Saturday 25 April 2015

Two's a crowd!

Round 3 Ding!!!!!!!
Today saw me and Joe travel to Greetland near Halifax for the Derek Smith memorial road race.The forecast was for overcast skys with showers later on and 12 to 15 mph winds.
We arrived in good time signed on got changed and set off for a lap round the circuit well I did, Joe on the other hand mounted his rollers for his more modern warm up.The curcuit is quite hard it's got a reasonable hill in it, a long straight that's into a block headwind and a very fast back straight and some technical bit's a good hard course and the field today was quality.
Back to the weather, the overcast sky's had turned to rain during my warm up lap and the wind was blowing strong, not unual for up here.The race got under way and from the gun James Sharp went away and no one went with him.The race settled into mini attacks and counter attacks but everything came back together me and Joe tried a few 1'2's but were brought back then with 6 to go Rob Mckinnon attacked I responded but Joe had responded sooner and I eased off and they quickly gained time.For the next three laps the bunch were content to chase down anyone who tried to get away but not to chase down Rob and Joe, the constant attacking in the bunch did bring us close once  and a guy from Clifton cc went off the front I chased again but with little to no help he was away.Three to go I attacked up the hill then attacked the downhill and  I was away, down the fast back straight into the technical section still away then a rider on my wheel quick look behind, just us two, we began working together through and off and soon we were gaining on the Clifton cc guy but not as quickly as I'd hoped?thought?
Last lap gave a little dig on the hill and dropped my companion, knew I'd beat him in the sprint.Into the finish straight we could see Rob and Joe and the Clifton guy just behind. , I tried to get him but to no avail, beat me by 10m.
Joe beat Rob over the line for second I was 5th overall 4th 'A'

Joe Le Sage 2nd
Rob Fowler 5th
Not bad, felt strong,unlucky? Should I have gone with Rob and Joe when he attacked?

Saturday 18 April 2015

Always listen to John Hadfield!

Second race of the season Barton Wheelers Australian Pursuit.Always listen to what John Hadfield tells you he's never wrong!(yet)I remember him telling me it's a waste of time riding this event the Old guys always win it's stacked in their favour but being me I entered it because there was nothing else on and I need to race, anyway he was right and I urge you all listen to what he says.The race is handicapped the first guys go off followed by the next group at various time intervals with the B group setting off at 9mins and the A group at 10 mins behind the start group."A" group was small at 4 riders but if we all could work together we possibly could catch the "B" then there would be a chance to be up there?Anyway with no disrespect to my fellow riders I had to go it alone after 2 laps and chased folornly for 6 laps comming in 30 seconds down on the main bunch.Don't like sour grapes but was told there was a lot draughting going on behind the lead cars?I got a good 35 miles racing in the legs and that's what I need.