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KahHH#329150445_XLFhy-O-LB
Not sure whether I was feeling dedicated or just plain stupid at the sign on given the pretty miserable weather. Not too surprisingly there weren't many EOLs and plenty of DNSs so only about 25 riders on the start line for the E12 race.
The rain meant the normally high speed quite intimidating left turn onto market street, was much slower and almost easier than in dry. But the left turn onto the damp cobbles on the high street was different story...
First lap was delayed by couple of riders coming down on left turn onto high street, but just about managed to grovel way back up to bunch. After initial fairly fast start things settled down a bit and I was relatively comfortable, albeit unable to move up from last or near last man.
About one-third of way into race one AW cycles guy dived inside me going very quickly into market street and I was not too suprised when he crashed coming onto the high street, but I still piled into him (more of a 'step off the bike coming to a halt' rather than a true crash for me, but still qualifies for a lap out as far as I was concerned).
I settled into my last man routine of regularly getting gapped by 20-30m up the high street and then steadily closing this on back of circuit just in time to repeat approx 1 minute later...and repeat...
Plenty of other riders hitting the deck on the left turn onto the high street (you desperately wanted to get the power down as soon as possible to hold the wheel in front up but it was just so slippery) including former teammate and winner in 2005 and 2006 Warrick Spence (who decided to jump back on his bike and spend 8-10 laps chasing rather than take lap out...).
About 10 laps to go I was off the back as last man plus 1 and last man plus 2 could not hold wheels up the high street anymore. Was steadily closing the gap and after a few laps I was almost there but overcooked it on the turn on to the high street - few oooh and aaahs from the appreciative crowd. Picked myself up (wet cobbles means bruises rather than road rash) and had another lap out before rolling round, just getting lapped by the leading duo on final lap.
Not many guys left at the end so hoping may have sneaked into top 10, but probably just outside. [Update: 12th, so my best town centre crit result]
2 comments:
Who won Ian?
ha ha!
my blogs about cycling are designed to be readable/interesting for non-cyclists. For race reports and results there's BC website and LCS etc. (where you can read about your 17-year old teammate winning)
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