Race Report

Well as strange as it is to say it in December, the racing season is here again. Everyone back home is probably packing up the bikes and packing on the lbs for the winter, for me its freezing cold races, and time on the trainer. Not sure if it is the lack of fitness for everyone else, or I just ride better in the cold, but just like last year things seem to go well for me in the winter. So Hillingdon was on the schedule for today, not sure if there is even going to be races at Hog Hill this winter, but will have something to do till mid feb regardless. The weather was just ok, the sun seemed to keep getting stronger during the morning, but unfortunately so did the wind. Probably about 50 degrees, partly cloudy, and a 10-15 mph wind. Maybe the weather convinced some of the fair weather riders to come out, because the fields were sold out. I went on-line at about 11 last night to check out the start time, and there were only 9 spots available so i pre-reged to make sure I had a spot. Quite a difference from last winter, when the fields were only 25 or so guys. That meant 50 of us lined up, with another 50 cat 4s racing right behind us.

It was pretty relaxed, for the first 30 min or so, nothing really got much traction off the front. I took a couple of trips up the road to kinda see what would happen but was never quite the right mix. The course and the wind mixed combined to make it about a 27 mph race all day. The headwind came on the downhill, and the tailwind helped out on the uphill to the finish. I recognised a couple of guys from last year, and when a Kingston Wheeler came past during a lull in the action I jumped on and we were off. Just the two of us for a couple of laps and then people started to come across in ones and twos. Finally 6 of us got together and started putting in some real time on the rest of the race. Not sure if we had teammates blocking for us back in the group or we were just fast, but either way put a couple mins into the group and it was pretty much over.

There were clearly some guys faster than others in the break and I wasn’t one of the fast ones. It was pretty much just survival for me for most of the time. We caught the 4s (who were racing 10 mins shorter than us) when they had two to go, and sat in on their race for a bit, to take a breather. One of the guys in our group thought we were finishing at the same time as them and sprinted, both hands in the air victory celebration, only to find out we still had 6 laps to go. It was about this time that I had my second heart attack, and my left hammie started to cramp. So I couldn’t breathe or pedal, it didnt’ look good for the sprint. Everything was pretty relaxed for the last couple of laps.

1 to go.........

Nobody had enough to go it alone, and nobody wanted to really lead things out. In the sprint I did nothing but confirm that I can’t sprint, in reality would have probably been better off, getting off my bike and trying to run, since my leg was worthless. Ended up 5^th, so pretty successful. I am sure I will be excited about it in a couple days when I can walk and breathe again but for now, but want to take a nap. Just under 25mph way to hard for the first real efforts in months.