C.palace- 29/5/07....acc in top 10...again!!

[Stu Merckx Man]

arrived at palace nice and early, and slowly the A team trickled in- hal, steve the shadow, sylv and myself.

i wasnt sure how was going to perform today after my illness and all, but i thought id give it a good wack.

however at the start line it went a bit wrong... i rather embarrassingly went out with the e,1,2s ...but once i heard a bunch of shouts i realised my error and came back to the line, tail between my legs.

so the race started and my tactic today was to follow sylv seeming as he has been doing well lately. almost immediately this payed off as i found myself in the top 6-7 most of the time.

towards the beginning me and sylv got in a little break but it didnt come to much. people were trying to break all the time and getting reeled in so i decided to not go with anymore in case i burn to many matches.
midway into the race a mozzie went for a long one. no one seamed to really want to chase him down, but after 2 laps of him being away i thought i better do something. i came to the front and buried myself into it. as we got to the hill i had bought his gap down to about 20m or so...unfortunately i ran out of gas here and as people came passed me i nearly got dropped!!

anyways eventually thanks to the efforts of a girl in pink, the mozzie was bought back. for the remainder of the race it stayed together pretty much, a few attacks here and there, but nothing to worry about....
however with about 5 to go the mozzie went for it again!! he was hanging off the front until the last lap. i was 2nd from the front and i think it was a chap from pearsons really wound up the pace. i struggled to hold his wheel out the hair pin!! he pretty much bought back the mozzie. trouble was this now left me at the front of the pack going up the hill. i started to sprint, but realised it was a little soon, so sat up.

a few people came passed and i grabbed on... now i dont often get annoyed in races but this really peaved me off!...as we were coming to the brow of the hill i was in a perfect position on the left. then some fool from the british cycling talent team came up on the inside, where there was clearly no room as i was pretty much on the edge of the tarmac. he lent into me and used his elbows to move me, which it did, into sylv i think, nearly causing a crash. sylv even had to free wheel a bit, i got boxed in and lost loads momentum to come down the other side!! i still sprinted as hard as i could, taking a couple of more places, i managed 4th place, narrowly missing out on 3rd, and if that talent team boy hadnt been such a pr*ck i might even have been in contention for the win and so could sylv!! he came in at 6th.

so it was a good night for acc at palace again, it was great having the support as well. it seamed at every corner i would hear, 'go on addiscombe!' . ill be there next week as well, i cant wait!

avs 24.1

cheers
stu

[Andrew G]

Great stuff Stu, good racing, top result - sounds like the emergency weight loss programme worked . Well done Sylv again, another top 10 you must be steadily picking up quite a few points.

[Sylv]

Nice one Stu, a good result despite the little mishap at the start of the sprint.

I must say I was hoping for an easy race with the usual pace-setters John and George away, only 30-odd (?) riders due to the uncertain weather, but mainly because I'm going to Essex tomorrow night to race mtb at Beastway.

Didn't really happen as the attacks kept fusing and despite all that you can tell yourself beforehand not to follow each and every one of them, it's hard in the buzz of the race not to, as it makes the race more fun and also you don't want to miss a successful break do you! And then you find yourself attacking in turn ...

So it was pretty hard work, as usual Jo (girl in pink) was up there and attacking, I seemed to find myself behind her most of the time and am still astounded at how strong she is - and she can even hold herself against the guys in the sprint.

I thought the mozzie was going to do a George but unfortunately for him no - good work for staying in for the sprint though. I tried to rest on the last couple laps and on the final climb took Stu's wheel and then the mishap, wasn't too bad for me but a bit unsettling. There was another guy in the race who was a bit all over the place, he must've gone in the grass a couple times and almost took me out when his pedal touched the ground on the turn before the downhill.

Was hoping for a better result, but it'll do. Is there an overall ranking at the end of the series?


Oh and classic moment going away with the E/1/2

[-Adam-]

Well that was a great evening getting to watch rather than actually race, although even my enthusiastic cheering couldn't pursuade steve to keep going!

