Sunday 29 March 2009

...more roadie action...

I’ve not been up to much this week. Uni work has ramped up as it’s the final week of term so I had to focus on that. I did manage to battle the headwinds and hill for 3h on Friday though.

On Sunday I raced the Pittards Trophy road race near Yeoville. It was based over 3 laps of a 15mile circuit. There was a 1mile climb/drag around a third of the way around the circuit; the only other worry was the narrow lane in the last 2 miles of the circuit. On the first lap I sat in the bunch a bit. There was hardly any wind but I decided to save my energy, sitting in the front third of the bunch. On the second lap I began paying attention to any moves which might go but nothing stuck. I attacked up the hill but all it did was to string out the field. Towards the end of the second lap I went away with 2 others for around a mile but it was all brought back together. The course was not hard enough to split the bunch and nothing was sticking so I decided to see if I could do anything in the inevitable sprint finish. I made sure I was in the top 20 coming into the narrow lane before the finish and entered the final corner around 5 riders back. Things had been getting a little twitchy and there was almost a crash on the corner. The sprint opened up and I managed to get through a few gaps before I was pinned on the left of the road by a rider who sat up meaning I lost speed and position. There was then a crash and I was too far back so I cruised over the line in the bunch. A little disappointing but still a reasonable workout. We averaged 24mph although it could have been a little longer to create some tiredness in the bunch and a split.


Hopefully I can make amends next week. Saturday I’m racing at Bryn Bach Park, I placed 6th last time, and Sunday is another local road race. Hopefully they will be a bit harder!!!

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