Crystal Palace Results - 7th May 2013

[Matt W]

First palace race of the season (first time on the circuit for me) and I loved it! It was a warm 17 Celsius and not much wind.
This time round I thought I wouldn't go mad as I didn't know the course very well (having only done about 5 laps before the race!) I felt reasonably strong, mostly because of the fact I had just got 2nd on Strava for Waller Lane the day before and 2 KOM's on Saturday!!!!!

During my warm up I noticed a rider who I raced with in the winter in the park series 8 - Daniel Tullet. He's in the U14 category but is one hell of a strong rider and races in U16 races... coming 1st I decided to follow him to see what he did for a warm up.

If you read my previous race report you'd of noticed I had an appalling start, not being able to catch up with the main group from the beginning. Luckily it's a different story! We started off quite fast but I managed to stay near the front, keeping my eye on Daniel just to see how he raced; he attacked a couple of times but unsuccessfully as did a couple of other riders.
I felt the pace wasn't too slow but not too fast that I would burn out. What I don't get though is why people have to brake around every corner? When I was warming up I only braked around the 180 turn, and not even that much. It gets quite frustrating losing all that speed

4 laps to go and I was forced into the wind! After half a lap of this I pulled off to the side and slowed up... but so did everybody else! I ended up doing the next two laps doing all the work, and then Daniel Tullet attacking again on the hill, getting away from everyone. We tried to chase him down but I think those two laps at the front had taken up quite a bit of energy (excuses excuses!! ).
So we tried to chase without success. Over the last hill and the sprint was on. I started near the front of the field, I think, down the hill when I heard someone shouting "don't block me!". I had gone off to the right where someone was coming up behind me. This threw my concentration off a little bit and failed to notice a couple of riders come passed me (I knew this as Phil videoed the final sprint). We shook hands though and I said sorry and explained how I was a 'newbie' to racing!

What have I learnt? Don't do all the work on the front!!

[size=120]Crystal Palace Criteriums - 7th May 2013 - U16's [/size]
1 Daniel Tullet Hargroves Cycles RT-Specialized-Trant-Next-Elliott's
...
4 Matthew Webber Addiscombe CC

P.S. Thanks to Phil for the lift!

[img]http://i39.tinypic.com/33ff4ox.jpg[/img]
My final sprint

[Andrew G]

Great report Matt .

Well done on a good race, very quick learner and astute to know what was happening and what you can improve on. Every race is a learning experience and you'll keep getting better.

[Matt W]

Aparantly I came 15th/16th! This is a mistake

[url]http://ukcyclesport.com/results/road-racing/item/8692-crystal-palace-youth-circuits-1-2013[/url]
[url]https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/85584/Crystal-Palace-Crits-1#results[/url]

[Phil H]

Definitely a mistake. OK, my video isn't great but you can see that you're much further up than that. Maybe they missed you on a lap.

[Sylv]

When racing in the seniors if you thought you got a top 10 (they only recorded up to that) it was always best to go see the officials straight after the race, and let them know where you thought you'd placed, and see if they had you in the race numbers recorded - very tricky to get it right at the finish and it was also helpful for them to finalise their placings.

[Phil H]

I thought it would be helpful to record the finish on my phone rather than watching it carefully. So I have some shaky indistinct phone footage and I didn't see the finish properly. I reckon Matt was somewhere between 3rd and 6th.

Also:

Youth B 8th Thomas Hawkes - Addiscombe CC.

[Matt W]

I talked to the Commissaire last night and he said they might of missed me on a lap so he is going to try and sort it out.

[quote="Phil the Pie"]Youth B 8th Thomas Hawkes - Addiscombe CC.

[Matt W]

I have had an email telling me they missed me on 2 laps, that makes me 4th!