In addition to my usual toils with the London traffic I had
to contend a strong headwind on my journey to Hillingdon. I came across
another TCC rider Vince at Ealing Common and unbeknown to him I sat
on his wheel and sheltered from the wind for a while. I arrived at the
start surprising rested. We also met up with another TCC rider Andy
Brown who was in the E/1/2/3 race.
To the race – As always our number one objective was to stay out of
trouble. I am pleased to say that the quality of riding was excellent
and overall the bunch was well behaved. There were a number of
initial attacks made on the opening laps but the windy conditions made
it near impossible for a single rider to escape. After 15 minutes
however two riders made a break and the main group did not react.
Other individual riders then crossed the break and soon there were two
groups with an organised bunch of about eight riders out front. The
pace was quite intense during this phase as the following peleton set
about closing the gap. Vince and I got involved and did some work at
the front of the pack. May be the lead group sensed the gap was closing
or it all became too tactical as suddenly the gap was closed and we
were all back together.
The closing stages – The 3 laps to go board always sparks a reaction
and on this occasion three riders set about another attack. The main
group again did not react although a gap of about 20 metres was
maintained. I was sitting in fifth place in the main group as
we headed down the back straight on the penultimate lap. The gap to the
break was now 50 metres and I knew that we had to chase them down as
otherwise it would be too late. I moved to the front of the group and
lifted the pace trying to balance the need to close the gap and not
blowing up before the finish. Finally I got some assistance and a group
of riders which included Vince took up the chase. I was really
hurting now the pace was relentless and I seemed to be going
backwards. The race now had three groups the original break of three
Vince’s group of five and the final group in which I was desperately
trying to hold on to. Down the back straight for the final time I
found some shelter from the wind and took a breather. As we rounded the
final bend I drifted to the outside of the track and followed a wheel.
I accelerated past the rider as we went through the “S” bends and
noticed that other riders were slowing. Unsure as to whether this was
because they we out of the top ten or just tired I decided to go for
the sprint anyway for training purposes if nothing else. I spotted
Vince to my left as I crossed the line.
The Results – The breakaway group were within a whisker of being caught
but managed to hang on to the top three spots. Somehow I had bridged
the gap to Vince’s group and was placed 8th. Vince had done just a bit
too much work in the final lap took 11th or 12th. We didn’t see Andy
Brown in the E/1/2/3 race but we assumed that he had finished in the
main bunch.
U16's - Rory Atkins 6th
4ths
- Darren Paice 8th
Vince Leon 11th
E/1/2/3 - Andy Brown (result to follow)