21. June, 2014 Surrey League Roadrace, Ditchling Common, Cat 2/3, 10 laps = 105km, 11th place (5 BCF points)

As the third leg of the Bayeux Racing Series (I missed the first two due to illness, earlier this season) everyone was keen to get points in order to qualify for the final timetrial, open to the top 20 of the series, only. On a new and relatively unselective fast course it took to mid race for some serious action to happen. I punctured mid lap 6 and following a rear wheel change tried for one and a half laps to get back on to the peloton. This was quite a gruelling exercise as the neutral service car repeatedly got stuck in traffic, while I easily overtook the queuing cars, he had to wait behind. So it happened that probably 50% of my battle to latch on to the peloton I was on my own and the other 50% in the slipstram of the neutral service car at about 50-60km/h charging around bends but then again being faster than him on the descents. Eventually I got back on with one and a half laps to go. Although my legs still felt relatively fresh,  I must have burned quite a few matches during my pursuit of the field. After a while I learned that  Jamie had gone off the front and had something like 50 seconds, looking like he could make it to the finish. The speed was getting quite high here and there, when we caught up with Jamie who got stopped due to the lead car being stuck in traffic, too. Subsequently the race had to be restarted with one lap to go and Jamie getting awarded back his 35 seconds lead. This amazingly lasted until the final 300m when the Peloton sadly caught up with Jamie, despite LD attempting to hold off any counterattacks. Rob finished it off with class outsprinting everyone as wanting to say "Here you go, you didnt want it any different!" Jamie still hung on to take 4th, Lee got in on 9th and myself on 11th, all together totalling 59 points for the SL team classification.

picture taken by Glyn Durrant, during the pursuit of the peloton after having had to change wheels