Sunday’s race involved a trip to Fowlmead Country Park near Deal (about
80 miles away). This felt like quite an adventure as none of
us had any idea what sort of a race to expect. Myself, Tom B
and George met at Clapham Junction at 8am. We took our rented
VW golf and squeezed 3 bikes and 3 boys in. A tight fit, but
a skill me and Tom have been perfecting over the last month or so!
We departed at about 8:15. I promptly took some wrong turns
and we ended up in Elephant and Castle…… perhaps I should form time
trial team with Mark? Once we made it out of London, we made
good time and got to Deal at about 10:15. This gave us plenty
of time to park (in the disabled section), put the bikes together, get
told to move out of the disabled section, move the car, and then finish
changing. We had so much time to spare that we even had time
to do a lap of the course as recon (though we had to TT it back to the
start line as the course was longer than we realised……)
I really liked the course. It is about 4km long, in a sort of
figure of 8 shape. It is pretty flat with a long gentle drag
up one side and a long gentle descent on the other. It is
perched on a hill which makes it really windy, though there are mature
trees and a wood for shelter on one side. The surface was
fantastic and nice and wide, great
for sprinting. There is a lot of facilities there, mtb
tracks, cyclo cross tracks, a load of jumps (BMX?), not to mention
showers toilets, food etc. I was really impressed.
I would say it is the best equipped circuit I have been to and the
SERRL seemed to be well set up and run efficiently (inc timing
chips). I will definitely be making the trip at every
opportunity!
I set off with Tom B in the 2/3 race, the 4ths were set off a minute or
so behind us so you will have to plug George for details on that. There
was about 30 or so riders in our race. Tom wanted to work and
I planned to sprint. I did a few longish stints on the front
at the beginning, getting into a small break which was pulled in, then
I sought shelter in the bunch to recover. It was really windy
and down the home straight and round the bottom bends the bunch was
forming into echelons as everyone tried to find shelter. Tom
got up front and started working, reeling in anything that got
away. He seemed to be enjoying himself, and did an amazing
amount of work. Nothing got away, and other people in the bunch commented to me on how hard he was
working. I carried on hiding in the bunch, with Tom working
so hard I felt mounting pressure to get a decent place to reward
him! The race was 1hr plus 5 but because each lap is quite
long the last laps end up lasting 20 mins or so. The attacks
came thick and fast in the last 5 and eventually 3 riders got a gap
(mainly because Tom B was finally starting to tire I think!).
Myself and Mark Ottaway (a 2nd cat sprinter I have run into a number of
times) moved up to help shut down this last break, it looked
dangerous and had not started to come back. Tom B dug deep
and helped us out. With about 1km to go we had almost reeled
them in. Tom B made one last big effort and bought everything
back together. I was up front (maybe 3rd wheel or so) and as
he peeled off I got on the wheels of a pair of VC Deal riders.
Mark Ottaway went long, from maybe 300m to go, in
hindsight, I should have gone with him. He always seems to
beat me! The finish is on a slight incline and I went with a
bunch of riders in the main sprint from maybe 3rd wheel or
so. We all crossed the line pretty close, and about 1 bike
length behind Mark who we were all gaining on. I was not sue
if I was 3rd or 4th at first. Turns out I was 4th, so I was
pleased. Mark rode alongside to chat and commented on the
insane amount of work Tom B put in for me as well! It took me
a while to find Tom B, turned out he had crossed the line and fallen
off winding down….little bit hypoglycaemic I think! We found
George who had finished a bit earlier and turned out he had come in
7th! So top 10 in both races for
TCC. Well worth the trip I would say.
The next race is in two weekends time (21st). Unfortunately I
will be away but I really recommend all the 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths to try
and get down to this race. It really was a fantastic day out,
and a great course. Should help to start racing longer (total
race length was about 1hr 25) and practice in sheltering from wind in
echelons. Both
useful skills for the road racing later in the season. I
certainly have a lot to learn. Somhow everytime an echelon
formed I was on the windward end with a whole bunch of smug looking
local riders sheltering downwind! It makes a huge difference,
hanging on in the crosswind (when you were in the wrong place) was
tough when the bunch s
trung out, much more challenging in that respect than Hillingdon.