Got down to Goodwood this afternoon for the 3rd cat race. As I opened my car door on arrival I nearly lost it, the car door that is. It was very windy today, which is not great at Goodwood which is windy on the calmest days due to the fact it is in such an exposed area.
I watched the end of the 4th cat race which had some guy timetrialling a few minutes ahead of the bunch, which apparently he had been doing since the first lap. Thats the kind of stupid thing that I would do on the first lap, except winning seems to be the bit that I struggle with. This guy must have won by a few minutes over a chasing group of 5 or 6 riders and then the peleton came in with an ACC rider taking about 3rd in the sprint.
Then it was my turn. I had Simon H and Tim Liquigas for company at the start. This was Simons first race back after his accident and Tim had been ill three days during the week.
The race started off with some nutter attacking straight from the gun, no it was not me. We soon reeled him back in and then a group of three took off. I did a bit more on the front and then we got them back again. Quite a quick first lap and then second lap again people were trying there luck. If you were not in the right place the wind was punishing and those at the back were getting dispensed of very quickly. In fact by about the third lap we had dropped half the peleton including my two ACC buddies, there were about 15 to 20 of us left.
After a few more laps of mini breaks going and coming back a break started to form up ahead of me. It started with three then grew to about 5 then around 8. I was now on the front of the peleton and giving it some to try and catch the break, I looked around to see if someone would come through, uh oh, no one left. The race was blown apart, this meant a big effort so I put my head down and hammered it, thankfully the breakaway was not attacking too much and I managed to get back on. Now there were around 8 or 9 of us left.
We got around for the next few laps at a reasonable pace and then the last lap it was cat and mouse. Everyone looking over there shoulders, people faking to break etc. It was a slow lap and look destined for a sprint. I sat about 8th man from the front into the chicane and then gave it some. I had not got up the peleton far enough and my sprint is not really that good, I think I got up a couple of places and reckon I placed about 6th or 7th.
Pretty happy with that and really enjoyed the race, was quite short at 44kms but amazing how many people got dropped so early because of the wind. Definetly pays to stay near the front.
Cheers
Marek....