Race Report: BC West Thames Race at Hillingdon, Cat4, Sat. 08.Sept.2012

This was my first race after an 18 year break from cycling&racing and only one year back on the bike. I think without London Dynamo's encouragement to have a go and try, I never would have, in particular after a tough Sat Richmond Park clubrun with 2^nd and later 1^st group in the morning of the same day.  

The race: What a beautiful day, although quite a bit windy out there, it wasn’t quite that slow race I wanted,  with an average of 40.8km/h, although it was more like fast and slow pace in alternation. I tried the “Contador” tactics for the first half hour, with about 10-12 rather serious attacks, but couldn’t break away for more than 10 seconds, always until individual chasers got me and then apparently didn’t see any reason to support the work to make it a successful breakaway, they just got hung to my back wheel and wouldn’t lifted their legs. I couldn’t sustain any of the breaks on my own.

The second half was then more the reverse. I was more chasing rather than being chased. With this game we got all the way to the final lap and things started getting hairy. Not wanting to end in a pileup (my alarm bells were ringing very loud)  I took things very cautious and got around the final bend only in approx 12th position or so and already though all was lost. Knowing that my earlier “Contador” tactics didn’t fruit,  I suddenly remembered how I did it 18 years ago, Zabel style and...did it work well! Got first to the finish line, but about 20m ahead of the closest contester. Although it was just a cat 4 race, this win came  totally unexpected to me and therefore made it a rather sweet experience at the age of 43. 

I need to give credit to the London Dynamo clubrides for this, in particular hanging around 1^st and 2^nd group on Saturday mornings and the super fast Wednesday evenings with the Cat1/2 guys. Also the interval training with Paul (Ucanfitness), which I managed to join 4-5 times in the last 2 months did a good job in preparing for this. Many thanks to all of you.

The genuine origin of my revelofication was on the 15. July 2010, during a lunch with Lord Norman Foster in Hongkong.  We had just presented the competition winning scheme for the West Kowloon Cultural District and Norman took the team out for lunch. We had a relaxed conversation about Design in general, about Architecture and Cities and somehow got talking of those in terms of performance. At the time one of our consultants was suffering from a leg injury inflicted through a cycling accident. Performance and Cycling, those two themes kicked of a conversation about the amazing human experience of cycling. The independence won through a free mode of transportation, the challenge of staying on the bike over long distances and high altitudes, the experience of speed. Norman revealed himself as a keen cyclist, enjoying the swiss mountains on his MTB but also roadbike. He also revealed that he enjoyed riding in Richmond park when he was still resident in London. I felt awkward, having given up cycling eighteen years earlier and now feeling inspired by my professional principal to get back on the bike. I actually felt kind of embarrassed to admit that I, an ex semi-pro racer had given up that once life filling passion. I felt adrenalin in my veins. My old passion was reignited. After all I still had my old BASSO LOTO from 1991 parked in the living room.