4 1/2 laps of a relatively flat 21.5 km course.
A few breaks went, but were brought back. Number 52 plus one other made a bid for freedom. I'd done my homework; this was the winner of last years race and hence I latched myself onto the back of them. Unfortunately lots people had also ridden last years event, so they soon sped up and caught us up. One other break of note went. 2 riders slipped off the front and were allowed to escape for the best part of 2 laps. (Speaking to another rider after the event one was an ex-1st cat, back racing after a couple of years out.) We picked them up early on the last lap though, so it was everybody back together once more.
I've not got Sylv's buch sprinting ability againgt a 50 man peloton, so planned an attack. I reckoned the best place to go was about 7 miles from home, on the longest hill of the circuit. Only one other rider came with me. Would have been ideal to have 3 or 4 of us. Anyway the 2 of us started working, and developed a workable gap, but come the next smaller hill he faded and dropped off, so I had to go into TT mode. The bunch were soon gaining so I sat up and did my best to recover.
Into the last mile, one rider pulls away on the last drag with me in tow. He fades so I go around. The finish line is in sight and I've a small gap, but with 200m to go and I hear the tell-tale sound of wheels on my right, and I'm swamped by the peloton on the incline to the finish. 0.4 seconds covers the first 10 riders across the line. The whole bunch (about 40 or 50 riders) cross the line within 3 seconds. I guess I came in an academic 20 something'th place.
The race demonstrated to me how good it's been recently with Team Addiscombe potentially working for each other in the race. There were 9 Dulwich Paragon entered, 3 Dynamo, 3 Elan, 7 Avanti, but there seemed no working together. These were merely pepole who wore the same coloured jerseys, rather than team mates.
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