Mar 23, 2011
Having originally planned not to race on this weekend, my decent result from the previous weekend and a glimpse of past form swung the balance the other way- it had to be done. However, despite there being 3 decent E12 races in the area, they were all over an hour away, and all over-subscribed. Although I have never even made a top 10 at Thruxton, it was only10 min drive from my weekday home, so an early journey back to work would thus eliminate the need for any additional travelling, so my need to turn pedals hard got the better of me. You never know who is going to turn up at Thruxton, as it is reasonably central for most Southern based riders, and true to that stance, the Pendragon boys turned up quite mob-handed with Chris Opie, Pete Johnson, Jake Martin.
My nemesis from last week, Wilier/Goselfdrive’s Blake Pond was present, as were the usual Thruxton/Mountbatten point-grabbers. I had a reasonable warm up on the rollers, but even sat on the line chatting to my old Army CU team mate Allan Ridler, I didn’t feel that much like racing. However, once the flag went down, it was time to focus and cover any decent-looking moves from the Tour Series riders. Simon Brooks And rowan horner from VC St Raphael were also quite active, though lacked the turn of speed that the Pendragon guys had. It didn’t take too long for the bunch to split, with about 14 of us pulling away after 20 min of racing. The move contained the Pendragon trio, Pond, Brooks/Horner/Streather from VC StR, Ian Legg of Felt, Al Ridler, Peter Kench, Harry Bulstrode and a few of the other locals. It all remained relatively calm, I felt comfortable doing my turns, and although Opie had to do a pit stop for a broken wheel after running into someone infront of him, the pace remained the same, despite my attempts to gee it up and make it harder for his pursuit.
Once he was back on, the St Raphael guys made a few attacks, I joined them on a couple but they weren’t willing to ride with me, even though none of the big-hitters had made it. I tried twice with them, they were either tired or simply unprepared as non-sprinters, to work. With 3 to go, the duo attacked again, this time getting a few seconds air between our group. Pendragon looked at Pondy and I to assist the chase, but needless to say, it was their reputation on the line so it was down to them. Johnson pushed the pace up with Opie in tow. Martin went to jump across, i went with him, he signalled with a finger behind his back- I’m not sure if his ground appreciation is bad or something, but we definitely had more than 1 lap, 1 km or even 1 mile to go at that point… The duo were reeled in with a lap to go, Martin got on the front with Opie on his wheel.
I thought that their killer tactic might have been to string the whole break out on the circuit, but the pace was steady, allowing the Raphael guys to once again attack. Coming up the drag towards the chicane for the final time, Ridler attacked, and going into the chicane, Horner went for it again. I was at this point still in opie’s shotgun, but risked getting baulked by some of the riders who had been soft-tapping. I jumped at the apex of the chicane, deciding to go to Al’s right rather than left. I made it into the final straight behind Horner, got past him but then found myself in the nightmare scenario- I had used a lowish 53×15 gear to jump and accelerate but although I was now leading, I was rapidly running out of gear, spinning about 130rpm.
I tried to shift, but it seemed as though the gear wasn’t going to shift, so I had no option but to see it out in this low gear. If I had double-shifted, there would have been a distinct possibility that I would have crashed the gears and lost anything that i could now salvage. As it was, only the sprinting prowess of Cornishman Opie overcame me, and I crossed the line in 2nd, again, with Pond just ahead of Johnson in 3rd Another steady performance, and hopefully a win isn’t too far around the corner- I only had 5 podiums all of last season, so motivation in the black & white of PrimalEurope is brimming more than half full at the close of the first month of the season.
Great write up, well done Martin, keep up the good riding.
Smudge, great writing you should work for the comic!!!!
maz