by -Adam- » Wed May 09, 2007 11:29 pm
Well i was on my own tonight, in sh1t weather conditions and to be honest my heart was just not in this one this evening.
[quote]A boring pan flat unimaginative scalectric type course. Along with Hillingdon probably the easiest circuit to race on for 3/4 cats - its perfect for flatland cruisers and lazy sprinters. If ya legs have recovered and no sneaky chancers getaway you'll make the poduim no probs Adam
The first part is right Toks, boring it is. Trouble was it was so bloody windy and it was head on up the finishing straight. Also given the intermittent rain today the track was rather damp in places. And a brief threat of more rain near the end of the race made the hairpin at the bottom start of the finishing straight some what more treacharous. I don't know if i have some kind of guardian angel or something but after avoiding the carnage at Chertsey on Saturday, i again avoided crashing again tonight. But by barely a few millimeters.
At the start only 7 E/1/2s had signed on to race, as they're obviously all scared of a bit of wind and rain. This meant the race was turned into a handicap. So off went the 3/4s with about a 90second lead on the 7 E/1/2s. I wasn't happy about the situation but what was i to do. I did a few turns on the front but it was so hard up the finishing straight we were reduced to literally 16/17mph. The front of the group kept splitting then largely re-grouping on the heavily wind-assisted back straight.
Then the race winning attack went clear, 4 guys out of the 3/4s went away. They were obviously the strongest as this was not a day for sit-in sprinters. So i put in a huge effort off the front to try to catch em, i was joined by a guy from VC Meudon and we tried to bridge. However, we just weren't strong enough. When we were brought back by the peloton the E/1/2's had caught the bunch. Gruppo Compatto.
Fantastic i thought, within a lap i was out the back door of that group, along with many others i might add. I settled into a rythm with two other guys and we seemed to be going ok, until...
Disaster struck. By this point it was trying to rain again, not much, but enough to make the track even slippier. I'd already felt my back wheel slip on the bend at the end of the finish straight and was very wary coming into the hairpin. It was like i had a premonition. Sure enough the guy who led into the hairpin went down, closely followed by the second guy (who was following his wheel very close in my opinion). Luckily i had backed off prior to the hairpin, even so i had to swerve very violently to avoid the first guys hand on the deck and thought i was going down in the process. Somehow i stayed upright, Lord only knows how.
That was it, i was fcuked now. The group behind caught me up, lead by the sole Dynamo in the race. Until he died and i looked around again and was on my own, again. So i rode to the finish on my own in no-mans land. Dejected is not the word.
If i was philosophical about racing last night, i am now positively disillusioned. After losing out on points i thought i rightly earned on Saturday, with everything else that happened then and since i feel really sh1t.
Im not racing again now until the 19th. I think i need a break. Hopefully ill get back on track in the next 10 days, but right now im just not feeling it. I don't think ill go back to Eelmore, its just not worth it. Maybe if the weather was good and there were proper E/1/2 and 3/4 races then maybe. But i certainly wouldn't recommend it.
Cheers...
Adam