I was running up the hill tour de france style jumping up and down like didi the devil. Pah, who am i kidding, it was as best i could do to hobble around the circuit to get all the different view points!

So, with the limited battery life that my camera gave me I took a couple of snaps...

[img]http://img3011.photobox.co.uk/357368597020328be1868c5eaa36cf2b83226a211e3eca93fff1f3dd871053889ac809c9.jpg[/img] [img]http://img3011.photobox.co.uk/01876502866e0133646050d9c22956743fa1b89142b085e51a8fde859809b04f01ce48cf.jpg[/img]
Stu wins his imaginary warm up sprint while the peloton contemplate a chilly evenings racing

[img]http://img3011.photobox.co.uk/681884593b8fb0a6b29dd5d1f663c5b31f0b3210868599e27251666b1c05609a5399ab7c.jpg[/img] [img]http://img3011.photobox.co.uk/253431291ecb988446a35a028596800ffb0c4378eff0f585f5644e21ce76087b47a78b4e.jpg[/img]
Sylv powers the bunch along, then the shadow flirted with the front of the race too!

[img]http://img3011.photobox.co.uk/870397789a923de319d63e092f3d5beab95cfcfa8ed4ad1d6d91b89ec7db219a90896cdd.jpg[/img] [img]http://img3011.photobox.co.uk/24010579d89f0287b544faa3c8dc4c127ac26062fa21f57c8343eac061fc25c3bb539d4b.jpg[/img]
Sylv and Stu prove too fast for my camera while Steve tries to chase some girls that are clearly far too young for him

More great results for both Sylv and Stu, the next pair of 2nd cats... Ive got money on them getting there before me!

[Hal]

A really good race yesterday. My goal was simply to finish (ideally in the bunch but at least not to get lapped as happened the first time I raced CP a few weeks back).

The smaller field certainly made things easier and I could sit in on the back of the bunch in semi comfort, with the shadow. Unfortunately each time we hit the hill I was fighting but holding in there. Then on one lap the group slowed up on the hill and the mossi guy made a break and I tried to use my momentum to chase him down for about half a lap before I started to fade.. and fade... and fade, sylv and stu came past, the bunch came past and chase as i might it was getting pretty painful. I still wanted to finish so did a few uncomfertable laps on my tod before being caught by the 1/2's who seemed to be taking it easy and towed me to my first CP finish.

Very happy with that.

Next time I will stick with the bunch.

[Sylv]

I'm still a bit confused about the speed difference between the E/1/2 and our race. Last time John S said their average was 27.5 which worked out almost 3mph faster than ours .

This time (if the timings on LCS are accurate and they took account of the (1 minute? (thanks Stu!)) gap between the two starts) the small escape group did 3 laps more than us in 4"38, which is about 0.6mph faster overall, and then the chasing group did that in 5"58 which is about our speed (we lap in +/- 2"). And Hal says they seemed to ease up the climb when he joined them (we did some of that too!). But on the other hand Tim and Toks got dropped at least once of those races. Maybe it just depends on the day.

I guess I will find out in (hopefully) a few weeks' time . Also looking forward to see how George and John will fare now.

[Stu Merckx Man]

oh yeh i forgot to add....

i know everyone always says stay up near the front at palace...BUT DO!!! i did this week, i was usually in the top 5-7 or so and it is 100x easier!!...

-you can pick your own lines round the corners without having to worry about people next to you bashing into you.

-you only have to mildly put in extra effort out the corners.

-up the hill its much easier as there are less likely to be splits (there all behind you).

-more chance of getting in a break.

-MUCH easier to draft and take shelter because you can safely tuck into the the bloke / girl in pink, because your in a single line and no ones moving into you forcing you into the wind etc etc.

-it leaves you in a far better position for the sprint.

cheers
stu

[Paul H]

Well done Stu and Sylv. See you in a CAT 2 race soon.

[Toks]

Well done to the CP possee. Don's just getting back into racing after years off and has placed in his first two races which isn't bad. He's not work shy either

[higg]

Good results guys. I'm on holiday so missed the fun this week and also next week but will be back after that. That is if you don't go up to 2nd before then.