Rolled up to Hillingdon on Tuesday night for the 4th cat race. Bumped into Rob W who was also in the 4ths.
It was clear to me before I got to Hillingdon that the race would be settled over the last 200 meters and there would be no breaks as anyone that did jump would get chased down and the pack would regroup. The wind was pretty bad on the back straight which I think was a factor.
The 30 laps or how many we did seemed to be played out exactly how I expected. Two or three dynamo riders and Rob W did the lion share of the work at the front but everyone else seemed to be sitting in. There was a crash mid race which was near to me but I didn't see what happened.
The board came up for 3 laps to go and I'm sixth position and things are looking good Then things go a bit crazy as everyone's getting excited and I'm boxed all the way round the last lap. Coming down the back straight and going into the home straight I'm still boxed in
What can I do? I try going round on grass on the inside and end up nearly taking out a few Vets but there's riders streaming up past me on the right and I can't do anything about it. It's all going tits up. End up 15th ...Rob got 12th. Pretty frustrated but learnt alot about my positioning at Hillingdon and will be looking for outside line much earlier. Bit different to sprinting on the clubrun.
Thanks Rob for the lift back to Addiscombe. Huw if you have a program for sprinting you can PM I'd love to give it a go.
Cheers Ed.