For those that haven't raced there before, its the top gear test track, so think wide open course, very windy and no technical sections. Breaks are pretty much impossible and it almost always ends up being 8 laps of nothingness, 2 laps of jostling for position and then a big bunch sprint. There's a left hander coming into the finishing straight and then a 1km flat straight to the finish.
14/6/6
I was bit nervous as it was my first race since the crash, so I spent far too much time on the outside of the bunch and the front. All stayed together till the last lap and I put in a big effort to get into 5th wheel going into the last corner; good position I thought - wrong! As we hit the finish straight the guys in front of me faded badly and I found myself boxed in as a train came up on my outside, didn't really have a chance to sprint and crossed the line 10th - 1 point at least, and being at the front meant that I avoided a nasty crash involving 4 guys and a couple of trips to the hospital.
21/6/6
Much of the same, but this time I entered the final corner in about 20th, I got a good run up the inside an starting making up quite a few places until i caught the top 10, found myself boxed in again and could only sprint about 30 metres from the line - 8th, so 2 points.
28/6/6
I needed 4th place or higher to get the 6 points for 3rd cat. The pace was higher than usual this week, as there were a number of well represented teams - 3 or 4 riders from each of KW, Redhill and In gear. Came into the last corner at around 15th wheel, a group of 6 or so powered up the road and so I had to go quite deep, putting the power down staying in the saddle to bridge the gap. I got onto the 6th wheel, yes!, I thought, finally a chance to sprint! I took a couple of seconds to relax and then kicked, I blew away the 5 but ran out of road to catch the last guy. I crossed the line in 2nd
. So, 8 points and 3rd cat for me!Would recommend Dunsfold for anyone thinking of getting into racing, the races are quite boring but its not at all technical and its pan flat so very few people get dropped.
Back to handicaps now - although I will miss not starting in the first group anymore!
