With a mix of Elite, Ex-Elite, Cat1/2/3/4 but all
of the same age group, it seemed likely to be an active race from the start.
The scorching heat increased the likelihood of this to become a race of
attrition. Huw Watkins and myself took
on the challenge, in Cat A, Ralph Carter
took on the Challenge in Cat C.
For a Road race championship I strongly anticipated
an element of difficulty, at least a hill that would help to get e selection of
riders. But not so on this course, just undulating up and down. Instead the
riders provided the element of difficulty, in form of relentless attacks, again
and again, some stuck for a while by chance other promising ones got closed
down very quickly. I think it was a field of very strong riders, most riders I
talked to after the race were BC cat 2
or 1. A duo made it though, for a few laps and only got caught back with half a
lap to go.
The other selecting element were potholes, some of
them dangerously deep, but generally marked. Unfortunately, I hit one of those
monsters with 3.5 laps to go, no warning from the guys in my line ahead of me
and it hit straight through to my new carbon rim and ripped the tubular. That
was that. Thinking the race was over for me I stopped on the roadside, the peloton
rushing off in the distance, when a neutral service car offered me a back wheel.
Amazing! I didn’t even know there was
such service on offer. I probably lost 2 mins as the quick release didn’t open
immediately and the mechanic couldn’t
find a campy cassetted wheel immediately and then the rim width was different, we
quickly had to alter the brake span. “Have you ever ridden behind a car?” he wanted
to know. “Sure enough, some 20 years ago?!”
And off we went, with me in the slipstream as I wasn’t allowed to hold
on to the car. I remembered how Cav deeply
impressed me on stage 6 this week, when following
a crash 30km before the finish in Montpellier, he got on a replacement bike and
charged after the peloton and jumped from car to car (and across roundabouts)
to still manage to get back to the peloton and finish 4th on that
day. With this in mind I followed the
neutral car in front of me, him getting into the bends like Lewis Hamilton
throwing up a lot of dust and debris so that in one critical downhill bend I
couldn’t even see the edges of the road…it was like a rollercoaster ride, just
faster, three quarters of a lap in fast
forward mode and with 2 laps to go I was back in contention, or maybe not as I
felt really cooked then. Sitting in the
bunch for a lap helped recovery and with one lap to go there was light at the
end of the tunnel, despite being in the last quarter of the peloton at 2k to go
I managed to be a the front of the
peloton at the 500m mark. Someone else
thankfully started the sprint and cut me in such way that we were shoulder to
shoulder and almost crashed, I pulled the brakes and fell back to 6-8th
position but was able regain ground on the final 200m to end 4th. Huw got in 6th I believe. The race was won by Mark Smith of AWcycles,
with about 4 bike length. Despite having just missed the medals I am happy with
the result, considering that the race could have been over for me if there hadn’t been a neutral mechanic
service that helped me out with someone else’s wheel. Sorry for the lengthiness of this race report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzy8V3xFmHM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzy8V3xFmHM