Millbrook 2/3/4 – 2 May

[Sylv]

Uh – a support race out in the sticks won by a certain Mr Cotterell from Belgium!

Matt and I rocked up unsure till the last minute of what start time and distance were (the sign-on guys didn’t have a clue or care, it was comedy), and didn’t bother to warm up. We’d been round the lap beforehand though (Millbrook test track, as seen on Top Gear = 7% / 14% alpine climbs and crazy descents and windswept 2-mile oval), driven by a guy from the test track who, as a cyclist, had arranged for the whole facility to be loaned. He took us up the 23% slopes which thankfully weren’t to be used that day! (and confirmed that the TG guys were a proper nuisance).

Pace was pretty hot though (Bec climb winner from two years ago plus several strong guys, and Adam initiating moves), on a tough but awesome circuit – brilliant surface, no traffic to worry about.

2/3rds of the way Adam went away with two guys, one a junior on restricted gears, in a promising looking move, but these tired up after a lap and up the long climb as I attacked to try shake things up a bit I was surprised to have them in sight again around the bend- so joined forces with Adam and a handful of others on the way down.

We held on to a slim lead for the last lap (no easy task on the oval – wind was just as bad as in Isle of Wight), with a couple guys on their last legs and missing turns, and were caught by the much depleted bunch literally on the line after 57km.

Adam had a fairly easy sprint win and I lost a couple places in the final metres sprinting into the wind, but was happy with 5th place.

Matt had a bit of a baptism of fire for his first road race! But loved it and enjoyed showing off in his girl’s skinsuit to the 90-strong field of the following women's race - and after stopping for a few secs after getting dropped off the lead group he joined another one and finished 28th (think about 80 started).

Results & pics on velouk

[Sylv]

[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5310/5686119101_4d5cb84a62.jpg[/img]

Paul would be proud

[Toks]

[quote="Sylv"]Uh – a support race out in the sticks won by a certain Mr Cotterell from Belgium!

[nick de meyer]

well done guys and girls sounds like a great race!

[-Adam-]

Yes Toks, really! It had been 3 years since my last 2/3/4 race, which I also won shortly before gaining my 1st cat licence...

Which is what I should have now. Except those at British Cycling decided not to accept my late submission of results from Belgium last season, so red tape saw me on the start line for what was a most enjoyable race.

I've been having a tough time of it lately in Belgium, with crashes but mainly team politics taking their toll. The latest crash by the way, left me barely able to walk let alone ride. And that was only 3 weeks before Monday... So I'd not really been able to train much for a few weeks, but with the Lincoln GP next on the cards for me I decided to ruin myself as much as possible last week by racing 4 times in 5 days, and doing some hard riding in between. 16 hours with an average heart rate of over 150bpm!

So Monday was as much of a test for me as a race. And I felt pretty terrible for the most part, until the last half hour of the race at least. There were plenty of guys who could climb faster than me in that race, just not many smart enough to make it count it seemed. I was in numerous moves until I finally went away with the two other chaps. We worked well, but with a lap and a half to go I could see that the bunch was coming back, so I stretched my legs a bit on the climb and spent a bit on my own until Sylv and others came across. As Sylv said, on the last lap we were getting caught, but luckily some fool thought he'd win by sprinting from 400m to go. So I let one guy get on his wheel, then when they both hesitated at 250m to go, I opened it up. And had time to sensibly decide not to sit up to celebrate with both hands, as it was pretty breezy!

This Sunday in Lincoln will however, be a totally different story...

[Sylv]

I wouldn't give you any stick for racing with us, but would have had you not won

Don't think you did get a finish photo though? That's all I got

[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/5681826386_4c67bdf5f1.jpg[/img]

Good luck for Lincoln GP. I'm doing a local race, but with also a whole bunch of Elites entered!

[Toks]

[quote="-Adam-"]Yes Toks, really! It had been 3 years since my last 2/3/4 race, which I also won shortly before gaining my 1st cat licence...

Which is what I should have now. Except those at British Cycling decided not to accept my late submission of results from Belgium last season, so red tape saw me on the start line for what was a most enjoyable race.

[Andrew G]

Another top result Sylv, well done. A windy assisted win for Adam, shame about the recent run of crashes.