Today was the Inverse Cyclaim RT Spring Road Race, a cat 3/4 race around the hills of the Hughenden Valley... The sun was out and a glorious morning was just beginning!! There were around 80 riders in the race, which was to be 45 miles long, taking in 3 laps of a hilly 15 mile circuit. The circuit began with a long uphill drag at a low gradient, of around 3 miles, followed by a fast curving downhill section littered with potholes. We then moved onto the flat main road for a mile before entering whiteleaf and climbing whiteleaf hill... A hill with a 1:7 gradient for about 1.5 miles, we then rode along a flat section for a couple of miles, followed by a narrow downhill straight, before finally taking a hard left into the finish straight.
We started the race by being guided down the wrong road by the marshalls, which resulted in us being stopped, turned around and taken back onto the course!! I was slightly annoyed by this as I had taken up a good position near the front of the field, so while the service car was turning round, I lifted my bike over my head and walked through the stinging nettle patch, up to the other end of the field, so I didn't lose my position at the front!!
Once back on course, the racing began, everything stayed together untill Whiteleaf Hill when the 'hard riders' came into their own, the climbers soon pulled out a gap and pushed on over the top leaving lots of other riders for dead on the hill. The front group consisted of around 20 riders including myself, my team-mate Roger Prior, and Mike Betts. We obviously pulled out a big gap because there was no sign of the main bunch behind us. We lost Mike on the second time up the hill, but I was spurred on by the sight of Claire Galloway and Clare Leaver cheering on me and the other Zappi's, thanks for the support guys!! The race stayed much the same for the rest of the race, with the front group just pulling out more and more of a gap with every passing mile.
However on the final climb up Whiteleaf Hill, a GS Henley made a move, which was to become a solo winning effort!! A fantastic effort by him, second place was taken by Matt Melville of AW Cycles who broke away by himself with around 4 miles to go, and just stayed away by a few metres, well done!! The sprint for the top 10 was a fast one, starting out of the sharp left hander... I was spinning my junior gear as fast as I could, and got up to around 7th/8th place, while my team-mate Roger Prior took 4th place. A great showing once again by Team Zappi, 2 riders in the top 10 on an extremely tough circuit was a good team effort!!
Overall, very happy with my race, I felt strong and I am definately improving my tactics in road racing, hopefully I can find a spot on the podium soon!! I'm racing at Eelmore on Wednesday, wish me luck.
Ciao.
No comments:
Post a Comment