Chertsey MOD 10th Sept

[Rob]

yes you do get points...you gotta do half decent first!!!!

last year addiscombe came 2nd...if me and neil turned up on time we would of won....so you guys got some work to do to beat us

[sylv]

Shame Kevin's away ...

[Simon C Izoard]

Fighting talk! Love it

Damn myself for going out last night

Slyv stay off the beer friday night! please


Anymore alcoholics wanna join the team?

I'm gonna drive from Kingston if someone would like a lift? only room for one sorry

[Simon C Izoard]

scrub that,

I'm riding there

[Maria David]

I'm driving over from Crystal Palace. I've got room for one. PM me if you would like a lift.

[Simon C Izoard]

Just had puncture fear, so will be driving too now!

[SimonH]

The biggest club with the smallest turnout !!

[sylv]

Enjoyed the race, our team came last but hey.

The pace in the bunch was not too fast, although this is relative - I went to the front of our group a few times and that's where it really hurts. There were a few half-hearted attacks, some of which Simon H and myself followed, others which we just let go for a while and caught up with not too long after. I must've been towards the back when the group which included Rob went away as I never saw them go and assumed we were still at the front. This is easy I thought, much more than mountain biking! Whereas in a mtb race I will look at my watch every few minutes thinking "jeez, only ten minutes gone" here miles just seemed to fly by, and the first time I looked down at my computer we'd already done 34km. This is due I think to the fact that on the road you are constantly focused on the wheel in front of you and the riders on either side. There is no time really to get bored or distracted. You suffer a bit when you take your turn at the front or follow an attack, and then recover when the pace slows down for a bit - in mountain biking it's more a case of giving it all from the start line (and a good start is crucial to the rest of the race, whereas here we were just sent off without more formality), and riding on your own is not such a disadvantage, as the effect of air drag is a lot less important, and besides you can't really be in someone's wheel over technical terrain. I enjoyed the course, especially the short downhills and tight turns, but I didn't mind either the very short, very steep uphill. We lost Simon C at some point and found him again after he's paused and recomposed himself for a lap. There was a fair bit of shouting, mainly people asking others to join in a break. With three laps to go out of twenty, I was anxiously waiting for the moment when the pace would pick up, wondering how much I had left in my legs, and if the jelly babies I'd had at mid-race would make any difference, but it didn't happen. In the end it unavoidably came down to a bunch sprint for our second group, Simon H and myself were towards the front at the exit of the last turn before the long final straight. I waited for the sprint to be launched, then tried my best to stay in Simon's wheel. Sprinting is really not my forte, so a number of riders passed by me, and Simon was a bike's length ahead of me at the finish line, but I think I didn't do so bad as I would've a couple months ago. At least I wasn't last.

My average speed for the 64km was 41.8km/h.

[Marek]

Crikey, that is pretty damn fast, I will have to see I have got any of my old Chertsey files to see what the average speed was, I don't think it was ever that fast but it does depend on the weather, whenever I race there it is usually raining and windy.

Cheers

Marek...

[sylv]

That might be a bit overstated Marek, I'll have to double-check my wheel circumference measurement (currently have it as 2130mm).

I don't have the computer data at home but if the course was effectively 64km spot on the winner's average would've been 41.3km/h in 1h33.

The bunch came in 1min 15 later ie around 40.75km/h.