Fair do's chaps!
Well this evening was my first ever handicap race, so i wasn't really sure what to expect. But i really enjoyed it in the end, it was kind of different than i thought it was going to be...
At the start Paul T says 'welcome to my world', hmmm i thought to myself, is this such a good thing!? He had already told the organisers that i was far to good to be in group 2 (in a handicap the groups are from 1-5, 5 being the fastest, set off at 2 minute intervals...). Thus i somehow ended up in group 4
, which im sure was comprised of at least mainly second cats if not a few 1st as well.
The 5th group contained Daniel Duguid and Gary Dodd of Sigma (those of you that race will know who these are!) as well as Dave Kennett and a couple of other familiar faces of Cycling Weekly fame. I thought to myself when they catch us, its gonna hurt! Paul T meanwhile went off with group 3, not sure the logic there as he's clearly stronger than me!?!?!?
Anyway, so my group set off anf from the start we worked well in a thru'n'off formation, there were about 16 of us and some were missing turns early on. I however never missed a turn and dragged the whole lot up to the coat-tails of group three when we caught them after about 4laps (12 miles). I tapped Paul on the back and said 'come on now, time to move!'. Now i had no intentions of a dramatic addiscombe breakaway and thankfully nor did Paul as my fellow group 4'ers stormed to the front and whipped up the pace once more.
It was soon clear that in a handicap there is no where to hide! Its just hard all the way through, no rest like in a normal road race... Anyways, so it became clear that there were just a few guys left ahead of us so we went to the front and out our heads down...
Only to be joined by the might of group 5 with three to go. As Guy Pearson and Dan Duguid etc stormed through us there was little doubt the pace was about to soar. But even when it did i was suprised to feel entirely comfortable with it. Even with a weeks worth of anti-biotics and a dodgy ear! I did however cease to work once the group 5'ers joined us, that was beyond me!
So on to the last lap and i felt ok, i was trying to stick to Pauls wheel as my realistic goal was to simply finish ahead of him and deny him his goal of beating me on my Zipps
On the first bend of the last lap a crash nearly took out all but the first 15 or so of the bunch. Luckily the guy stayed upright and so did everyone else. But it meant a chase down chobhame lane that was going to sap some strength. We were all together (bar the several that had been dropped by this stage i might add) and it came to the bunch sprint as all attacks were quickly neutralised. Coming into the last corner i was in a good position, about 15th back. As the finish is up one drag, down then up again i thought it necessary to be a bit further back. Then it all went horribly wrong, as we approached the bend i realised i was rubbing shoulders with Dan Duguid himself. And in that split second i lost concentration, then proceeded to fcuk the last bend up in almost catostrophic proportions. Luckily however i managed to stay on the road but had to sprint to get back onto the lead riders...
Then, as i made contact, they started their sprint. So i had to continue to sprint. Then i realised Paul had about 3 bike lengths on me, bugger i thought, i cant let him finish ahead of me! So i just grit my teeth and hammered it as hard as i could. Then he seemed to slow all of a sudden about 150m before the line, he later claimed he cramped up. Ill give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. But as far as i was concerned the Zipps were home and dry on their first victory over the Tunnell! But it was hard earnt, barely seconds before he slowed i too had considered slowing and conceding
, but i stuck it out.
So that was that, my first handicap was complete. With relative success, and i feel that i did ok. Lesson learned about the last corner incident. And morale boosted that i managed to mix it with some very strong 1st cats. Watching Paul through the race was educational as well, the way he rides is just so economical, pure class.
Reckon i was somewhere between 20th and 25th and Paul couldn't have been to far behind, so a decent result i feel. If not quite on par with palace last tueday, but the competition was distinctly higher here today i think! Besides ill be at Palace nxt Tuesday
As i said above, was 41km in about 57mins. Which meant an av speed of about 42.5km, easily the fastest race ive done to date!
by -Adam- » Thu May 03, 2007 10:08 pm 
topping another ton all told - 106 miles 
