Some sun at last - Surrey League Road Race (Farnborough & Camberley) 13th May 2012

It felt slightly odd lining up in the afternoon of the 13^th May with the sun shining and the temperature a frankly barmy 16’c. The latest round of the Surrey League was held over 12 laps of the Cutmill circuit and I had a degree of forewarning that it was another reasonable tough circuit. There were two main challenges. 1) there isn’t a lot of flat in it, including a long drag up to the finishing climb, and 2) the deadest of dead turns covered in gravel which lead straight into a two step climb which in turn lead to a 40mph descent.

For the second time in as many weeks a break went almost from the gun that included 4 riders. As alluded to above there was not a lot of rest on the circuit and the race was characterized by almost non-stop attacking, and a resultant yo-yoing of the pace throughout. The break continued to push on going out to a lead of about two minutes by halfway and it felt like it was pretty much game over. As the race went into it’s second half the attacks became more sustained and tended to feature the stronger riders left near the front. As they did so the break started to come back with the gap falling 15-20 seconds per lap.

Truth be told I felt pretty rubbish throughout, although ironically the climb provided probably the easier part of the circuit for me.  I certainly didn’t feel in any danger of getting dropped, but nor did my legs ever feel like they were totally with me, and I suspected that in the last lap burn up the climb I might run out of gas. The penultimate time through the finish the break had come in to about 45 seconds and the hammer went down at the front of the bunch. I had managed to contrive to get myself about 20^th or so position and so found myself struggling to make it into even the second group that formed. I had to put in a monster effort over the top to get into a group of 4 chasing a much stronger group of 6. It took a really hard chase of 3 or 4 miles to reel them back in which inevitably took it’s toll on everyone.

There was a more substantial regrouping on the downhill into the bottom of the final climb and the break was down to perhaps 10-15 seconds as we hit the bottom turn. Ironically this was the nail in the coffin for the chase as everyone assumed the job was done and sat up for the lower part of the finishing climb, as Will Hayter attacked the break and went on to take the victory.

For my part I didn’t feel like I had the legs to take the bunch “sprint” but rode near to the front, and got a couple of lucky breaks which allowed me to move up the very inside to sit in third wheel as we hit the final ramp. It kept feeling as if someone would come round me, and I was pretty much maxed out trying to hold the wheel of a London Phoenix rider. The jump eventually came on the far right and I had nothing left to go with it. In the end I could only watch as the wheel in front inexorably inched away from me, helpless to prevent it in a way that spectators never understand. Although I only needed to push “a little but harder” I was spent and my legs begun to cramp in the last 50 metres or so. A photo will presumably appear on the internet at some stage which will betray quite how painful it was!

Anyway, I trundled across the line 6^th in the bunch and 10^th overall, which with hindsight is a reasonable enough result and lands a few more points. At least I am at a reasonably competitive stage, although there is a good deal more work to do if I am to progress this season. Next week is the divisional champs, and a good excuse to get a proper kicking from so