Yorkshire Day @ The Races (2/3/4)

Wind was the order of the day, with a strong gale blowing across Tockwith throughout the races. The cloudless sky and sun did little to warm the place up, with temperatures hovering about 14ºC. 
The course itself was triangular in shape, and completely flat. The wind blew directly into the straight before the last corner, and this is where a lot of people struggled. At 1.5km in length, the race was to complete 25 laps.
A field of 60 riders turned up on the day, the majority of them 2nd category, and also a few familiar faces from races gone by.


A very fast start on the day nearly caught some people out, and it wasn't long into the second lap that a break formed. The break itself consisted of about 8 riders, which was whittled down to an elite 4 by the end of the race. 
Sensing that this break had potential, and by now I was fully warmed up by having to work my way up the field after starting at the back, I put the pressure up at the front, in hope of bridging to this strong pack of riders. After a lap of some crazy riding, I looked behind me to see that I, in my haste, had formed a group of my own, and we probably had about 20secs on the strung out peleton. 

However, the 5 riders behind me where fully content on sitting on my wheel and not pulling through to catch the leading group. 
Even after much frantic hand shaking symbolising that we should form a mini-chaingang, and some encouraging words pointing out that we where actually catching the lead group, a rider or two reluctantly came through to take up the chase. However, the efforts where half-hearted and they weren't really trying to catch the break, scared that they may spend too much energy in doing so, and get spat out of the back of the peleton if it caught them. 
That little episode could have reminded you off this years Paris-Roubaix, where the second favourites of Boonen and Flecha were reluctant in helping Cancellera, and in doing so, this lack of co-hesion enabled Van-Sumeran to snatch the win. 


The following few laps consisted of much reluctant pedalling from my fellow breakees, the now bunched peleton crept up behind us and engulfed us
Even in this peleton riders where reluctant to contribute and the big teams had no interest either since they too had people in the break. 
A couple of short-lived attacks later, I settled into the bunch, hoping to conserve my remaining energies for the bunch sprint for 5th place.


After much frantic accelerating on the bell of the last lap, I saw myself starting to slip back into the belly of the peleton. Relizing that if I was pretty far back, I would  do horribly in the inevitable bunch sprint, so after a spot of cheeky riding in the form of amazing cornering on the chicane before the last corner, I managed to salvage 20 place or so. 
The 100m bunch sprint was the best I have ever done. Many weeks of training dedicated to this form of riding saw me jump up another 15 places near to the front of bunch. However, the finish line came too soon and I had to settle for a respectable 21st place and 1st Junior.


Thanks today to Vicky for taking me, who herself did exceptionally well in the women's race to grab herself a ninth place and her first licence point.



Once again, thanks for reading.

The Last Week, in Cycling

A pretty hectic week it has been, with the bank holidays and such (not that I'm complaining), the amazing weather and that the road racing season is now in full flow. 

On tuesday, I completed my first Leeds Chaingang training session. A manic pack of over 60 cyclists bombing down the bypass at 30mph that terrorise the roads from Lawnswood(?) to Addingham and back. As well as completing the ride, I did several turns at the front, setting the pace and breaking the wind. 

See, a chaingang is a group of riders that rotate in a group to maintain a high speed, while the participating riders have a wheel to follow most of the time. 

Here is a better description of how it works, from the chaingang's Facebok page;

   

    " This method is the basic group technique adopted by a 'breakaway' group in a race situation where riders form a temporary       alliance. This is the method which is most commonly practiced on the local 'chaingang'. Usually involving at least 5 individuals, it works by creating a constantly rotating 'chain' of riders, sharing the wind workload and the shelter provided by the other riders. It is fast moving and relatively intensive, but the speed is higher in return for a greater input of energy than other methods. "

This week also saw the first Kilwick 10 mile Time-trial of the year, with a full field of 22 taking to the Skipton By-pass in a range of machines. 

I started the Time-Trial on my humble race bike, equipped with deep-section carbons.

That wednesday was a sunny, fairly still evening, and I was to be 20th person to set off, a minute after Joe Moses. 

Setting off, and all throughout the TT I felt great. Half way through the  second section, I saw Paul sat on the side of the road, with his machine propped against the barrier. He had punctured on the horrendous road surface. 

'Thats one person I'm beating tonight', I though to myself as I zoomed past.

As I circumnavigated the second roundabout and entered the 3rd section, I could just spot the red and white of Joe's kit in the distance, a first during the TT. He might be much better at climbing , but I'm better in the wind .

Filled with the new determination of catching my mate, I put my head down, and by using the white line on the side of the road as navigation, started to press that little bit harder on the pedals. 

All was going well until I bulldozed over a deep pot-hole, where the distinct gush of air escaping from expensive tubulars became evident. After a brief moment of cursing, I rolled up to and joined Paul at the side of the road.

Thanks to Nigel for giving me a lift back to HQ. 

Friday saw the cafe racing lot meet in Keighley at a chance of getting double points because of the bank holiday. 

After casually riding away at the roundabout out of Skipton, I noticed that there was no-one on my wheel, so I decided to have a crack at a lone breakaway. Therefore,  I got onto the drops and did what I did on wednesday, not puncture, but time-trial. 

A pretty significant lead was built up, maybe peaking at a minute at one point, but once I was at Hetton, I spotted the pack, chipping into my advantage on the rolling terrain. 

