Bletchingley Les Ingham RR - Sun 14Sep

[Tony]

As a few ACC were out supporting (thanks!), I'll let you know how I got on with this one. Basically, it was tough.

My head was working perfectly, but my legs simply weren't strong enough. Very exciting race, mind! Five got away very early in the race - including one of Ibbo's Endurasport colleagues. In E123 races, breaks aren't always chased - people or groups prefer to try and jump over rather than tow the bunch. Makes for a very erratice pace. And its tiring! At about 35miles I jumped off the front of the bunch with three others, including an absolutely top-rate rider. This guy was 2nd overall in the recent 5 day Revolutions and won the final very hilly stage. Another five of the big hitters joined us about 10miles later and we quickly caught the lead bunch.

As the legs got more and more tired and attacks went off the front, riders slowly got spat out the back of this big group. Unfortunately, I was one of them. Small fields (40 starters) that fragment quickly make for tiring races. Despite missing loads of turns, I could hang on no longer and blew at 72miles. I grovelled around the last lap and salvaged 13th. An OK result, considering some of the talent that didn't make it to the finish - but it wasn't a great ride.