But more of that to follow. Last nicht i felt well and truly f*****, and to be honest i didnt feel to great when i woke up this morning either. Oh well. So i arrives at Dunsfold Park ridiculously early, at 9.35. So i was able to watch most of stu's remarkably restrained race. Didn't see him off the front once! He did grab eith in the sprint though, good on him! Now he gets to race with the big boys, well paul, george, marek and i etc anyways! I hope he enjoyed his last 4th cat race, 3rds is where you find out what your made of!
In the mean time Mr Tunnel rocked up to inspect my new wheels. As well as cheer stu and i on. I think they passed the test, as we will see...
At the start line, Paul was mingling in with the peloton. I said he should have brought a number with him (im sure he's got a few spares at home!) and raced anyway! So after waiting for 10 mins to allow a plane to take off
we were off...
The first two laps were like a club run, no jokes. 35km/h, rolling along like we were more interested in getting a suntan than the race itself. Then the hostilities commenced. Break after break went with nobody strong enough to stay away. With 8 laps (of a reduced 14 from 16 due to the plane delaying us) to go, i felt good, really good. My heart rate was barely touching 160, my max is 205! I had fuel in the tank, so to speak!
So there were four guys clear with about 500m on the peloton. It seemed like nobody wanted to chase. And a few guys were moaning there were only a couple of people actually working. Before this i might add, i had been languising towards le arriere du peloton. Chatting away to a couple of guys ive got friendly with ove the last couple of weeks/days. To be honest, i was getting a bit bored, everyone id spoke to was like ''its gonna be a bunch sprint, im just gonna sit here and wait for it''. I had itchy feet...
So, back to said four guys up the road. I decide to help pull the back. And ended up single handedly stringing out the peloton and nailing them back. And it didnt even hurt. The guy on my wheel said as we reeled em in, 'bloody hell mate, good effort'. Well i thought so!
This was a little before we crossed the line to with 5 to go. I was still up front. A couple of guys went for a counter, i followed, with relative ease once more
. We had a good gap when one of them said (not sure of his name, but he was from Thames Velo) ''C'mon, lets work together, im willing to finish 4th'' That line hit home with the two others and myself, and we settled into a thru'n'off that had metronomic precision. We were flying, and i have to say, mostly because of the orchestration of Mr Thames Velo.
I'd just like to say, i actually could not believe i was in a break away, what a rush. I dont think i have ever been in a group with so much conviction to work together, and for each other. We may just as well have been from the same team! We were easily the strongest break of the day.
However, shortly after crossing the line with 2 to go, we were eventually reeled in. But i still felt good. A few people tried to counter, but it was clear we were destined for a bunch sprint.
Now, at this point id like to raise a point which i think all racers (well most of you probably know this already, but i thought id say it anyway) should take note of. Just becasue two guys are wearing different jerseys, doesn't mean they don't know each other, or that there not working together.
I say this because, the overnight leader Max Bienowski (i think thats how you spell it) was clearly in cahoots with a guy by the name of Ian To. Now the way the three day works is by points (from finishing places, although time gaps are taken into account, and points are only used when there is no time gap, complicated isn't it!). Which meant Max had to place high to try to preseve his lead. So i thought his wheel would be a good wheel to be on in the finish. I even had to fight for it at one point, where some idiot tried to ride me off it. We exchanged words. So, here comes the tactical bit. Some Kingston Wheeler was leading out the peloton just before we hit the final bend, but he was dying. Then, i heard Max shout 'Ian, GO!'.
The lead out was on, i stuck to the maillot jaune like glue as we came off the bend. But unfortunately, they just werent going fast enough. A few guys had slipped through on the left side. This was it, I had to go.
So go i did... I dont think i was sprinting that fast, but i was making up ground fast on the guy leading. But nooooo, the line was fast approaching. So i lunged for the line with what i thought was a perfectly time throw...
I looked round at the other guy (Hugo Robins i later found out) as i wasn't sure who got it... He raised a palm and mouthed 'I think you got me'
That was enough for me, I let out a huge roar! I was ecstatic! However...
When i returned to the finish line, Paul, who had been helping to judge, didnt look so pleased. My heart began to sink. He reckons i was second, and he was 2 out of three judges who thought that i was second. The other thankfully, put me down first. So, the Jury is out. Paul spoke to Glyn, one of the head honchos at the Surrey League and the video will be carefully studied. Thankfully they were filiming it. So hopefully i will turn up tomorow to be told i won, but until then the champagne is on ice. Unfortunately.
My take on the affair is that until the guys raised his hand as if to conceed, i wasnt 100% sure, but though i had him. And i know for a fact that if the finish line was another 10m down the track, i definately would have had him as i was gaining all the while. But like i said, the jury is out.
I know second would still be my best placing yet, but like the great Armstrong used to say 'second is as good as last' and that sums up how i feel right now. (yes and i accept that it is points on the board in the hunt for second cat staus too
)
On the plus side. Given that i didn't lose any time yesterday, and the guy who is contesting 1st with me from today did. This means that on points, is may well be within striking distance of the overall race lead. So, Matt, your stage win and overall ask is still a realistic possibility! If i feel as good tomorow as i did today, the sky is the limit!
Well done again to stu, i look forward to racing with him more often!
Cheers,
Adam
