by Sylv » Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:02 am
Great videos Phil. Thanks to you and all who came to watch and support last night. It was awesome!
[quote="John G"]not sure if it's my cup of tea, much prefer the longer courses like New Chapel!
New Chapel was much more fun and I lasted longer into the race!
That’s funny cos the more it goes the more I’m only enjoying those short, intense Crit efforts on the road .. but they take a while to get used to, so stick at it.
I went to sign-on as soon as I arrived, picked up my bike to find the rear tub punctured by an inch-long rusty nail. Brilliant. No panic, there was half an hour to the race. I had a spare tub but no tape, so Steve and I carefully removed the tape from the old one and swapped the tubs. Have to say I wasn’t too reassured as the bond didn’t seem that strong, and didn’t fancy doing a George tub-roll especially with my recently replaced carbon rim, so it was probably a blessing that minutes later it appeared that the spare tub was going down too. Hugo Humphreys and hid dad kindly offered to lend their spare training wheel – complete with 14/25 junior gears, fresh back from a trip to France and Belgium. After a practice lap I realised that this was probably going to be fine for the Palace circuit – and nice close ratios, just about 300gm heavier.
Lots of strong people last night. I have my toughest race of the year on Saturday, so the plan was to ride tactically and do as little as possible to save the legs. At Palace though, that’s like saying to myself I’m not going to have any birthday cakes in the office when someone brings homemade brownies .. got myself in first 5 just as attacks fired from the gun – Jake, Hugo, Andy, Kevin .. First really significant move was Jody putting a devastating attack (just like Stu used to : ) up the hill, which unfortunately for him no-one could follow, or jump to for the next few laps when he was finally caught.
Race went on and it felt a bit like previous week – bunch was slowly stringing out and it looked like it could split at any minute with those not able to sustain the pace left behind. At some point I led on the top bit and slowed down but no-one was coming past, so as we approached the hairpin I went for it, for the first time with a nice clear run. As expected I got a few metres gap on the exit so pushed on, with someone soon joining me (now this shows how confused I get in races, but I’m sure it was a DP, though the video shows a LD and I’m not sure at what stage that was, must be later on), plus Kevin soon after that.
Through and off mode, the DP put an awesome turn for half a lap which cemented our gap, I was beginning to suffer though and wishing a few more would come and join us – which is just what happened. We had Ian, Hugo Robert and Harry to make the strong break of 6 (or 7?). But with Jake, Adam, Germain, Jody in the bunch it wasn’t obvious that we would stay away. Then the 3/ 4 race accident happened (quite a nasty one it seems so hope they are ok), and we had the final 22 min of the race on the shortened lap – with the blasted hill coming every 1’30 instead of 2’. I was keeping a close eye on Kevin and most of all Ian, which cost me some energy as he tried to jump away once, but wasn’t sure who the other LD was, and he attacked with about 5-6 laps to go at the top after I’d put in a hard effort, and no-one else reacted.
Bad move as he (Harry) went on to win solo - nice. After a few thwarted attacks (not by me, one day I will have the guts to try!), and having realised that the finish had been relocated to 3/ 4 way up the hill due to the ambulance still in attendance, once again I got confused and thought we were on our last lap. So did Robert in all truth, and as I took his wheel he started gunning it up the climb, I just couldn’t come past but my heart sank when I heard the bell as I thought I’d clinched 3rd place .. my legs were just shot now, I had to let the others come past down the hill, then Hugo attacked followed by Ian, Kevin was dying at the back but Robert was slowly catching me up the hill, I just wasn’t going anywhere, slower and slower the hill was never ending. On the line and I couldn’t tell which one of us got 4th – turns out I should probably have thrown my bike over the line. Steve held on to the bunch and got a 10th place, beaten only by Germain (check out his sprint) and a couple of Elites!
1 17 Harry Littlechild London Dynamo 2
2 13 Hugo Humphreys Mosquito Bikes 2J
3 9 Ian Paine London Dynamo 1
4 18 Robert Moore London Phoenix 2
5 11 Sylvain Garde Addiscombe CC 2
6 26 Kevin Knox Vicious Velo 1V
7 24 Germain Burton De Ver YA
8 1 Jake Martin Le Col Pendragon E
9 29 Jody Crawforth Hargroves Cycles E
10 12 Stephen Broomfield Addiscombe CC 2V
11 19 Jon Lewis Charlotteville 2V
12 27 Paul Sewell Big Foot CC 2
13 28 Nick Wilkinson Dulwich Paragon 2
14 16 Chris Cole VC Londres 2
15 22 David Murrell London Phoenix 2
16 20 Symon Lewis Edwardes 2
[img]http://www.londoncyclesport.com/media/jphoto/road-racing/crystal-palace-senior-circuits-12/cp131-599x400.jpg[/img]