by Andy E » Sun Apr 12, 2009 5:04 pm
[quote="Marek"]Ah bollox, I had money on you getting a top 3 today. Do you want to borrow a decent wheel that will hold you immense weight, pop around if you want it.
haha, at least that cartwheel of yours could cope with my power eh
So, stage 2 - Fitted my Planet-X 50s for todays race but ended up swapping the front for my alu training wheel just before sign-on as it was starting to rain and i knew from riding this course last year there were a couple of sketchy descents, so better safe than sorry (don't have as much confidence in the carbon breaking as Sylv obviously). Listening to the chat in the hall before hand the 2nd place guy (Stewart Martin) and a few others seemed determined to attack Dynamo from the gun, so i knew it would be pretty hot from the off.. It took about 1 full lap to really get going, but the attacks soon came and it was eyeballs out for laps 2 and 3, but with at least 5 riders on the front the whole time Dynamo managed to nullify everything. My legs were feeling ok, though not as good as i'd hoped and i'd dropped back to mid-pack to get a quick breather and take on a gel. No sooner had i done this that it was eyeballs out again as we approached the main climb near the finish
I dug in and made up a couple of places on the climb but after cresting the top I could see that the yellow jersey (Martin Williamson - super strong tester masquerading as a 3rd cat
) was about 10secs ahead with a couple of other riders. A quick check and I was pretty sure that Stewart Martin (2nd overall) was with him. Now this meant that neither Dynamo or Kingston Wheelers would help chase so I shot out of the bunch on the descent to bridge up to a couple of other chasers, but unfortunately we were dragged back by the bunch after only a couple of miles without getting too close to the leaders.
So, 4 laps still to go and the GC leaders out of sight I didn't anticipate much more action so dropped back into the bunch and got some recovery. The pace had definitely eased with only the odd surge as Dynamo chased down any attempts to get across to the leaders. With 3 laps to go the break had 50secs, but they had managed to stretch this out to 2mins by the time we started the penultimate lap
As we hit the climb and passed the 2laps to go board i realised I was actually starting to feel really good and seemed to cruise past half the field without too much effort. Towards the top me and 4 others had pulled out a small gap, which although was soon pulled back made me realise there could be a chance to get away at some point before the finish.
Alas, it wasn't to be as with 1.5laps to go i punctured
and missed the service car as i'd pulled over to the right hand side of the road (D'oh!) so it was game over.. A leisurely change and I made my way back to the finish to see Martin Williamson take the win from Stewart Martin for the 2nd consecutive day, followed by a fragmented bunch about 90secs later.
So, Alfold tomorrow and at this rate success will simply constitute finishing
All good experience though and i'm looking forward to the big dollops of luck i'll be due later in the season