Surrey League - Handicap Series#2 South Nutfield - RedhillCC

[John G]

Very enjoyable race at South Nutfield this afternoon. The road was not too wet and luckily it didn't rain with any vengeance apart from some light drizzle.

Ghaleb and me started with the first group and there must have been about 12 of us or so. This eventually whittled down to 6 with Ghaleb/me and Nick from Norwood Paragon doing most of the work and "killing off" the weak riders.

Ghaleb, ever the gentleman and work horse did the bulk of the pulling.... ever since I have known him (2 years?) he has never been one to miss a turn .. thus the reason I nick named him "Diesel" because he is a proper Diesel Train this kid

We managed to stay away from the 1/2 and 3rd cats, not sure how many groups started behind us, but apparently Andy was telling me we had 5 min on them and they could see us up the road on the curving straight into the finish.... so close but luckily for us they probably needed an extra lap to catch us

I liked the fact that we stayed away because for the first time since I have raced in the UK it felt like a proper 4th cat race (without the 1/2/3rd cats blowing us out the back like they normally do when they catch us )

In the sprint to the line, I personally had nothing left and limped in at a disappointing 6th place whilst Ghaleb still had plenty in the tank to romp through and take his first win ... I was REALLY annoyed that the guys that got 4th and 5th ahead of me did F@ck all the whole race... that's smart racing I guess but fact is if it wasn't for Ghaleb/Me and Norwood Paragon geeza we would have not stayed away

Congratulations Ghaleb, well deserved win geezaaaaaaa, couldn't have gone to a more down to earth/hard working Diesel train

My trusty Polar says:

1 hr 9 min ride
Distance 42 km (26 miles)
Avg 36.2 km/hr (22.50) --- which slowed down massively in the last lap!

As a measure of how hard I personally raced, on the ride back to Croydon with Ghaleb I hit the wall and had to stop for a Clif Double Espresso Turbo shot, which luckily kicked in and got me home in one piece (I HIGHLY recommend the Clif gels they are AWESOME!!)... I tell ya what, you really appreciate the benefit of these energy gels when you really need em

[Keith]

Well done Ghaleb - you only received your licence last week, and you need a new 3rd cat one

[Keith]

[url=http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/76977/Surrey-League-Handicap-Series-2-(Redhill-CC)]Results are already on BC[/url].

[Ghaleb]

The first race of the season, and the first road race win! ...I cant believe it!

From the off the group (of I think around 12) dynamics wasn’t going well, no T&O and it was all over the place. So I decided to go on the front and just commit to the breakaway from the start, and any help on the front would be a bonus. Fortunately I did get the help especially after a few riders dropped and with the stronger ones left they started coming up more and doing some of the work and we even got a couple of T&O going, so things started to look better. I tried to keep a steady even pace which probably made it easier for people to tag along, but I wasn’t bothered as long as we kept it going.

After 2 laps or so we were down to 6, most of the work was being done by 3 or 4 riders including me. I kept encouraging the group to work together and I did get something from them but not a lot. So it was down to Me John and Nick (the Norwood Paragon rider) and another rider (which also helped on a few times) to stay away from the other groups. As we got to the 3rd lap or so people started doing less work at the front, and whenever I got on the front I knew I had to do a long turn before someone came through, I tried flicking the elbow but that didn’t work much, so I just had to keep going. To be fair Nick also did some long strong turns at the front, with John also still trying to chip in and help even though I could see he was starting to fade away slowly but he was determined to work as a team, good work John! At the end all these team work efforts counted towards staying away and I don’t think we could have done it without them.

Last lap comes, and we are still away, so I tried keeping the steady pace going (even though legs started to feel it now) until around the last 3 miles I started going at a conservative pace as I knew we had a strong sprinter (which came in 3rd place I think) in our group who stayed most of the time at the back, so had to be ready for that. Around half a mile before the finish line I was at the front, Nick attacked and John shouted to let me know which helped me in reeling him back, straight away after that the sprinter (who came in 3rd place) attacked, I grabbed his wheel and at that point we were pretty close to the finish line (about 200-300 meters away) that’s when I gave it all and sprinted to finish with a win!

Enjoyed the race, thanks to all the organisers and marshals.

It seems all that TG/CG rides paid off at the end ...wouldn't have done it without you guys.

Now off to updating my Licence

[Iliya]

Well done Ghaleb and John!! To initiate breakaway, drag the group throughout the race and win in the sprint against the rider who slacked all race is great achievement and you got rewarded for it. Well done!

I would have liked to be there with you guys! Now I have objective to stay away from your chase group in the next race (as you are a 3CAT now) and hopefully score some points. It won't be easy.

[John G]

These two are the slackers that beat me at the line (did F all most of the race!)

4 Mr Russell Childs RT 316 Finished 3rd 6
5 Mr Nicholas Griffiths Kingston Whls CC Finished 4th 5

[Iliya]

That's racing unfortunately. Next time you will be faster.

[quote="John G"]These two are the slackers that beat me at the line (did F all most of the race!)

4 Mr Russell Childs RT 316 Finished 3rd 6
5 Mr Nicholas Griffiths Kingston Whls CC Finished 4th 5

[Keith]

Easy John.

You said it yourself earlier in the thread:
[quote="John G"] that's smart racing I guess

[Sylv]

Well done Ghaleb, good racing.

Did the commissaires adjust the time gaps for the reduced number of laps?

[quote="Keith"]Easy John.

You said it yourself earlier in the thread:
[quote="John G"] that's smart racing I guess

[quote="Grahame"][quote="Keith"]Easy John.

You said it yourself earlier in the thread:
[quote="John G"] that's smart racing I guess

[DavidKennett]

Well done Ghaleb. Good to see the TG work paying off.

General comment: An open forum can be read by all.

[Paul H]

Well done Ghaleb I knew you would win.

[Paul H]

[quote="Grahame"]Indeed. As my coach (when I was a youth, many years ago) put it "the only time it is important to be at the front is as you cross the finishing line. Anything earlier than that is just showing off and wasting energy."

[Iliya]

So how many points Ghaleb needs for 2 CAT?