Reading CC Road Race - 15th May

Today I did a road race promoted by Reading Cycling Club, it was held on the Great Milton circuit, the same as the Thames Velo road race earlier in the year. The race was to be 60 miles, a lot longer than any other race I had done before, it was also including 2nd cat riders, so the race itself would be faster, longer, and tougher!!

On the start line we held a minutes silence in memory of the late Wouter Weylandt, a fantastic young rider who was tragically taken from us in a stage of this years Giro D'Italia, a great mark of respect to Wouter. The race itself did not start well for me personally, as after less than a mile I heard a crunch and noticed my front mech grinding on my chain, the mech had somehow bent out of shape and was rubbing on the chain making the worlds most annoying sound... I had no choice but to continue on ignoring the horrible sound of rubbing metal!! The race continued at high speed through various villages and along the long straight road up to the climb of Clare Hill, I was near the back of the bunch the first time up the hill and having not felt great for the first few miles I struggled up and got blown out of the back, I spent the next 2-3 miles trying to bridge the gap back to the bunch with one other guy and eventually made it, on my own, I dropped the other guy with a huge dig to make the last few metres back on.

The next lap was all about resting and recovering, I did this pretty well and just stayed out of trouble in the middle of the peloton. A break of 8 got away during the 2nd lap, but I didn't have the legs to go with them at that point so just watched them ride away. As we approached the climb for the 2nd time, I found myself in a much better position and felt slightly stronger, having warmed up fully now. I made it over the top near the front of the group, then disaster... I slipped my chain off and couldn't get it back on, I pulled over and struggled to get the chain back onto my chainring. The neutral service car stopped and helped me sort it out, and then quickly paced me back up to the main group... averaging 33mph behind a car is always fun!!

I caught back onto the group around the start of the 3rd lap and started to feel a lot stronger from then on. I led the group over the hill for the 3rd time and was feeling good! I stayed on or near the front for the remainder of the race, and felt good right to the end!! Worth noting is that I managed to get through the feed-zone unscathed, photographic evidence is below!! Thanks to Henry Peacock got passing up the bottle.

Grabbing on to a bottle!!

The last lap consisted of me jumping on to every move that went away, and always getting brought back... I was still feeling strong though and doing my fair share of the work on the front. The breakaway was still up the road and looked to be staying away, so it was down to a sprint for the minor placings.

With 2k to go I was up near the front hovering about 3rd wheel, but I judged it wrongly and heading into 1k to go I found myself on the front... That was my sprint out of the window... I decided to try a lead-out for my team mate Gunther who I knew was sitting behind me. It worked well but I left him with a little too far to go and he could only manage 5th/6th in the sprint and 14th overall. My race did not end there as I had a personal battle to finish with a friend of mine Harry Strudley from Team AW Cycles... It was close as we both lunged for the line, as yet it is unclear who took this epic battle for 40th place...

Epic contest with Harry...

In general I am happy with my race, especially after the 2 early mechanicals. I felt strong in the latter stages of the race which bodes well for future longer races. I still need to work on my position towards the end of races, but I am getting there!!

Race Stats are 60.5 miles at 25.7mph with over 2000ft of climbing and a top speed of 39.7mph!!

National 10 next Saturday...

Ciao.