Palace 26/07

[Sylv]

Awesome racing last night – Palace really is the best race around. Compared to the race four of us did at Crowhurst at the weekend (not worth writing a report about), I’d say that was ten times more fun. A full field with pretty much all of the strong guys, only Gilbert was missing. And we went the wrong way again, I like it so much more that way. Jake, eager to get his Elite license, attacked from the gun and was then joined by a couple more, they weren’t chased and got a good gap, I really thought they would stay away but were slowly reeled in.

Later on I followed a move by Kevin Vicious and we stayed away for 3-4 laps, rear wheel rattling sideways on the bottom bend, coming past Corrine Hall who was soloing her way to victory, before being caught.

[img]http://www.londoncyclesport.com/media/jphoto/road-racing/crystal-palace-senior-circuits-10/cp151-599x400.jpg[/img]

Heard a crash at the back on the uphill corner and later found out it was Phil G who'd come down. Pace was pretty high at over 41km/h with no easing off and half-way through, all of a sudden half the field got dropped and there was only a dozen of us left! We pushed on to make sure the group would stay away. More attacks followed but to no avail – the headwind on the top section was ferocious and everyone attentive to the moves.

With three laps to go the pace slowed down to a 37km/h crawl with everyone looking at each other and no-one willing to ride at the front. It was to come down to a bunch sprint. Last time down the hill I was near the front but everyone was trying to barge past and I got swamped towards the back. I went on the outside first following Germain then coming past and all of a sudden I was back in 4th wheel which I held all the way to the last corner. Was ideally placed in Jody’s wheel but kind of messed up the final hairpin (which I’d finally managed to nail on my practise lap, need to enter it slightly late in order to exit it on the inside), went too fast and wide, lost the wheel as well as another couple places. Anyway the post-race buzz overpowered the disappointment of having missed on a 4th place which would have been my best result yet. Only 3 more races left, and fingers crossed for no more rainy Tuesdays.


Women
1 62 Corrine Hall Corridori 1
2 69 Louise Moriarty Look Mum No Hands 2
3 68 Lydia Boylan Look Mum No Hands2
4 61 Jayne Paine Willesden CC 1
5 66 Rachel Przyblski 2
6 64 Nicole Oh Pearson Cycles 4
7 65 Vikki Filsell Pearson Cycles 2
8 63 Carolie Gleaunes Pearson Cycles 4
9 67 Rachel Healey Bigfoot CC 4

Cat 3/4s
1 28 Marc Adam London Dynamo 3
2 39 Thomas Ballhatchet Rollapaluza 3
3 50 Matias Kuntz Ride Beyond 3
4 9 Keith Henderson 3
5 8 Robbie Hayton Big Foot CC 3
6 38 Michael Williams Dulwich Paragon 4
7 1 Conrad Calito La Fuga Sigma RT 3
8 36 Andrew Brown Dulwich Paragon 4
9 47 Alex Ioannides Dulwich Paragon 3
10 51 Christian Rudolf De Laune CC 3

E/1/2s
1 30 Jody Crawforth Hargroves Cycles E
2 1 Jake Martin Pendragon Le Col 1u23
3 31 Germain Burton De Ver YA
4 28 Kevin Knoz Vicious Velo V1
5 6 Stuart Spies Londn Dynamo 2
6 23 Sylvain Garde Addiscombe CC 2
7 26 Ben Moore Norwood Paragon 2
8 24 Hugo Humpreys Mosquito Bikes/LondonCycleSport 3J
9 19 Robert Moore London Phoenix 2
10 13 James Wakelin La Fuga Sigma RT 2
11 12 Luke Wallis La Fuga Sigma RT 2
12 4 George Gori La Fuga Sigma RT 2
13 2 Matthew Miles In-Gear 2
14 14 Jason Green London Dynamo 2

[Andrew G]

Nice one Sylv, had me that report. I was running late from work so was going to pop in but was too hungry and carried on home, wish I'd dropping in now as it sounds like it was a good one.

[kieran]

sounds like it was a good race, I spent Tuesday night over in shoreditch watching an opera put on by a small company. Shoreditch, direct trains to SE London by the overground but might as well be another planet (Planet of the Hipsters).