The circuit was a rolling 16 km circuit with a couple of nasty kicks at the end of the lap before the finish. 5 laps making an 80k race.
The race started off pleasantly enough, I was comfortable about 5 or 6 back and quite happy. An early attack had gone up the road but this was reeled back in relatively easy. With my legs feeling good and having not put many miles in at Herne Hill I decided to stretch my legs a bit and as the first break came back in I kicked away. The idea was to have a couple of minutes out on my own and then settle back nicely in the pack and wait for the race to develop.
What a great feeling it is riding away from a group with just the lead car in front of you
After a couple of minutes I looked back and had a gap of about 200m with a couple of riders trying to bridge across. This racing lark was easy, or so I thought.
Concentrating very hard on not getting too carried away (easier said then done for us racing novices) I was trying to keep things nice and steady. Checking back there was one rider about 20 metres back and then a group of 3 about 50m behind him so I eased up slightly, got joined by the single rider and after about another minute the bunch of 3 were with us. Great I thought, a bunch of 5, a selection of clubs, everything was looking great ....
I swung out and planned to swing back in behind the last rider in the bunch and have a well earned breather. Unfortunately he decided that was the point to blow which I should have picked up as a gap was opening in front of him as i swung in behind. It took a bit longer to click and by that time a gap of about 15m had opened up between the two of us and the 3 rider in front. At this point I tried to bridge the gap but no doing, the 3 in front were shifting and my heart rate was going through the roof trying to get across. As my legs started to protest I started to slide back and was soon picked up by the bunch. Fine I thought, I'll just sit in and have a rest. Unfortunately at this stage the bunch was motoring with a selection of riders on the front making a concerted effort to catch what remained of the break and I started sliding back ....
I was at the back of the bunch as we hit the kicks at the end of the first lap and off the back by the time we got to the flat. A 10m gap with my legs hurting like
As we sailed past the HQ very tempted to stop, jump in the car and go home, but after a bit of internal argument decided to pull my finger out and managed to get onto the back of the bunch.
Lap 2 was
struggling for breath and hanging on for dear life. Apparently a break of 8 went away during this lap but I didn't have a clue. Lap 3 was bit better, and by lap 4 I managed to find a place in the bunch just off the back.
Things picked up a bit on the last lap and as we hit the kicks just before the finish the bunch fractured into 2 and I managed to hang onto the back of the first half, finishing about halfway down the field.
Pleased to finish. Some good threshold training trying to hang onto the bunch, and the great feeling of being out in front of a race even if it was the first lap and only for a short while