SERRL Bank Holiday Stage Race (may 29-31)

[Toks]

Podium finsh for Adam Cotterell, well done mate. Nice pic of you. Is that you winning the bunch gallop or the actual stage?
http://www.londoncyclesport.com/index.p ... &Itemid=86

[David.Hilbert]

Fantastic result Adam.
I don't think he won a stage but got a 2nd and a 4th.
How about a race report then?

[-Adam-]

Thanks, no stage win, but a decent GC ride I guess.

The first two stages on Saturday were somewhat forgettable, I rode a shocking TT in the morning. A long 22 I think for 10.5miles, it was so windy that I was too keen to pace myself and ended up not going anywhere near hard enough. Then the circuit race in the afternoon was equally bad as a soft break went without any representation from my team, not good!

Sunday was the best day. I started the day somewhat unmotivated after the day before. That said, after 30km of the 122km stage a split formed at the front of about 22 riders, including myself and Josh. The move worked well for about 30km, putting over 2 mins into the rest of the race. It was clear the winner would come from this group, what was also clear was that this group was never going to stay together. With about 50km to go, I rotated through on the front and a small gap formed behind me. So gradually I began to accelerate. Painfully aware of how far there was to go, I wasn't trying to attack, just to start the split that was inevitable coming. As it was I spent the next 20km away on my own, then as it looked like I was going to be caught, I accelerated again. I could see there were still at least 15 riders behind me, and that was too many for my liking. Eventually after another 20km on my own, a group of 5 came up to me, well clear of the rest. This was it, 10k to go, the winner was coming from the group of 6.

There were only a few attacks as two of the riders were about to inherit 1st and 2nd on GC, and were therefore riding for time. This was perfect for me as it gave me a bit of a chance to recover before the finish. Which was about 1km, either uphill or false flat. After the small steep section, Ian Field (GB Cyclo-crosser) made a move to keep the pace up more than anything, nobody reacted and I felt like I was about to cramp if I tried to take it up from that far out. When the reaction came, 2 riders were dropped, and I easily overtook the others, and got within about a bike length of Ian to finish 2nd. I was not happy! Had I timed my effort better, I could, and should have won. However, I was consoled later by the news that the days exploits moved me from 16th on GC, to 3rd!

The final stage was flat, and was always likely to be a bunch sprint. This was later guaranteed when all but one of the top 6 on GC, were content to make this happen! Fancying my chances in the sprint, I had a couple of guys from the Development Squad control the last 30km along with some of the Welsh guys that had come down for the race. When the sprint came, I was thrashed by a 80kg fat boy welshman who pushed a 54 for the mainly downhill sprint, on reflection I never had a chance, apart from which, I wasn't even on his wheel!

Oh well, not a bad few days all the same. Just a shame I couldn't quite finish it off on the Sunday.

[Sylv]

Nice one Adam, especially the 40km solo effort. Was it a 1/2/3 race then - can't see any Elites - not many of these around?