well i seem to be up there with keith and paul now, for the first time since september.
my 40 mile commute seems to have really given me some speed.
i was looking forward to today so i could see where my fitness level is, using Keith and Paul as my marker. also in the group was rob W and mareks mate.
keith hit the front as we left coulsdon south at a good pace, i soon warmed up and hit the front, where according to keith i wound it up to 28 mph, so i was feeling good.
we hoofed it over to the m23 junction where we lost mareks mate.
up the reigate steps and it was a 3 horse race after we dropped rob, but we waited at the top.
through the lanes it was very fast. keith paul and my self did most of the work with rob suffering a lot. with a few miles to go until rusper i was left on the front for a good few miles, and knew it was because paul planned to attack, but it never came, instead, unusually for the T group we behaved all the way to the hill after partridge, when keith opened up with a stinging attack, followed by a nasty counter attack by paul. what was encouraging was that i was not struggling too be up there with them.
we were all together again by the time we got to the hills before the T and OFF, where i wound up the pace to an amount that was devastating to keith and rob, but paul just managed to hold my wheel
good through an off, a fast one, and we soon dropped rob. keith was suffering also and started skipping turns because i was 'accelerating too hard' .... i took it as a compliment.
the sprint was won by keith. we had a good lead out by paul, and instigated it, but keith came round me with about 25m to go to win it.
good fast ride back over box hill, apart from a puncture which i fixed in record slow time (thanks paul and neil for coming back to me).
when we hit the bottom of boxhill paul got on the front (after sitting on my wheel all the way there as punishment for my puncture). he banged out a relentless 14-16 mph pace from the bottom. it was hard work holding his wheel, and i was in and out of the saddle to keep generating the power. unfortunately as we got near the last hairpin the elastic broke and i gently let go of his wheel, which left paul to take a well earned KOM.
good fast ride back to coulsdon, where something amazing happened... as we got to the small hill before the decent into chipstead and banstead i dropped paul, but i waited at the bottom, where we both hammered it again to coulsdon.
good ride today, and very encouraging to see my form progressing nicely.
stu