the weather was pretty grim- cold, wet, windy. the course was pretty tough too. it was a 7 mile loop, with some tight bends and 4 loooooong drags, that just sapped the life from your legs, the roads were very exposed giving some awful headwinds we did 7 laps, so 49 miles, all on closed roads which was brilliant.
we got under way, 50 off starters, and from the start the pace was red hot, we were racing as if it was a crit, not a 2 hour road race. i was worried my legs would be tired from crowhurst but they felt fine. for the first lap i was around the middle of the pack, but people were getting dropped like flies and letting go of wheels so i made my way up to the top 10 places where it was safer.
2.5 laps in i felt good so i put in a little dig, but it came to nothing, and just wore me out a bit. i went further back to re energize but it nearly got me dropped... as we were coming round one of the tight bends a rider 2 places in front of me slid out making us all swerve to avoid him, and opening up a significant gap. it also happended to be on the windiest part of the course. no one wanted to work to get back on so i did it alone dragging a few with me. it seemed to take forever but eventually i got back on, but it put me in the red for the next 10 minutes, and i was only just hanging on.
on the third lap i had another close call. a rider just in front of me lost control of his back wheel in a join in the road. i came down, but luckily slid out of my path (just!) and took out the rider next to me. thankfully that was the last crash i saw.
laps 4 and 5 were pretty similar. the peleton (what was left of it) constantly broke up, and gaps would have to be bridged, and if you were unfortunate enough to find yourself in a break away because of a split, you were expected to work. but we always got dragged back in. there was no let off on the attacks either. they just kept coming and it was crippling having to keep chasing them, especially up all the drags.
lap 6 is where the pain started though. at the start of the lap successions of attacks completely broke up the rest of the peleton (about 25 riders). eventually 2 groups formed, the front group of about 18, and then my group of about 8. no one in my group was willing to work at first and the front group got so far ahead they were out of site. i started doing loads of work with another english guy, and i think the other belgium riders felt sorry for us as they then started working. we got a really good through and off going. sometimes it would stop and someone would ride off the front to snap everyone back into action, i did this a couple of times and it seamed to work pretty well. but it was really hard work and i was hurting big time.
a quarter round the last lap, lap 7 we had closed the gap to around 100m. sniffing that we might get back onto the group we started working even harder, and i think we dropped a couple of riders. then we got to about 30m away, and everyone stopped working. 1 rider who had been doing hardly any work then jumped across the gap, which was a bit of a piss take, but hey (he go dropped anyway
). we started working again in a constant through and off, but only 3 of us were working so we could only sustain that gap at around 50m. with about 800m to go until the finish i was desperate to join the front group. they had sped up though and were shelling riders out the back (including the one who jumped the gap ). i took to the front with a couple of others and we went as hard as we could, and managed to start passing the dropped riders. by the time we hit the last bend, with 150m to go we had reached the back of the other riders.there was not a peleton as such, but riders just strung out up the drag to the line. i only made up 2 places in the semi sprint for the line, and a few people passed me, but i was just too exhausted to sprint properly. the race is up there with some of the hardest i have done. i think mainly because over the last 2 laps there was no chance to rest, we were just constantly chasing the lead group. the weather also made it tough, it was very cold, soaking wet and really windy.
in the end i finished 22nd, only about 30 riders finished. i was pretty pleased with the result though. andrew fenn, one of the english guys won the race from a 4 man break away.
my legs are feeling it today!
stu
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its hard work just reading about it.
