west midlands Road Race League Round 1

28/03/2010
Burton upon Trent
Bill Jinks Memorial RR - Cat 2/3/4
65 miles
80 Riders

Following on from my previou post, training had been going great and i could stsrt to feel myself making some progress. Unfortunatly when things go right for me it is usually followed by something bad and this case was no exception, 3 days before the Bill Jinks RR i came down with quite an agressive cold. Typicall isnt it, i go all winter, doing stupid amounts of training, didtroying my body and i donr get one cold. As soon as i start becoming heathly again i get one, i dint get it.

After a bit of debating i decided i would race anyway, stupid i know but i did the neck check, where you see if the symtoms are in your head or chest and as it ws in my head i considered my self well enough to race. The West mids RR League is the teams big goal this year but with most of the team ill or injured i was the only one competing for Cult bu hopefully i will have my buddys there with me in the other races.

The race started at 12.30 on what was quite a chilly day. 80 riders set off from the HQ and rode the 2km or so to the start. To give you an idea of just how bad i felt already, i almost got dropped in the nutrilized zone. Not good. I spent most of the first half of the race at the back trying to get my legs and lungs working, at this point the main break went and the race was split. I started to feel a bit better in the latter haft of the race but not much was happening in our group. I went with a few moves and tried to make a few moves on my own but we were never going to catch the front group so it would all come down to the last lap and a race for the minor places. On the last lap i cracked open a gel which kicked in just at the right momenet, i had decided i did not want to contest a sprint from out quite edgey, nervous group so i blew out the snot and mucus from my nostrlls and summoned up my last bit of strength, enough to launch an well timed attack on the last climb about
3km from the finish. I got the gap and took 2 others with me, we rode through and off with me just hanging on. one of the guys dropped of with about 1km to go and the other one pulled away from me at the same time as i was trying to breathe what felt like a straw. We held of the pack and i finished in what i consider a respectable 24th place given the circumstances.

The winner was Matt Gee of team Raleigh/Avanti, funnily enough, this is the same matt who i just pipped to the post to claim the West midls Cyclocross League. I will consider this my payback but will hopefully but up there with him in the next one.