Steve Taylor Memorial Road Race

Welland Circuit

60 miles

6 Laps

Rolling course with the finish at the top of a mile long climb

80 riders

2/3/4 category

Very, Very hot.

I only found about this race when I was riding last week at the Gerry Hughes, I never saw it at all on the BCF website and when I was told that it was on the course down the road and finished on a big hill I wanted in. I contacted the organiser, Graham Denny and asked if I could get in with a late entry but with a full field the only thing he could suggest was to send a late entry and he would put me down as first reserve. Graham was a big help and I am very grateful for his rapid communication the week before the race.

After a hard fought race on Friday night I knew that I would be feeling a wee bit tired today but when I woke up I didn’t feel too bad, I had my usual breakfast and loaded my bike in to Tony Kiss’s car who was giving me lift to the race. Then, as soon as we started moving, I started feeling a bit odd. My head went all light and my stomach began to churn, as the journey wore on I was not feeling good at all and was trying very hard not to be sick. I was very grateful to get there, get out the car and run straight to the toilet. I signed on and was informed I was in the race, this was great news but typical that on the day I have a race with a finish climb I feel really ill. As I thought this I realised that I would need to head in the direction of the toilet again.

After 5 trips to the toilet we were ready for the off and as soon as the neutralized zone was up I went backwards straight to the back of the bunch. I was feeling really lethargic, queasy and generally rough, I was feeling tell tail signs of a bit of a cold coming on. I decided that I would go against my usual race tactic of trying to break away and instead sit in the bunch, hope nothing get away and see if I can make a move on the final climb. This usually works for most people but typically for me, on the second lap a break of 16 riders went clear and started drilling it!!!

I could not believe it, Tony was up in the break along with most other favourites, I knew this was a dangerous move so I had no choice but move up and start doing some work. For the next 4.5 laps only 5 off us out of the remaining 64 riders were working to bring it back. Frustrating but that’s racing, we had no choice and I knew that if I was going to make any kind of move on the final climb I would have to work hard. As I couldn’t really eat or drink due to my dodgy stomach I was beginning to feel even worse. Eventually we managed to get the gap down to 20 seconds but then it went back out to 45 seconds, morale was low in the bunch I the guys who were working were beginning to tire. To make things worse the guys who were sitting on whilst we chased then started attacking our group, there was no way with the amount of work I had done was I letting them get away. The next 10 minutes were so hard I didn’t really remember then, the attacks just kept coming and I just had to keep chasing, somehow in managed to neutralise every one and amazingly due to the increased pace we actually caught the 16 man break with a lap and a half to go. I was so grateful when the we reached them and it eased up for a bit.

I resigned myself to the back of the bunch again as now I was feeling really bad and very tired, a break went away again but was dragged back, then with half a lap to go another break went away and this one stayed away. After 6 laps we turned off of the course and on to the Hollybush which is the name of the final climb. Moved up to the front but stayed in the wheels, the break wasn’t to far ahead, and I stayed near Tony and Joe Page from Team Echelon as I knew they were both strong riders on this terrain. I was really annoyed as this is one of the few races with a hill finish and I just proved how good I could be on this finish as even thought I wasn’t putting out anywhere near the power I was capable off, riders around me were just blowing up and popping off. Joe let off a grown and went bang, then Tony went bang and I just kept moving up. A move was made by Adrian Bird from Worcester St Johns, I followed as did some other and I managed to claw a few final places in the last few meters before crossing the line somewhere in the top 15 before almost collapsing as the side of the road.

I was devastated but very happy with the effort I had given during the race and how well I did on the final climb especially given how ill I felt. I have no idea where i finished but I will update as soon as I know, i think it was top 15 anyway. What I do know is that as I am writing this I am struggling to keep my eyes open, my legs hurt, my stomach feels odd, my head is killing me and all I want to do is go to bed. But the Tour is on so I’m watching that first J

Results:
1 Duncan Jamieson (Leisure Lakes) 2:15:05
2 Matthew Ullmer (Team Qoroz) at 4sec
3 Simon Healey (Andover Wheelers) @ same time
4 Rob Lyne (Giant CC) @ 7sec
5 David Saunders (Climb On Bikes)
6 Matt Jennings (1 Optix)
7 Richard Cleaver (VC Montpellier) all @ same time
8 Ian Alexander (Cheltenham & County CC) @ 23sec
9 Adrian Bid (Worcester St Johns CC) @ 28sec
10 John Holt (Bynea CC) @ same time

Here is my power file from todays race as well as the course profile
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/UXCCEJJLNKEWB7MHTT2NV7W5HU

Ride safe

Dan