Ok, so – here goes, my
first ‘proper’ taste of road racing! For a change, the weather gods appeared to
be breaking at least a wry smile and graced us with warm conditions with sunny
spells… I say a ‘wry smile’ as they also provided us with a 25mph headwind for
the home straight! Guess you can’t always have everything!:)
The race was held on a
closed circuit at RAF Barkston Heath and was to consist of 50 minutes racing,
followed by an additional 5 laps once the time had elapsed. I was entered into
the ‘Novice’ category as it was my first time racing in a group and for a
warm-up, we went out in small groups with more experienced racers to learn the
course and to practise both ‘racing’ in a group and some specific bike handling
skills… All good fun.
Then, grab a quick
bite to eat, fill the bidon & line up at the start! Almost succeeding in
keeping the butterflies at bay, the field of around 30 riders set off for a
neutralised lap and then – it was on! Straight away, one guy leapt off the
front and steadily pulled out a fair gap. We had a chat about it and decided to
let him go and leave him ‘dangling’. I tried my best to hide in the group,
especially when we were heading into the savage headwind on the home straight
but, as one of the bigger guys they were having none of it and I ended up doing
quite a few ‘pulls’ on the front into wind… Enough of this, time to mix things
up a bit, rather than letting everyone stay in my wheel I broke clear, smashed
the group apart and only 4 guys came with me. We worked as a small break for
the next 15 minutes or so but eventually they began to pull away, trying to
reel in the ‘lone ranger’ who was about 35 seconds ahead at this point and
showing no signs of slowing.
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| Trying to bridge the gap, solo, to the lead group... |
I just couldn’t hold
on; my heart rate was near my max and as soon as I let the wheels go ahead of
me, the wind & speed really took it’s toll… Time to regroup – I managed to
drop back a little to rejoin one of the guys on my team, we worked together for
a couple of laps which gave me a chance to get out of the wind for a few turns and get my heart rate back down…
The break were about
to swallow up the ‘lone ranger’ and they had 47 seconds on me, I had my last
turn out of wind, took the opportunity to get an SIS Energy Gel on board and
jumped up a gear as soon as we got the wind behind us… I was off, in the zone
and chasing them down! I’ve found this before when I’ve been riding, it takes
me about 40 minutes to get properly warmed up and for my body to settle down
and get comfortable at working hard… Maybe it’s psychological but either way, I
felt great & pushed on as hard as I could – Rob Gray, my training partner
& all round legend was keeping me up to date with the gap every time I
passed him, it was coming down & fast! 47 Seconds became 35. 35 became 20 and then, I turned onto
the home straight and I could see them up the road ahead of me… Still feeling
good, I gave it everything for 2 more laps and, with lots of encouragement from
the crowd, managed to get back into the lead group, boom! I felt elated as I
never thought I’d be able to bridge my way across the gap. In fact, the lead
group were more surprised than I was when they saw me back with them , haha! I
got a couple of minutes of well deserved rest, hiding in their wheels and went
for my last Energy Gel… This did not go so well – I ripped the top off with
such force that it split open and covered me and the bike in sticky sugaryness
– I did manage to get some of it inside me and I have to admit that it made me
chuckle to myself; Typical! Haha!
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| Me, wearing '96', about to re-join the lead group |
I had timed it
perfectly, probably more luck than judgement truth be told, and got my ‘rest
lap’ just before the 5 laps to go board was shown… Back to work again – there
was no way I had put all that work in, not to get a place on the podium! The
speed ramped up and up and I placed myself in third wheel with a lap to go. I
moved up into second with about 500 metres to go but didn’t quite have enough
left in my legs to contest the sprint for 1st place… 2nd
place it was! I honestly felt like I’d won anyway, having work so hard to jump
the gap and then getting myself up into 2nd!
So, that’s it – first
race done and dusted. Successful & no road rash, can’t ask for much more
than that! Next year, I’ll be in the ‘Open’ race with the elite riders, so the
training for that starts now… Time to get serious about this, eat properly,
lose the excess weight and train smart – more on this in future blog posts! For
now, I’ve been bitten by the racing bug & I’m on the lookout for my next
racing challenge!
Until next time,
thanks for stopping by, ride safe and catch you soon!