Eventually, my advantage had decreased to 5 seconds at the bottom of the last hill, and maybe if this was well organised, I would have been passing under the flamme rouge.  I looked behind me and saw a flash of blue shoot out of the pack on the descent. A team-mate was making a last ditch attempt to get me to the line. 

After Stuart's legs had expired, I was maybe within 500 metres. The pack was breathing down my neck. My legs where knackered. Looking behind me, I had maybe a 25metres lead on the next man, who was sprinting like a maniac to catch me before the line. Incapable of opening up my own sprint due to fatigue, I pressed on the pedals that little bit harder. In vain, one front wheel cruised past my own to snatch the victory from me. 

However, I was pleased with my 2nd place because I know have some cafe racing points to show off. (4)

Once again, thanks for reading. 

Bridlington Cycling Club Road Race (BCC RR)

Im a bit late in publishing this post after the race, and over a week has gone past since it happened. This is because an unofficial and only known to me war of attrition has been taking place with the company that took the pictures for this race. I had no personal photographer (sort of) for this race because he had buggered off to Bridlington and was tucking into a hot chocolate by the sea when I  phoned him after the race. However, please don't tell him this because I am eternally grateful for him taking me in the first place.

Luckily for us, we know some people that keep a static caravan at Reighton Gap and so we hired this for the weekend. What was even more coincidental was that the race HQ in Burton Fleming was just a mere 10minutes drive from where we were staying, so I didn't have to get up at 6!

The day before I took it upon myself to try and get to know the state of the local roads and do a bit of reconnoissance before the race. Unluckily, the organisers gave no information about the course details to first-timers like myself, so basically I had to ride round and hope I was riding the road the race was going to travel on. Fortunately, I happened to stumble across the finishing straight, albeit I went the wrong way.

That same day I got lost, but thanks to my trusty mobile/satnav, I managed to get back to the caravan 50 miles later.

The big day itself was very nice, a sunny and blissful 15˚C was to be the high during the race, but towards the ending stages of the ride, it soon felt like double that.

I started as a reserve, but I got to ride because there's always one guy that doesn't turn up. The line up of 70 riders where nearly mostly 2nd Cats, followed up by an equal number of 3rd Cats and just a handful of 4th's to fill the start sheet up.

The course itself was rolling, with a long (about a mile) uphill finish, that would soon put a stop to anyones chances of winning if they started their sprint up it too early. This route was roughly 10miles in length and we were to navigate it 6 times. 

All this was unknown to me before, and during the race..

From the first hill I knew there was going to be a split, and the second cats where determined for this too. Knowing this, I actively stayed in the top 25th riders, and was consciously looking for any signs of weakness in the immediate riders in from.

Devilishly bad luck on my part, the one time I put my head down on the hill during the second lap, the break formed. And the break formed a mere 5 places in front of me. 

By the time I put my head up and had realised what had happened, it was too late and the split was never to be caught. 

So, for the next 50mile, I rode very puncheur like and attacked every lap, to try and bridge, but to no avail, and I was always reeled back in. 

In the final 500 metres I attacked from the group I was in , and kept them off all the way to the line, and I bagged myself a satisfactory 24th place. 

So in conclusion, my third, hardest and longest race has given me my best placing so far.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show to you, but check back to the following website to see if they have uploaded the images from the event yet.

www.printmyride.co.uk/

Also, congratulations to Joe Moses who bagged himself an impressive 2nd place in the Wetwang 3rd/4th Cat race. He himself wasn't too happy with it, since he won cafe racing the day before, during which he offered me his wheel during his early attack, that I foolishly refused. (See, if I had gone with Joe, I would have probably won because I've got a better sprint!)

Once again, thanks for reading and check back for regular reports. 

Bored As ...

Im starting to learn how the racing world works, I think. I may have only raced two of them, but I should have done four. In terms of early season races, sending off your entries with 3 days till the deadline is fine since most people are still hibernating in early March, however, in April the season is almost in full-flow and races fill up a lot faster. 

I now have the advantage of knowing how a reserve feels. My mum said to me that I should send the entries off a month before the deadline instead of a fortnight, and also count myself lucky that Im even a reserve. I guess she's right since I ticked the box saying 'I am not prepared to be a reserve'.

Another thing thats evident on the entry sheet to the Bridlington CC Road Race is that almost half off all entrants are 2nd Cat's, then 3rd Cat's and only about five 4th Cats in a 70-wo/man race. NOw if you ask me thats a bit out of order, giving preference to higher ranking riders, instead of the first come first served philosophy I expect when it comes to these things. I mean, if all races adopt this thinking, they'll be no new, aspiring, talented riders coming through because they are not allowed to race in the first place!

Right, rant over. 

Over the last 2 weeks I've done a healthy 15 hours and 300miles on the bike. NOt my best stats this year, but I did do a two day, 22 mile hike over Friday and Saturday for my Duke of Edinburgh, which I felt when I did[tried] a high-intensity chain-gang session with some of the good racing riders round here. I got dropped almost straight away, but they let me catch on and I held[sort of] a wheel for the ensuing hour. 

Im off to Filey tomorrow. Then on Saturday I shall do a recon of the race I might be doing. Im expecting it to be rolling (coz its like that there) and windy because its by the see, so no deep-section wheels for me .

Anyway, the pictures from the recent club run to Settle with my bike buds (V.C. Bradford). If you want to join, give Paul at Pennine Cycles a buzz and he'll give you some info.