Race Report - Halesowen Road Race

Halesowen Road Race
WMRRL Rd 3
Sunday 8th May 2011
70 miles - 5 laps of Astley Circuit, Stourport on Severn

After the heavy down pour of rain that we had on Saturday night i was relieved to have woken up to a dry day, albeit cloudy and very windy. I have been looking forward to this race for a while and really hoping to repeat my good performance from last year where i placed 4th after breaking away with a small group for over 40 miles.

After a good week of solid training and 2 easy day preceding the race, i was optimistic that i would feel good and have some punch in my legs. I arrived at race HQ at about 8.30 am and got myself sorted ready for the 9.30 start. I had no official team mates today but i did have a kind of unofficial team mate, Tony Kiss, who is a member of Stratford Club Club of which i am a second claim member. Tony is a great all round riders and fast becoming a exceptional road racer and having won his first race of the season only a few weeks ago his confidence was sky high.

Number on, pockets filled and briefing over it was time to roll away through the neutralized zone. Last years winner, Mike Jones of Paramount CRT was here looking to defend his title which he has held for the last 2 years, my tactic for the early part of the race was to mark mike and wait for the decisive move which i knew would involve him. Whilst i was sitting mid pack watching Mike, Tony had decided to go with a early move which went after about 10 minutes, because it was so soon everybody saw it as a no hopers moves which would come back in no time. This was far from the case. The 4 riders that made up the move just kept on riding and although never gaining much more than a minute nothing really happened to bring the back. I was still marking my man and had a few dig in order to go with a few moves but nothing really happened.

At the half way point of the race with the break still out in front, i decided that now was the time to start thinking about making a move. I made an attack after a bit of a lull in the bunch, a summer valley rider came with me, we had a good gap but i was a bit to strong for my companion meaning he couldn't pull very hard on the front. Soon we got caught by the bunch, however the front of the group remained fairly split so rather that let it all close back up i  decided to just ride off the front again. I didn't really expect this to come to much but after looking back i was surprised to see that i had a good gap, however i was coming in to the draggy headwind section so i thought i would be caught here for sure. After making it past the point i was still off the front by about 20 seconds and i was only about 25 seconds away from the break which was now down to 2 riders; Tony and Toby from cadence cycles. I kept battling the head wind but i couldn't quite seem to close the gap any more, i thought i would never get there. Yet, i looked back to check my gap and who did i see coming across the gap to me, non other that the man i was marking; Mike Jones. Once he made the bridge, we worked together to grab on to the break making a good group of 4 strong riders. Now i knew this was a good move and potentially a winning one at that.

With 2 laps to go we were working well together and held about a 45 second gap over the bunch. I was feeling OK in my legs although i was getting a bit of stomach trouble which was proving a bit uncomfortable. I was really pleased to have gotten up to Tony and it was great fun riding off the front with a team mate and a Friend. Tony though. was beginning to tire after being out in front all day and had stopped pulling on the front., this gave us 3 more work to take up which lead to the gap coming down to 20 seconds as we started the last lap. We kept digging hard, determined to stay away from the hard charging bunch. With half a lap to go we were looking behind and looking a 4 other riders bridging up to us after they had escaped the clutch of the bunch. after they latched on to out group making it 8, they added a bit more fire power to our cause but also made things a little more disorganized.

As we hit the final climb before the 3km run to the finish, an inevitable attack went, i was the only one able to respond but it never came to much so we ended up hitting the finish straight as a group of 8 with only a 20 second gap over the bunch. Tense wasn't the word. I managed to get of the front with about 1km to go and st in mid pack. The sprint went with Mike Jones responding hard, i jumped on his wheel but couldn't keep on it as he rounded the 2 in front of him take take his 3rd win in a row. I was fast closing in on 3rd place but just ran out of real estate so claimed 4th place. Tony come over the line in 8th place just a head of the main bunch sprint which was fantastic given that he had been out in front for the entire 70 mile race. Chapeau.

At the start of this report i said that i was hoping for a repeat of last year, what i wasn't expecting as and almost identical repeat of last year. The make up if the race was the same, the winner came from a group of 8 like last year, the winner; Mike Jones was the same and i came in 4th just like last year. After 2 broken Collar bones and moths of illness i am more than happy to have repeated last years result at what is a fantastic race. I took away £30 for my troubles and Tony went home with £50 worth of bike shop voucher from his 8th place over all and claiming 1st 3rd cat.

So over all a great race and a very pleasing result for myself and for stratford cycling club.

1st Mike Jones Paramount CRT
2nd Toby Elchler VC Montpelier
3rd Glndwr Griffiths Cycle Mart
4th Dan Bill Cult Racing
5th James Nockley Planet X
6th Conor Ryan VC Montpelier