A slow start for the bunch, in fact so slow that I don’t think I even engaged 53/19 for the first few miles. After we’d circumnavigated the course for the first lap I headed up front just to see what was going on. Willesden, Kenton RC and Quest and a team in a disgusting looking blue, white and yellow kit all had significant numbers. Des (Kenton RC) was one of the first to test his legs. Once Des was brought back a little later another Kenton RC was off and away. I’d promised myself to remain disciplined today and to stop mindlessly jumping out of the bunch to join or create feeble breakaways
Well… rules are made to be broken. I sat 2nd wheel and watched as the same Kenton RC guy dangled out front. I can’t quite remember what Des said to me but I was suddenly in pursuit of his Kenton team mate. Bridging across was surprisingly comfortable and naively perhaps I went straight to the front and clicked the gears up to 53/15. A 3rd person jumped across which was encouraging. Clearly others felt we stood a chance because the group soon doubled in size and we were quickly into breakaway mode. Freedom…Yeah! Er…No a bit too early – sshit some people hadn’t even swallowed their first gels yet!
On the 2nd time up the main climb a bunch of sneaky so and so’s had transported themselves some 40 metres away. From mid-pack I was playing a game of I spy on who was missing from the bunch - the strong guy in black, check; the strong Quest guy, check; the strong Phoenix guy, check etc. “Oh No, I wanna be with them”. As things flattened out myself, Mark, Des and others began chasing the 8/9 escapees. They were already working well and pulling them back was proving difficult. Lots of hard anaerobic efforts; lots of taking turns between our chase group – getting close but not close enough. As we temporarily spilt up Des came by with reinforcements and all 3 made it across. I on the other hand was perched on my lonesome and 10 metres off the back of the group. A more composed person would perhaps have worked with others – not me I like to do things the hard way.
After what was probably 10 minutes of chasing I was on. As you do I sat in for a few minutes while this very fast moving ‘thru and off’ enough carried me along. So that was pretty much ‘game over’ for the rest of the bunch. I was told our 12-13 man group remained around 45sec to a minute ahead of the rest. For more than an hour we all worked well. LVRC Champ Paul Doel (Team Quest) often called the shots in terms how to rotate into the wind. On the bell lap things got a bit ragged and group dynamic went a AWOL. I tried a few times to jump away; gaps were briefly gained but couldn’t be maintained. I got into a good position for the sprint and watched the real sprinters jump; nice. I pushed the hardest gear in the saddle possible and managed a pleasing 6th or 7th. I’ll perhaps do one more race and that will be it. With a good winters training and average 10-12 hours including long rides I’ll try and get that 2nd cat license again.
