Only fools and cyclists
"Surely your not going to race in this? Shireen asks me over the noise of the rain lashing against the windows.
"Pat has already left to pick me up" I reply.
How can I explain my willingness to race my bike in weather conditions most people wouldn't put the bin out in. I can't really. It is foolish but I love racing and I'll take every opportunity to do it. In all honestly if I wasn't racing I'd be going for a training ride anyway which is even harder to explain.
Pat and I weren't the only people blind to the conditions, it was a pretty good field considering.
It was always going a bit of a war of attrition. I struggled for the first few laps, mainly with the cold. It was obvious to me on the warm up lap that I needed another layer on, the wind and rain going down the back straight cutting through me to the bone. Unfortunatly Pat's car was locked with my base layer inside when I returned after the intial lap.
Pat seemed to be going strong for the first few laps, up near the front. Not bad for someone returning from a broken knee. I moved up through the field aware that even the smallest gap could be decisive. Myself and a few others forced the pace now and again until the pack had split in two. I made a few more efforts to split the group further but to no avail. Then a the pack did split, I was a number of places of the front and despite seeeing the move believed it would closed as all others had been. I wanted to conserve my energy and sprinting the 50m didn't seem attractive.
It was a bad decision, by the time myself and 9 others realised the gap was too big to be closed. Three of us kept trying to split the group, doing most of the work down the back straight. But despite the spray from the rear wheels, everyone was being very good at sticking to the wheel in front.
We rode past Pat and an Imperial Team rider a couple of times. They seemed to be enjoying the ride together, having paid the price for losing contact with the bunch.
Eventually with 4 laps to go, Paul Delahuntly open a gap, I pushed too and joined him. We were joined by another. It was fine by me because they were both 1st Cats so wouldn't effect my BC points. The other 2/3 Cats had been dropped, that is all I wanted to achieve. I sat up for the sprint as Paul had done a large amount of work through out the race and deserved the placing.
I was 11th overall, unfortunately there were 3 2/3 Cats in the first group, so I was only 4th in the 2/3 Cat race. I gained just 6 points, but 16 points from 2 races ain't bad and I'm still on target for 2nd Cat in 3 or so races.
"Pat has already left to pick me up" I reply.
How can I explain my willingness to race my bike in weather conditions most people wouldn't put the bin out in. I can't really. It is foolish but I love racing and I'll take every opportunity to do it. In all honestly if I wasn't racing I'd be going for a training ride anyway which is even harder to explain.
Pat and I weren't the only people blind to the conditions, it was a pretty good field considering.
It was always going a bit of a war of attrition. I struggled for the first few laps, mainly with the cold. It was obvious to me on the warm up lap that I needed another layer on, the wind and rain going down the back straight cutting through me to the bone. Unfortunatly Pat's car was locked with my base layer inside when I returned after the intial lap.
Pat seemed to be going strong for the first few laps, up near the front. Not bad for someone returning from a broken knee. I moved up through the field aware that even the smallest gap could be decisive. Myself and a few others forced the pace now and again until the pack had split in two. I made a few more efforts to split the group further but to no avail. Then a the pack did split, I was a number of places of the front and despite seeeing the move believed it would closed as all others had been. I wanted to conserve my energy and sprinting the 50m didn't seem attractive.
It was a bad decision, by the time myself and 9 others realised the gap was too big to be closed. Three of us kept trying to split the group, doing most of the work down the back straight. But despite the spray from the rear wheels, everyone was being very good at sticking to the wheel in front.
We rode past Pat and an Imperial Team rider a couple of times. They seemed to be enjoying the ride together, having paid the price for losing contact with the bunch.
Eventually with 4 laps to go, Paul Delahuntly open a gap, I pushed too and joined him. We were joined by another. It was fine by me because they were both 1st Cats so wouldn't effect my BC points. The other 2/3 Cats had been dropped, that is all I wanted to achieve. I sat up for the sprint as Paul had done a large amount of work through out the race and deserved the placing.
I was 11th overall, unfortunately there were 3 2/3 Cats in the first group, so I was only 4th in the 2/3 Cat race. I gained just 6 points, but 16 points from 2 races ain't bad and I'm still on target for 2nd Cat in 3 or so races.
posted by Alex Kirk at
11:58 PM
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