I got to palace and straight away noticed all the great riders there. Guys from VCL, Sutton CC/De Ver and once again Daniel Tullett.
To be honest, looking back, I didn't find the race too hard, even though my strava data says otherwise. I had an average HR of 91%/187bpm!
[url]http://app.strava.com/activities/62810129#319352425[/url]
In the second lap (I think) Tullett went off the front. I'm really annoyed because at that point I was thinking the pace was quite easy. Also he attacked just over the hill before the corners. Annoyingly I was stuck behind a few people so I was kicking myself about that. I reckon I would of caught him.
Anyway two laps after this I found myself at the front so I decided to kick the pace up a bit. Coming up the hill past the line I looked back and I was creating a gap. So I pushed harder. Brilliant I thought! If I can keep this up to the top I'll get a bigger gap going around the corners! So I did and I ended up having quite a big gap for around 2 laps!
I loved it. I got caught when I decided to let up because 1. I just had to go very wide around a corner. 2. I was beginning to burn up! I need to learn to pace myself!! After that I recovered at the back, and again felt the pace was a bit easy again. I didn't really have the time (nor thought) to make a dash for it, but on the final lap a VCL dude went off and I followed. Being the last lap it was quite fast so you can imagine how hard we had to break going around the second to last corner when the younger guys racing had taken up the whole track!!
After shouting they still didn't move!! Our gap was lost immediately and it was once again a bunch sprint. We came round the last corner, knowing I was about 5 down. I sprinted coming out and out of the corner of my eye I could see a wheel to my left sneaking up on me. I pushed harder and managed to give him the slip!I thought I had come 4th, but then remebered Tullett had already passed so 5th this week!
[size=120]Crystal Palace Criteriums - 18th June 2013 - U16's [/size]
1 Daniel Tullett Hargroves Cycles RT-Specialized-Trant-Next-Elliott
...
5 Matthew Webber Addiscombe CC
[img]http://i39.tinypic.com/rvzvar.png[/img]
Picture taken by Huw Williams
.
