Toks and I did the 3rd cat race around Ockley this morning. 54 miles of pleasure was in store. The route is not too demanding with a few slight lumps, manageable on the big ring but it does have some leg sapping long drags.
The race started off pretty quick, I sat near the back for a bit but then decided to put in the odd attack to see who was up for it. One of the London Dynamo riders (they had about 7 in the peleton), Rob Jeffroy was really up for it as he only needed a few more points for his 2nd cat licence and he came with me. But before long the peleton had caught us. Toks was next up with his breakaway, he went with a young guy wearing white and they looked quite strong, but with no London Dynamo rider with him they got bought back after a few miles of effort.
The race pretty much panned out with attacks going all the time, but the pace of the main group was pretty quick and therefore it was very hard for anyone to get away early on.
On about the 3rd or 4th lap of the 6 I broke away on a small climb, I managed to open up a gap quite quickly and no one seemed to want to chase me down. I was keeping a reasonable distance and for almost a whole lap I was away, but I was starting to hurt. I noticed that two other riders were trying to bridge to me, excellent it was Rob from London Dynamo, I thought now we are in with a chance as he had loads of blockers.
The two other riders latched onto me and we started through and off. And then another threesome caught us, one of the riders was the guy I broke away with last week. Now we had a good team and we started working really hard. But yes, you guessed it, London Dynamo chased down the break, with there lead man in it. I really thought that this group was going to stay away but the London Dynamo rider who brought it back said to me after that he wanted to be in the break and realised it was dangerous. Uh yes and do you think that Rob will be happy with you
Anyway, onto the last lap and the young rider who had broken with Toks earlier took a flyer. We were keeping him pegged at about 50 yards and most people probably felt that we would catch him when we hit the hills. But then the horses, yep, every bliming Surrey League race has to feature some equine action. There were around 4 of them, the single rider got past no problem, but the peleton had to slow right down and come to a standstill, the lead rider probably gained an extra 30 seconds.
Now the chase was on. A few of us were working hard to try and get him back but it was not going to happen. Coming up the final long drag before the final turn I took a breather at the back. Then into the final corner I was positioned on the outside of the peleton but was last man in the field. I saw a decent wheel to follow moving up the outside, I took to his wheel and then launched myself up the field and over the finishing lump to get 5th place.
Toks got blocked on the hill but still managed to get 9th I think, so that puts him into the 2nd category. If I had managed to get 3rd place I would have been up as well, but I was still pleased to get past everyone in the sprint from the poor position into the last corner.
Well I think that is probably it for me this year racing wise, now it will just be longer rides at the weekends.
Cheers
Marek.....