Leisure lakes Circuit Race 2

Cheltenham Race Course 01/07/11

1hr plus 5 laps

50 riders

Warm and sunny

               

A week after I almost suffered full blown hypothermia from racing in terrible conditions, I was back at Cheltenham Race Course for the second race in the Leisure Lakes Circuit Series and also the last one for this year which is a real shame. With the weather looking much better for this evening there was a much better turn out for the main race of the day and looked like it would be a very hotly contested race given the calibre of riders and teams which were in attendance and of course most of team Qoroz showed up looking to put on a good show.  I had no team mates racing as such but I would be riding with some very good friends who I hadn’t seen since last year. My mate Kyle turned up looking to put in a good ride and he brought with him Mike Lawton who I had some fantastic races with last year but hadn’t raced for 6 months. Now he was back and I was really pleased to see him looking fit and in good spirits so what ever happened tonight I knew I would have some fun.

I had had a sensible week in the lead up to this race, I completed one hard training ride early in the week and the just done some easy rides so I was feeling ready for this race and hoping for a good ride. After my usual long warm up I rode round the course just to test the surface and realised they were all lining up at the start so when I got there I was already at the back. Worse still was when the set us off and I couldn’t get clipped in on the uphill start so ended up right at the back.

So the first few laps I had to work my way up to the front of the field which I managed in about 3 laps, the group was big, much bigger than last week. Once I was up at the front I aimed to stay there for the rest of the race and ended up never slipping back further than about 15 riders from the front. In this position I was close enough to react to any attack which took place which as it happened were pretty frequent. This was a much attackier race than last week but I knew I was feeling good as I was able to close the gap on any attack that took place,

Mid-way through the race with the main field losing one or 2 riders every lap, a small group of 3 went clear which looked pretty dangerous as it contained last week’s winner Duncan Jameson. I sensed this could be the one that stayed away so on the next lap I launched of the front on the climb and left the bunch behind me, after half a lap I was on the back of the break and very excited at the prospects of staying away. I was more pleased at the fact I had managed to attack and catch a break as I seem to have a history of getting away but getting stuck in no man’s land. Anyway, the break never really wanted to work together so what could have been a race winning move ended up getting caught after about 2 laps which was really frustrating. However I wasn’t a frustrated as Kyle who was looking really strong but once again plagued by bad luck, this time with his chain coming off again and again. Eventually he had to pull out as his bike just wasn’t playing along. On the other hand, Mike who hadn’t raced for 6 months looked like he hadn’t been off the bike at all. There he was alongside me looking good, it’s just when he kept asking me how long is left did I suspect he was beginning to tire.

As the race reached its half-way point the front group had whittled down to about 15-20 riders with more dropping off every lap. I  was still feeling good and found myself making attacked again and again but I wasn’t really picking my moment right so was just wasting my reserves. I decided that as there wasn’t long left and the group contained some pretty strong determined riders, I would sit about 5-10 riders back keep an eye on things and wait for the big hitters to make a move. Soon enough the 5 lap board was showing and the pace began to hot up and within the next 2 lap the bunch was ground down to about 13-14 riders as the pace was consistently high. Bell Lap was soon up on us and I was feeling good for the sprint. I made sure that I held my place at the front well and worked to make sure that nobody came up my inside going in to the final turn. As we exited the chicanes and on to the finish hill I began to open up my sprint as a rider came over in to my line, I had to dab the brakes which lost me some momentum so had to start again. This cost me some speed and as I crossed the line in about 7^th or 8^th I concluded that it possibly cost me some places but to be honest I didn’t really care as I ha d such a fun race, I mean a really fun race. I also feel that the result didn’t reflect the performance as I feel that I rode a very strong race and also felt very string racing it.

I knew it would be a fun race riding with all my racing buddies and I was right for sure, I am really looking forward to future races of us lot are all racing together again. Bring it on.