So, lets get down to business. I arrived at the HQ ridiculously early, oh well. And given that id already ridden the circuit i opted to stay in my car and wait to sign on before warming up. Race Number 1, lets see if i can live up to that one...
At the briefing they said it would be 7 laps afte passing the finish line, which meant we would have to negotiate the b****** hill 8 times
The circuit is actually quite fast, well, until the hill anyway. So the first ascent was upon us within what felt like 60 seconds. Id positioned myself in the top 10, and just rode up as best i could. At the summit, about 4 of us had a gap. Oh bloody hell i thought, this early!? So we tried to make it stick, well they did anyway. I dropped off when i realised the we only had about 25m on the peloton. The trouble with the hill is there isnt much of a decent to stay away on. There is a left turn well worth braking for literally 250m after the summit, so a bit of tactical braking meant that no gap was unclosable. Then the drag on the main road was what nearly split the group everytime, but to no avail.
So the basic story of every lap was... We sped to the bottom of the climb at Milland from Rake. Which due to the lack of any noticable wind, was quite fast. Just before Milland, everybody wanted to be near, but not at the front, which led to a slight lull in the pace as we turned on to the climb. Most of the climb was ridden in a fairly civilised manner, with the final 250m sorting the men from the boys. (i was quite clearly somewhere between puberty and coming of age, much like in real life really
)
Then down the hill, to said drag, which brings you back to Rake. Apart from a few attempts in vain to break away on the flat, we generally satyed Gruppo Compato.
On to the last lap, things began to get a bit crazy. I touched wheels twice. People were switiching all over the road, seemingly unable to make there bloody minds up as to where they wanted to be. Onto the hill, im in the top ten. Great, or so i thought. It was all going so well until, we hit the last 250m (the killer 25% bit). My heart rate was 195bpm, and certainly not falling, and my legs were screaming for me to stop (i could feel a bit before this that my legs were close to cramping). But i thought sod it, lets just go for it and see what happens. So like is say, i was probably 6/7th on the road until the bridge (which is near, but agonisingly far from the finish, say 150m) and i just went backwards. I kept it going over the summit, but i must have lost 10-15 places in the last 75m of uphill. Then over the crest and the finish was another 75m down, i maintained my place to come home with my head slightly drooped. Reckon to have finished somwhere between 20th and 30th (of 60 starters)
I was pissed off, i felt really good but just didnt have the legs. Maybe i could lose a couple of kilos (i was a couple lighter at the end of last season) but thats not really an excuse. One way or the other i just didnt have it. On the plus side, i have always said im a sprinter who can climb, rather than the other way around. So dunsfold park becons tommorow, pan flat, shorter stage as well, and shouldnt be too windy. Should suit me well if my legs can recover from today...
So all in all, Number one on my back, but not quite number one on the road. But i reckon there should be barely a few seconds between me and the winner. So the GC is still within reach, well, maybe...
Cheers,
Adam
ps. How do you get into dunsfold aerodrome, from the alfold side, or the guildford side?
Oh no, I trust you kissed them better after the race.
