A Sting in the Tail – WASP Road Race 2011

The WASP Road Race
Port Talbot, Wales.
Hosted by Ogmore Valley CC
65 Miles
80 Riders

After a solid week of quality training mixed in with good fuelling and rest, I as looking forward to a good ride in today's 65 mile Regional A Road Race down in the deepest of Wales, well not quite but it was in wales and wales is known for its hills and this race included something that I have never experienced before; A mountain top finish. Yep, the UK actually has a race with a proper mountain in it and is another reason why I was looking forward to today, finally a chance for my lack of weight to come in to play and hopefully work in my favour for a change. The climb of Bwlcy-Y-Clawdd comes after 3 laps of an out and back circuit taking place on very rough narrow roads. The climb is just over 6km long and is the closest thing to a continental alpine climb I have come across in the UK. The first 400m are the steepest at just over 10% before settling in to a constant gradient of just over 5% and contains 2 switch back before a long drag to the finish. Awesome.

During the drive down with my racing buddy Tony Kiss, we began to discuss tactics and the best way to ride the race. With the climb being such a decisive factor I had already decided on my pre-race plan. I would stick in the shelter of the bunch and only go in a break if the race favourites were in it; the rider in my mind was Luke Dunmar from Qoros as he is a very strong climber and a great tactician. I will then go with pace setters at the start of the climb watching out for the moves and hopefully be in contention for the win after tackling the climb. I had made the decision not to go in any other breaks as I was sure these would not stay away till the finish die to the sting in the tail in the form of a mountain at the end of the race. I feel this was a pretty good plan and one which I was hoping to stick too.

At 11.00am the race took to the roads and began the 5km neutralized section before the flag dropped, I was mid bunch and meandering along before getting the shock of my life when the race started proper. The pace was super-fast, I'm talking Crit like speed, and already riders were strung out and curb crawling through the cross wind sections. Nobody could work out why the pace was so fast but soon enough it began to settle, as it did a few riders began to ride off the front and establish a bit of a break. Sticking with the plan, me, Tony and Mike (Tony's Brother) all stayed in the bunch thinking that nothing would come of it. Mile after mile the bunch road at what can only be described as club run pace and before we knew it the break had a minute and a half. I was beginning to think that we had really made a hash of things and the break would get a big enough gap to stay away on the climb.

Even with a good number of teams in the race, the break was not coming back. Every time the bunch made a sustained effort and put in some pace it was followed by a massive lull in speed, sometimes almost coming to a stop. It was very frustrating but I was sticking to my guns and waiting until the climb to make a move. As we finished the last lap we had a 5km ride back towards the HQ before hitting the bottom of the climb. Positioning would be essential as we had to tackle a tight roundabout which leads straight on to the 10% part of the climb. A few little attacks went in the run in but I managed to maintain my top 10 place in the bunch as we hit the roundabout.

Race Favourite Luke Dunmar hit the climb and put the hammer down, 3 riders were only able to go with this initial pace; Me, Tony and Connor Ryan of VC Montpellier. As the steep section ended we consolidated the gap we had over the bunch as we hit the narrow downhill section before hitting the main portion of the climb. I sensed that of we didn't keep the pace high then the bunch would come back and I was not prepared for that to happen, especially considering to my amazement we were passing riders from the original break. With thisin mind and the knowledge that only 4 riders were ahead, I hit the front and began setting the pace. I flt good and this was my terrain and I was prepared to urt a bit to try and do something special. Luke came through once or twice to do a bit of pace setting but I was doing 90% of it and putting in huge chunks of time to the riders behind us whilst closing the gap to the riders ahead. It was a pretty special feeling being able to ride all but 3 riders off of your wheel and not something I have expienienced in a race before.

As we rounded the first hair pin I had pulled us well clear of the bunch as Luke took to the front. Tony and Connor were beginning to suffer and were soon dropped as Luke upped the pace in an effort to catch the leaders. I went with him and stuck to his wheel as his pace increased. I soon began to cross the line and plunge deep in to the red, the last thing I wanted to do was blow o this climb as I would lose loads of time. I done the sensible thing and backed off slightly settling in to my own max sustainable pace still managing to put time between all those behind me. As we hit the final hairpin, Luke had bridged up to the 2 riers ahead with another 2 riders from the orinal break still about a minute clear. I was slowly gaining but with a KM to go and a stiff head wind I knew that my chances of catching them were slim yet I still pushed on riding at the max I could manage and already feeling pretty ecstatic at the ride I had managed to pull out of the hat. As it was, Luke suffered in the final push to the line and ended up 5^th with me crossing the line only a few seconds down in what as a very rewarding 6^th place. Connor managed to hold on for 7^th with Tony putting in another awesome ride to finish 9^th.

After congratulating each other I sat atop the climb at the side of the road realising how strong I actually can be when I'm fresh, fuelled and riding on my terrain. Only one rider was faster than me up that climb and that was the rider I had already picked out as the strongest. I knew that if the break had hit the climb with 30 seconds less that I would have been up there contesting the win for sure. However, I was not disappointed as I couldn't have ridden the race better given the situation and the freak break which went away. The only thing that did annoy me was that for the 3^rd time this year I missed out on the prizes by one place, but to be honest, with the performance I feel that I put in today was reward enough for me.
Now I just need to find more races with a mountain top finish, maybe I should move to France
Dan

1 Giles Drake (Team Elite) 2:55:00
2 Mike Simpson (GS Henley) @ 30sec
3 Luke Grivell-Mellor (Mid-Shropshire Wh) @ 1:00
4 Dan Pearson (Port Talbot Wheelers)
5 Luke Dunbar (Team Qoroz)
6 Daniel Bill (Cult Racing) @ 1:10
7 Conor Ryan (VC Montpellier)
8 Joe Harris (Reading CC)
9 Tom Kiss (Stratford CC)
10 Glyndwr Griffiths (Team Cyclemart)