Barcombe 3rds

[Marek]

Good fun race today, Mr Tunnell was present at the start line with his pen and paper ready to commisairre the race. A bit too hilly this course for Mr Tunnell so he took the easy option and watched from the comfort of his Tour de France sponsored Skoda.

After a couple of km I decided to go for it today. So broke away from the peleton and got a good gap.

After two laps of the Barcombe circuit on my own I was joined by one of my team mates and a guy from Crawley Wheelers.

After another lap we were then joined by 5 chasing riders. We latched on. Onto the last lap and the 8 man break were getting jumpy. I decided that the only chance of me getting a win with a hill top finish was to attack the group before the end.

I tried on two occasions, both times getting a good gap, but the group were working together to bring me back.

Into the finish and a young guy went for it with a km to go, which is the base of the hill. I left it a bit late to go after him and a couple of others, but managed to hold on for 4th place.

Excellent fun race being out the front for the whole race. Have to be extremely careful now that I don't get too many more points else I will get promoted.

Cheers

Marek...

[Paul H]

This is a forum for ACC results not pro teams. Well done anyway.

Have you ever been a 2nd CAT? If not then you should try it a least once or are you comments a get out clause in case you dont make it?

[Marek]

Nah, I have thought about it quite carefully and I do want the kudos of being a second cat, but the problems that I foresee are as follows:

1. The 2nd cat races for Surrey League tend to be in the afternoon. This therefore screws up the whole day. With a young family this is not ideal.

2. Training. Once you go up a league, to be able to compete at the higher level you need to train more. Again, with a job that has me getting up at 5.20am and home by 6.30pm I tend to be pretty tired and getting any training in during the week at the moment is pretty tough.

3. As the training part is an issue, it means that when I do actually race I won't have the fun of starting off breakaways and competing at the higher end of the race, which is more fun that just hanging on for grim death waiting for the finish.

Anyhow Paul, the only reason you got promoted so quick was because I taught you how to race by getting you into a few breaks this year, so get back in your box.

Cheers

Marek....

[George]

Well done Marek good to see you back out there,

Handbags at dawn



Well I must say Marek is right he gave us all a taste of how to race and do well from the front,

Thanks for the tips etc earlier in the season,

Marek you'll have to come and do some more SERRL's in Kent they're in the morning too or either learn to ride no brakes racing team style round Palace after work

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

With only 19 riders in the field, the "bunch" was soon whittled down, and following a dozen riders that weren't racing was like watching paint dry, and I nearly fell asleep at the wheel

I was impressed that Marek went off so quickly, but at the same time guessed he wouldn't stay out there by himself, but as some others prised themselves off the front and went up the road to keep him company (then he let them finish before him, what a nice guy!).