Well I managed to get my first win of the season on Saturday at Hog Hill aka Der Hoggenberg in the second race of the ELV Winter Series (lasty week's was cancelled due to the weather) which is good, just got to win another 4 races to match my tally from last season, but I was pleased as it was a similar field as a fortnight ago, minus Rhys Howell, the previous winner and the race worked out perfectly for me. Fortunately before our race (e/1/2) the 3/4 race was on, with a great tunrout of around 40, however as the course had grit on it to prevent ice forming, many individuals got punctures, but with so many riders it cleared the course of the grit for my race, limiting the amount of punctures my field got to just a handful. So thank you 3/4s, thank you for your sacrifice.
Anyway it was quite a small field of only 12 of us, but what was quite interesting was that there were only 2 riders who were team-mates in the bunch, neither that quality, with all the other competitors belonging to different teams. This made for relatively exciting racing as no one could really rely on any one else. My legs were feeling ok, but nowhere near 100% due to me using these races as training and training very hard up to them anyway so I was wary about using up too much energy. However after about half an hour a couple of attacks were launched by various people and for a lap from the bottom of the hill round to the bottom again it was a bit of a free-for-all and everyone was on the rivet with lots of little gaps forming. One of my best attributes is being able to attack over the top of such efforts (this particular effort lasted approximately 3mins) which is exactly what I did up the climb and all of I sudden, once over the top and coming back down the hill I had opened a big gap of 10 seconds. I increased it to 20 seconds quite quickly however I then got a puncture. You are allowed laps out up until the last 5 laps of a circit race, fortunately my puncture was before the last 5 laps. So once changed I set off again 20 seconds in front of the bunch, they began chasing me a bit more, some attacked to bridge up to me, but to no avail so I managed to hold on for the win, soloing for 30mins by myself, overall it was just over an hour of racing, roughly 45mins+5laps worth. Unfortunately I can not put any link on here to the race as the results are still not up yet, but I will do as soon as I can.
Then on Sunday I raced in the next round of the SERRL Winter Series, even though it was a lovely day, the wind was definately up, however it was really strong West-East and the way the circuit is laid out meant that it would be tough to split the bunch as there would be no cross-wind. It was a disappointing turn-out considering how sunny and warm it was compared to what it has been, there were only seven of us. However this race was going to be harder than the day before as even though there were less people, the race was longer at an hour+5laps, about 1hr 25mins worth of racing, but more importantly, 3 people were from London Phoenix and two were from Redhill CC, with only one from East Grinstead CC. So, as the best cyclist there with no team-mates while these two teams did, they constantly tried to work me over. It came down to a sprint finish and with the tail-wind blowing us the slight uphill drag to the finish I thought I could launch my sprint a bit earlier. This was a bad idea as my legs after yesterday's efforts, let alone from training, could not hold the top-end power for long enough and I was pipped by about two-thirds of a bike length by Ryan Visser from Redhill into second. It was great, hard race really putting pressure on me and my tactical abilites so was fantastic training and not too bad a result considering where I'm at. What also probably help Ryan win was the fact that I was on shallow rims, great for the race's windy conditions, however not in a bunch sprint with a strong tailwind and I reckon if I had of had my deep sections for the sprint, even with me launching it a bit too early I reckon I would have won. All this shows though is the slight differences that varying equipment on the bike brings and I'm not just racing to win this time of year, more importantly I'm racing to train.
Here's the link to the race report http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20130127-road-Road--Visser-and-Hammond-celebrate-wins-in-SERRL-0
Anyway I hope you are all well and I can't wait to see and hear about all thr cracking results people will be grabbing, especially as you won't have beaten me in the process!
Also Aprire Bicycles team is looking really strong this year with Mike Barnes another great addition to the side and soon the new bikes will be coming in with the new colours as well as all the new kit, probably the most exciting thing about being a cyclist is buying and racing in brand new kit. It really is an amazing feeling, speaking of which I have just christened my new assos gloves courtsey of Verity and my new Oakleys courtsey of myself, with both races over the weekend and both were absolutely perfect for me and my needs, winning first time wearing some new gear does not tend to associate bad tidings with these objects.
No comments:
Post a Comment