SERRL 2016 Summer Series 4 – Biddenden (3/4/J/W)

[Ian Bray]

10am Sunday 27th March 2016

4½ Laps of a relatively flat 21.5km course.

This race was billed as the Tour De Frejus form guide with lots of ACC on the start list. Unfortunately dubious excuses were logged and only Dave, Paul & I started the race. As the clocks went forward 1hr the slightly later start time of 10am was welcomed. The weather forecast was less than ideal with storm Katie due to rip through the Kent country side with 25mph gusts and heavy rain. Still this did not deter ‘some of us’ from making the hour long trip down to Bethersden village hall.

Right from the gun a strong ASL rider attacked getting a 2 minute solo break on the bunch which lasted for 40km. This was Dave’s first race of the season so he was finding his legs. After one lap he made a kamikaze attack of the front. No one liked the look of him and he was left perilously dangling 20m off the front of the bunch before been reeled in.

With 55km to go the stronger riders started getting itchy feet and the pace ramp up, tearing the bunch apart. Paul Tunnel was on Commissaire duty and struggled to track the race as there were groups all over the road. This trimmed the fat and a group of eight riders formed a strong breakaway including Paul & myself. We locked into a good through and off and reeled in the solo break with 30km to go. The pace was comfortable and wasn’t anything over TG rides. Certain riders began skipping turns and we were worried if they were saving energy. With one lap to go the pace went up on a small rise which dropped three riders, who obviously were tired.

The remaining five pressed on and thought went to the finish. With 10km to go we went around a tight left had turn I was second wheel and didn’t get out of the saddle to hold wheel, in order to save some energy, this created a 20m gap which I foolishly started to close. As soon as the gap was closed I was suffering slightly and the guy on the front was also in the red after having an extended time on the front. A strong junior saw this as a perfect opportunity and made a break for it with Paul on his wheel they gained 100m which would stick. At this point I wasn’t going to chase down Paul so left the other two riders to work on the front and shout at me knowing that I was going to finish third.

On the penultimate left had turned, I over shot and went off the road. For a split second I thought my race was over but I managed to keep the bike upright and get back onto the road. The other two riders saw this as a perfect opportunity to drop me so attacked, forcing me to chase them down. Suddenly with 500m to go one of the riders rear mech exploded, he then proceeded to run to the line and still managed to get a respectable 7th place on foot. He then launched his bike into the hedge which can be seen in Dave Haywards photos.

Meanwhile 100m up the road Paul, aka ‘Sagan’ narrowly missed out to the strong junior who out sprinted him after hugging his wheel up the shallow climb. The course was fairly flat and both Paul & I would have preferred more climbing. Know we can look forward to our spring training camp already showing strong form.

Photos can be seen here:

http://www.davehaywardphotos.com/Cyclin ... JW-270316/

Results:

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/event ... Series---4

[Antloony]

Great result and write up Ian. Well done all 3 of you.

[Ben]

Nice write up

[Toks]

Great report
Chapeau Paul "the engine" Bone

[AshleyN]

Great race report Ian and race from Paul and Ian

[img]https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pYmI3vfq5UU/Vvfcd6d_3gI/AAAAAAAAH60/EFHjy9zy6Z00U6shtsuhWI-iIqvEVJpig/s1600/DHP_OllieRobinson.jpg[/img]

credit digi dave hayward for photo