So Racing: Ludgershall…Part 2

This previous Saturday was my only my 4th race…yet, as i crawled out of bed at 5am to catch my train down to Andover, it occurred to me that bike racing is already starting to become quite important to me.

I ride my bike most days, because I love it. I’ve always just ridden till I get tired or bored.  I leave the house, I aim the front wheel at some hills, find a coffee shop, eat some cake and that is about all the thought I put into it. Now though, the hours I spend in the saddle roaming the countryside leave me feeling guilty and a little confused. What am I gaining from these rides? How is this going to help me get out of the 4ths or get that first win? My approach to how and why I ride my bike is changing. It’s time to get more focused.

The need to focus however presents me with a problem…. This is my first season, so I have absolutely no idea which discipline is going to suit me most…I intend to just try everything and see how it goes. So far I’ve tried circuit racing, which I really enjoy and isn’t going to badly for me. Racing at Hillingdon and Ludgershall has shown me that I’ve got some strength in my legs and can probably be competitive enough to gain some points this season. So, with that in mind I’ve started to plan my racing calendar… it is going to be diverse.

Castle Combe will likely be a mainstay, with races most weeks throughout the summer but I’m also planning other circuit races; Ludgershall this weekend and Ilton the following. April looks like its going to be a busy month, providing I can get my entries sorted (Curse you BC and your ridiculous postal entry system…) I’ll be racing the Pittards, Bristol South CC and Reading CC road races. Castle Combe starts in May and I’m signed up for a 24mile TT at the end of the month. I haven’t got much further than that yet…

…Apart from two big goals. I would love to ride the 6 day Ras de Cymru (Tour of Wales), but that is dependant on finding a team, so I’ll update progress there as it comes. It’s a 2/3/4 race in some of the hilliest terrain we have so I’m sure it will be utterly brutal!

The other goal is a 12 hr time trial at the end of July…I don’t know why but the idea really appeals to me… I’m all paid up for this one so there is no backing out… I think I need some TT practice…and some aero bars. Any advice anyone has about this kind of event would be greatly appreciated. I’ve ridden Ultra endurance skateboard events, but that’s just not the same…probably…

Hopefully some more time spent on the BC and CTT event calendars will pad my season out quite nicely and keep me busy (read exhausted) through the summer.

So..Back to Ludgershall

Having travelled there by train, I had to ride the 6 miles from Andover station to the track at Corunna Barracks. The rolling A road was a perfect warm up and for the first time I didn’t feel stiff or unready at the start line. Which is handy because the Bath Uni boys got stuck in straight away, keeping the pace high and 30 rider bunch fairly strung out. I was happy with that, keeping myself up in the front group, doing a little work but waiting to see how the race was going to pan out.

I’d met the Bath Uni guys on the train down so I knew that they were going to work hard for the win, and they definitely did. They tried a couple of times to go off the front but in the end they couldn’t quite get a break to stick with the bunch working to bring them back. Once or twice I found myself doing the work to chase them but I didn’t feel too bad for it.

A couple of the BRC setting the pace mid way through.

The race continued in this vein until roughly half way, when there was a nasty crash behind that left me glad I was working on the front rather than sitting in the bunch. The race was neutralised for a few laps as the injured were attended to (very quickly) by the organisers. I’ve heard through the grapevine that one of the guys involved has a broken collarbone.. get well soon mate.

Once the race was restarted it continued much the same way as it had before the crash, at a high but manageable pace. I was beginning to feel the usual pangs from the effort, the little hints of doubt that I seem to have just before the race is decided, but as usual once 5 laps to go was called they were forgotten. Now I tried to position myself ready for what was bound to be a bunch sprint. As Ive said in the past, positioning is something I need to work on..and whilst I feel like I have improved my positioning during the bulk of the race, I let myself down again in the preparation for the sprint.

I was in a good position going into the last lap, and heading up the long straight and into the far corner all was well. For some reason though I let myself sit in the middle of the track and allowed a few people to come round the insides and outsides, dropping me to maybe 10^th wheel and well and truly blocked in as those riders began to fade. Bath Uni made matters worse for me by executing a brilliant lead out starting from a long way out. This increase in pace split the guys in front of me enough to let me find a gap but it was too late. I came through just before the final bend in time to see Bath Uni’s Mark Bleakley finishing his lead out for Pierre Thomas and a sprint I had no chance of catching from 20 metres back. I gave it a go anyway and managed 2^ND. My best result yet.

To be honest I was just happy to finally get some points (and to win my race fee back)…Plus, I had really enjoyed the race, which because of the standing water and flying grit felt like a big hello to classics season. I was happy for the Bath Uni guys too, they’d ridden an aggressive race and it had paid off for them. You can’t really argue with that.

I hung around for a bit to watch the 3^rd cat race, won in style by my clubmate Nick Noble and to enjoy the atmosphere in the sun (Life is always more fun when there are lots of bikes and a loud speaker blasting out dodgy pop music).

Eventually I figured it was time to leave and set off on the 60 mile ride back toBristol, which I had convinced myself would be good training….. The sun continued to shine, I had my legs out…home in time for the last 15km of the Omloop too….perfect! (Just ignore the fact that I was totally knackered by the time I got back…and was overtaken by a guy in skinny jeans on a fixy betweenBathandBristol…)