I was nervous of course, and was going in almost blind, not knowing any of the riders and not knowing what to expect. The race was run anticlockwise with the finish line in the new position on what used to be the back straight.
I had Ant and my brother along for support, helping with getting the bike ready, my warm-up on the turbo, and during the race informing me of breakaways and time gaps.
The race started pretty lively, and with the circuit being wet from an hours worth of drizzle previously, I was a little uncertain of taking the corners at speed. I'd put a new set of tyres on which have that slight 'slippery' feel for a few miles so I sat toward the back for a bit.
Breakaways started from the off so after a lap and a half I moved up nearer the front and got involved in the action, not wanting to miss the 'the one'. Unfortunately there were so many attacks that it was impossible to know which one that would be. I got in to two of them, I chased down a few, bridged across to one, helped close down others, and generally did stuff that I'm not use to doing. It was relentless, but I felt quite good and thought I'd sooner try and die rather than sit in and wait for the inevitable sprint for the minor places.
There was a problem with this plan…my matchbox seemed to be emptying a tad quickly…I couldn't do this all day.
Four riders went up the road followed by two or three other individuals of the strong looking type pinging off to try and join them...this looked as thought 'the one' was now. I jumped out of the pack too hoping to make it another individual hoping to join the party. Someone glued himself to my rear wheel…we got across to make a decent sized group. We thru&off'd for a bit, but just like the other attacks, this breakaway was soon reeled in by the bunch and it was back to square one. I was now pretty cooked and sat in.
Sods law states that when you rest, others take advantage, obviously. Four guys sneaked off and got a gap that hadn't been seen all race…how the bloody hell did that happen! I knew I was now in no position to help chase, and hoped that the bunch would eventually reel them back in, but it wasn't looking good.
Each lap Ant called the gap - "four away 15 seconds" - "four away 20 seconds" - "four away 25 seconds" - we were in trouble.
With five minutes plus the five laps to go, a hope. An injection of pace at the front brought the gap down a few seconds, things were looking up again. The next lap around on the final sweeping bend toward the finish straight, I heard the horrible sound of pinging spokes. The guy in front to the left of me had overlapped the guy in front of him with his front wheel, and was now rubbing his spokes against the guys rear mech. His weight was now on the wrong side and he did a slow motion veer to the right while falling to the deck ahead of me. The road was going left, I had to go right to avoid him. I headed for the undergrowth. I stayed upright but was in the foot and a half long grass not knowing what the hell was in there. I kept pedalling albeit looking like I was riding a Bucking Bronco…then CRACK.. "what the f*** was that"?
Luckily it was only my saddle clamp slipping back on the seatpost, so I kept going. So now I'm 80m off the bunch with 5 laps to go and a saddle thats sticking up in air. Not good!
I chased full bore to get on as quickly as possible, but I was at the back now and blowing out my backside. The gap to the break was coming down though and with a couple of laps recovery things looked a little better. Alas, with the breakaway now in sight and only 2 laps to go, no-one wanted to, or could, close that last bit down. One guy had dropped off the break leaving three, and two others slipped off the front of the bunch meaning the sprint would be for 6th place. As the last lap started I was probably 35th, but started to make my way up along the straight as best I could. It was then that the little signs of cramp appeared in my right quad (I had it terribly last Sunday in the Tour of Cambridgeshire). Fortunately it didn't get worse but I didn't get out of the saddle just incase. The sprint started a third of the way around the last lap so was just about who could last the longest. Around the tight bit of the lap I managed to make up some places and then around the final sweeping bend toward the finish, but there were some proper fast guys there today, and in the final 200m to the line I couldn't make up any more. I think I might have been around 20th. I'm pleased with that considering how the race went, and I'll be back next year for another go. A good experience.
Steve