Hillingdon Vets / E/1/2/3/4 / 20 April

[Mark F]

Off to Hillingdon tonight for some Vets Racing. I wasn’t sure what to expect – two Cat 4 races under my belt but this was E/1/2/3/4 with no handicapping. As I signed on I noted that Cat 4s were in the minority with a healthy number of Cat 2s and at least one Elite. Hmmm.

The Masters E+ had been scheduled to set off before the Masters C and D but following some delays we all departed together giving a good sized bunch. It was rather different from my experience of Cat 4 racing with a faster pace and attacks from the off though none of them stuck. I hung around at the back of the bunch as it steadily dropped in size with quite a few dropping off the back. I was trying to conserve my energy for an hour + 5 laps – wanting to stay the distance rather than blow up trying to do too much work at a racing pace I had not experienced before.

After 50 minutes the bell rang and we were into the last lap rather earlier than expected. It was the usual mad rush up the final drag during which I went past numerous other riders but having been unable to move up from the back of the bunch this was never going to make much impression on the leaders. I could see that there were a lot of riders in front of me but having two races finish together meant I had no idea of my race position - after some video analysis it is a provisional 6th at an average of 26.5 mph.

M

[Toks]

Nice one Mark, hopefully Mr Marlarkey will come and join you. Well done on 6th place

[Snoop Doug]

Good work Mark