Walton before the narrow lane turn off I found myself now stuck behind lead car and a tractor. I didn’t know what to do! Weirdly the lead car then overtook the tractor, but it wasn’t safe for me to go around as the tractor turned left onto the narrow road.
Now the bunch was back on me, a couple of lads jumped around the tractor whilst the rest of us waited for it to move out of the way.
Then it was a bit of a poor ending as I was on the front and pretty much just led the bunch to the final hill and then got swamped.
My legs were pretty shot now so just tapped up as was not going to place. So maybe in my head I could have held on with my small gap, but I will never know.
Loved the course and great to be back out smashing it on the road bike.
