Anyway, the Older Man's Memorial Road Race. Should have been 7 laps of Ellen’s Green circuit then moving on to 2 of Walliswood circuit, but Chief Comm Tom McCall decided the road surface on the latter was way too poor, so 10 laps of Ellen's Green.
About 55 of us "old men" lined up. The race is open to 2/3/4s aged 35 or more, and E/1s over 40. The problem with 40+ year old Elite racers is they're still Elite! Last year's winner Gary Dodd and Martin Smith (ranked 14th in the country with well over 400 national ranking points) were amongst the riders.
The usual flurry of attempted attacks came and went in the first few laps. A group of 5 of us didn't escape at which point Marcus (NP) launched a counter attack. Away on his own at first, he was later joined by Martin Smith. They 2-uped for 2 or 3 laps. The bunch then played its own version of "Simon Says", only in our case it was "Gary Says". When last year's winner Gary Dodd went hard, the bunch went hard. When Gary sat up, the bunch sat up.
The gap to the 2-man breakaway began to visibly come down a little, which I took as my cue to join them. An extra pair of legs and they'd hopefully re-double their efforts. Also, in the back of my mind I was half expecting a major attack by the top riders in the peloton, and I fancied being already up the road when this came, rather than having to respond. Our 3-up continued until just before the last lap bell. First a couple of extras appeared at the back of our group, then we were caught by the entire peloton.
With 2 or 3 miles to go, first Simon Williams (Hillingdon cc), then Andy Edwards (KW) attacked. The bunch waited for the Elites to respond, only they didn't. The 2 breakaway riders committed and got an unassailable lead. Andy Edwards came out on top. I'd nothing left for the ensuing bunch sprint. Knowing this I started near the front, but was swamped by the masses, coming in safely nowhere. Happy with my efforts though.
A superbly well organised event put on by Morden CRC. Plently of marshalls and motorcycle outriders. Also, a well stocked & staffed canteen.
Good effort matey