Well done Steve!!

[DavidKennett]

[img]http://www.londoncyclesport.com/images/stories/cp20109sens3.jpg[/img]

1 12 Stephen Broomfield Addiscombe CC 3
2 54 Gordon Kenneway London Dynamo 3
3 16 David Ladkin Kingston Whrs 3
4 N/A
5 21 Conor Bunn VC Londres 3
6 18 Louis Charity Corridori 3
7 26 James Clark Inverse RT 3
8 3 Jon Lewis Charlotteville CC 3V
9 20 Quentin Tring Mosquito Bikes 3V
10 8 Chris Cole VC Londres 4
11 51 Kieran Brennan Addiscombe CC 3

[kieran]

Indeed, a good result for a man just recovering from the flu!

A big turn out again for the first race at Palace in a month. It was a weird race last night, a fair number of crashes, one of which closed off the U turn for about the last 15 laps, due to an injured woman racer. My 3rd race of the year and finally positioned myself up near the front for most of the race, so I avoided the crashes, sadly a stupid wobble on the last lap at one of the corners meant I lost my positioning a bit and just missed out on a placing, still I managed to pass a few up the hill. The race pace was very up and down as well, due to having to slow for the crashes and lack of willing bunch engines to set the pace on the front.

From my view Steve stayed back a bit in the bunch at first then moved up approx half way, on the final few laps he positioned himself well and on the last lap he was well placed for a clear sprint up the hill. Some who had been on the front died a bit or hesitated to start their sprint on the last hill.

Anyway, good to see an ACC victory and Steve on form, go on go for 2nd cat this year!!

Sylv was in the E/1/2 , which stayed together for the race. I am not sure how he found the race as he dissappeared before I could speak to him afterwards.

[George]

Congratulations Steve you deserve that mate good sprint indeed

[Sylv]

Bottom line - it never goes to plan at Palace. Steve assured us he'd be nowhere fit enough to be competitive before the start, because of his long spell without racing. And last time I was feeling so good I was convinced I'd get in the break, and I almost got dropped. Wasn't feeling so good last night.

Well done Steve. Our race too was cut short with the last 15 LAPS taking the shortcut! Before that I once got in a 5-man mini break that looked good but was brought back - apart from that I was mainly hiding mid-bunch. Very hard to make up places on the short lap and I went up the hill in about 15th place, and crossed the line in about that same position.

Looked like serious injuries with one KW girl down and ex KW Luke Wallis crashing AFTER the finish line due to a marshall standing in the middle of the road to tell us to slow down

[Rob W]

Nice one Steve.So the wheels were a good buy.

[EdO]

Well done Steve. Is that your first win at Palace ?

[Toks]

Wow brilliant result, well done Steve!! I hope we get a report

[Sylv]

[quote="Toks"]I hope we get a report

[mark mclaughlin]

The Shadow strikes!! Well done Steve, great result.

[Keith]

[Steve B]

Thanks guys

As Kieran said, it was a strange race. The pace never really got going to be honest and it seemed as though no one wanted it to. A couple of attempts at upping the speed didn't last long and soon it was back down again. 2 crashes, each leaving a rider down hurt with broken collar bones, slowed the race up even more. As a result of the second, they shortened the circuit removing the haripin section, and it probably influenced the amount of laps we ended up doing. The lap board said 19 to go, then 2 laps later it said 10 . I think they wanted the race over quickly as the girl who had crashed at the hairpin seemed in a bad way.

Anyway, I'd turned up at Palace to just do a few laps and then pull out. As I'd had flu for a couple of weeks previous, and not fully over it yet, I wanted to ease myself back into 'race pace'. My asthma had been playing me up too as a result of the flu, so it really was going to be a 'tester'. Thing is, the race never really got going. The insane speeds of previous races were nowhere to be seen, and if they were I would certainly have been out the back door, sharpish. But they weren't and I sat in the middle of the bunch wondering when it was going to kick off .

I started to feel quite good mid race. Legs felt ok, lungs too. Alright then, game on . Kieran had been in the top 15 most of the race so I decided to make my way up to where he was. With a few laps to go we were in good positions, ready to jump on to the fast train as the board clicked down to 2. Bang on, the pace picked up and we were flying down the hill. I was still unsure if I could go with it. The pace slowed again , what was happening. Then we were off again, last lap, flying down and around the blind bottom bends. My position wasn't great but ok. Adrenilin kicked in, and when the front of the bunch eased as they hit the bottom of the hill for the last time, I kept my momemtum going and blasted past them all, catching them by surprise. Sh*t, I'm not going to able to sprint the whole hill and all the way to the finish line, but the jump had paid off. I kept going as hard as I could for as long as I could and no one came past . I'd done it, I'd finally won . Mad

Steve

[MattD]

Great result - The Blue Ribbon Criterium event to win ! - and seated ! ( Is that your Merkx Set-up I see ?! )

[Andrew G]

Congratulations on two scores Steve. The first road race win of the season and you've moved to top of the Sandbaggers League too .