Hove park tonight for my first ever Brighton Criterium, the circuit was very short just 1km if that a very tight and technical right corner at the bottom of the swooping hill and a slight drag up to the finish line.
The race was 50 mins plus 5 laps sp almost an hour, we were sure gonna get to know the course well at the end of it.
It was a handicap so I set off at the back with all the other 2nd cats, we soon made it up to through the groups and everything was pretty calm for a while, so it surely needed someone to do something
I spotted my mate Rodney who lived local and popped down to see me ride, I think this gave me the impetus to attack.
After 15 mins I did a George and attacked with everything up the hill, one other guy joined me and we easily pulled out a 200m gap within 1 lap.
After a couple of laps on the front I twirled my hand to indicate we should work together in a through and off.
This was working perfectly and we were half a lap ahead of the chasing group, my co-worker in the 2 man break was a big strong guy from Corridori, he was pretty strong on the flat but I had to drag him alittle up the last bit of the hill.
After 20 mins of this we were doing swell and were looking good to stay away for the finish, then he started to fade and wasn't taking so many turns on the front, at one stage I was litrally towing him round for several laps.
I knew I would be able to get him for the win but with only me working hard the pack were catching fairly rapidly
5 laps to go and I was feeling good the pack were just 50 m back, Mr Corridori pretty much gave up then and sat up to be swallowed up, I was having none of it, I wasn't doing all that work for 35 mins for nothing
Just as the Peloton caught us with 2 laps to go we handily caught a pack of lapped riders, I used this to sneek off again on my own and in all the confusion I had gained a 100m advantage.
Cool All I had to to now was slam it into top gear and go for it, that's exactly what I did and crossed the line in 1st position for the win