Surrey League - Rusper (3rds) - 7th Sept

[Keith]

Road races with a 10 mile loop are great for keeping you interested. Rather than going round and round and round a 1km loop, there's lots of variety of terrain.

They are, however, a pain when you puncture. A looong walk back in cleats. Two SL race in 2 weeks and two punctures. This is becoming a habit!

A good ACC turnout (5 of us at the start) in what was a surprisingly large entry on the line, despite the grotty weather. 56 3rd cats, I think.

I'll post some video when others have had a chance to tell their tales.....

[Marek]

Did about 5km, punctured. Walked back drove home and took the kids swimming.

Cheers

Marek...

[Keith]

Whilst we're awaiting some more successful reports, can you guess which ACC rider ended their race in this slightly undignified manner?

[img]http://i37.tinypic.com/11afhht.jpg[/img]

P.S. I'm only jealous beacause I had to walk for miles back to race HQ.

[Sylv]

Dan? Did he puncture as well!

[Keith]

[quote="Sylv"]Dan? Did he puncture as well!

[Daniel Gee]

Twice! ******** Twice!

on the hill @ the end of the first lap I rode from the back all the way round the bunch & off the front & in all honesty i wasn't pushing that hard

three others followed me but we weren't working together to well & we only stayed away for a lap.

sat in for about a mile and a half after we were caught before moving back up to the front,I have never felt so comfortable in a race B4, it was mad it was like it all just finally clicked.

It was around this point I thought "**** me, if i get this right i could win this!".

five minutes later,

puncture.

the rest isn't worth recounting.

Fantastic results though for toks & andy!

[Toks]

Just a short report for now - very busy A great showing for this race - a 5 man strong ACC team - Marek, Keith, Dan, Myself and Andy. We were determined to get some good placings so there was quite a bit of communication between us. Dan got away in the first break and we sat on chasers until things were brought back together. Sadly Marek, Keith and Dan all had to bow out due to punctures - I felt particularly bad for Dan cause he looked really strong in the race.

No other attacks amounted to anything despite efforts between Andy, myself, a DHC rider and a couple of others. Finally with three laps to go I bridged across to a Cambridge CC guy for the second time in the race when he had around 60 metres on the bunch. Three others quickly followed suit and we then drilled it for a lap. With two laps to go one of the guys suffered an Armstrongesqe slip on the bars - he shouted and swore and was out of the running. A lap later things got too hot for the Cambridge CC and we bid him fairwell (there's more to it than that see full report later). 30-40 seconds on the bunch with myself and my breakaway buddy could be swallowed up in no time if the bunch caught sight of us. Just to make sure this didn't happen we caned it on the last lap. On the climb up to the finish he jumped me while I took my turn but I managed to get him back. I should've jumped again at this point which was a mistake. He took the win by a bike length. Yippeee I'm a second cat again

[Stu Merckx Man]

great one toks, another breakaway!!!

looking forward to the full report!

[Andy E]

That was fun

Wasn't too sure how the legs would feel going into this, first race in 6 weeks with only a couple of training B rides and some commuting in between. Looked like a pretty decent field, and was pleased that there was a real strong ACC turnout. As we rolled out i was somewhere in the top 20 riders, but with the crappy conditions i didn't fancy staying there long and decided i'd attack as much as possible and if i blew up and got dropped then so be it. So I managed to get into the first break of the day with another 4 guys, though we never had too much of a gap and got reeled in on the final hill of the first lap. Then Dan and some others went and i managed to get into that one too (Dan was looking super strong and riding away from the break without breaking a sweat!) but the bunch caught us soon after and Dan went again. This one stuck for a while and I stayed towards the front of the bunch and set a nice slow pace where possible.

Shortly after it came back together Dan p*nctured, and then Keith p*nctured just as he was launching an attack on the hill. With just Toks and I left we decided to be a bit more calculated in our efforts, and luckily enough Toks made the next break and stayed away till the end There wasn't much organisation in the bunch, with 6 guys trying to chase for about half a lap but they soon gave up. Dan joined back in, and whilst we were hatching plans for the final lap he p*nctured again! Nothing much of note happened after that, the pace upped a bit towards the end and coming up the final hill i was comfortably in the top 10, with a few guys pulling out a small gap. Totally mis-judged were the finish line was so was surprised when i saw the flag about 200m up the road. Stomped on the pedals and managed to pull back a few places to roll in 6th. All in all i was pretty pleased, and it's all good experience.

Well done on you 2nd cat Toks, thoroughly well deserved
Better luck next week for Dan, Keith & Marek

[Stu Merckx Man]

well done andy!!
hearing of yours and toks's exploits before my race was a real boost to my moral!

[Keith]

Toks in action....

[url]http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=2j67o1w&s=4[/url]

[Marek]

Excellent stuff Toks, you are going great guns and that was a really close finish.

Cheers

Marek......

[kieran]

well done Socks and Andy, so, Toks, are you going to give Stu a run for his money in the ACC road race? A think Adam is entering as well? so it'll be a tough race! (George and Paul?)

Hard luck on the punctures Dan and Marek and Keith! I sympathize having punctured in 3 races this summer.

[Toks]

[quote="kieran"]well done Socks and Andy, so, Toks, are you going to give Stu a run for his money in the ACC road race? A think Adam is entering as well? so it'll be a tough race! (George and Paul?)

Hard luck on the punctures Dan and Marek and Keith! I sympathize having punctured in 3 races this summer.

[Sylv]

Well done guys! Toks is on fire.