SERRL Winter Series 4

[stamourp]

Well, that wasn't meant to happen.

Having done no road races in 2010 due to other commitments (bike and otherwise), the fourth round of the SERRL series seemed a fitting way to enter a low profile race and get some competitive miles in without too much effort. I know I should have been at Penshurst today, but the Cross bike still hasn't arrived and it just seems wrong to enter on an MTB.

The cold weather thinned the field with really not that many competitors. In fact when I arrived I wondered if it had been cancelled. Happily it hadn't, and the track was ice free and run clockwise. There was a wind you could get your teeth into on the infield but otherwise conditions were good.

The race started slowly and the pace only started to build after 20 minutes. One attack went - I'm no even going to pretend I know who was who - and was let go, sure in the knowledge it wasn't going to stick and after three laps he was pulled back in. About 40 minutes in the 3/4 cats went past the smaller 1/2 cat group, and the pace increased again. Two riders periodically launched attacks, never for more than a couple of hundred yards. The hill saw to that, bringing the field back together regularly in time for the start/finish straight.

With nothing to prove (entered as a 4th cat due to no road competition and placings this year) I thought I'd just have a bit of fun and take it as it came. This meant jumping on most of the attacks and seeing if there was any indication to team up, which invariably there wasn't. As the hour went and the five lap board came, it started to become more frantic. The same couple of lads launched the attacks, with more committment but never taking it all the way. Three laps to go and number 19 goes on the downhill section past the start/finish straight. I get onto him and the other attacking chap comes on. Before the hill it comes back together and the group goes into two laps to go. The attack goes again, no-one seems to be on it so I give it a go. Sadly it doesn't continue as the leader slows and we all enter one lap to go together, with myself slow pedalling at the front as we pass the start/finish straight.

Except it isn't; it's the finish. The chequered flag is flying and the race is over. Surprised faces look at one another as we try to understand if we've missed something. Which evidently we have. The bell had been sounded, but the marker board said one lap so we had thought it was for the 1/2 cats. Turns out that somewhere on the last laps we had passed some 1/2 cat back markers, who in the penultimate lap had repassed. So the race finished when they had. I'm sure my version of events was incorrect, but that's how I thought I understood it.

So I won by default of being the fastest person freewheeling over the finish line in preparation for the mileu of a last lap sprint. Not the way I envisaged my first road race win and totally undeserving, but on this particular cold and crisp day in Essex, the cookie crumbled in my favour.

Garmin profile here, if interested: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/58362415

[Keith]

It's been said before on this forum - "A win's a win!"

[Sylv]

"the accidental 3rd cat"

[Toks]

Cool, nice one

I didn't realise it was a race that took place at Hog Hill

Cat 4s
1[size=150] Peter Stamour. Addiscome CC[/size]
2 Jack Edwards. San Fairy Ann CC
3 Jeremy Ross. CC Ashwell
4 Malcolm Jefferies. VC Elan.
5 Tim Allen. VC Elan
6 David Robinson. CC Ashwell
7 Myles Willis. Dulwich Paragon
8 Mathhew Williams. Rapha Condor CC
9 Darryl Green. Inverse
10 Vernon Thomas. VC Elan