Hillingdon - Westerley Spring Crits

Back to racing after a two week break. Back to Hillingdon, a circuit I have a bit of experience with. I must have raced there about 20 times now, and have never particularly enjoyed it - the races are always twitchy, there is inevitably a strong wind gusting around at least half of the circuit and the ride out there is far from pleasant (busy roads, manic driving around Southall, the smell of chips and kebabs to make you question the sense of racing as opposed to gastromomic pleasures).

Anyhow, a mixture of early season excitement, good weather (doesn't seem to happen often at the moment) and a 3rd/4th Cat mix meant a large field had turned up - I think over 70 riders. There were about 10 Dynamos, so surely we would have some sort of plan? Right, we did, the usual plan of riding for ourselves and seeing what happened!

There were a few unsuccessful breakaway attempts, one of which I participated in (probably the shortest-lived attempt of about three-quarters of a lap). The strong wind down the finishing straight made it tough for everyone, and the constant slowing as the bunch came round the final corner meant there was plenty of brake squeal and commentary. It always makes me laugh - same point on every lap and the bunch slow, but still there are comments along the lines of "Oh come on" and "Keep the speed up". Usually these comments are from riders who don't risk a turn on the front into the wind. About halfway through I had a bit of a wobble whilst trying to put my bottle back in the cage and nearly steered into a Hillingdon rider in yellow. Whoops, very bad riding on my part, for which I apologised. A beginner's mistake that I haven't made for a while - the bottle fumble, that is, not the apology! After all, I'm a polite rider...

Overall the race was pretty well behaved, but the final few laps were the usual nervous bunfight for places, with certain riders taking silly risks to try to get a couple of places up the bunch. I wasn't well positioned with one lap to go - midway back in the bunch and I've learnt before that unless you are in about the top 15 by the final corner there is little point in contesting the sprint, so I sat up and was content to just roll across the line near the back of the bunch. Oh well, a useful training ride, averaging 24.5mph which, considering the strong wind, wasn't too bad. Onwards and upwards (hopefully).

It's the Amstel Gold Race tomorrow - I'll be watching with interest as they sprint up the Cauberg (remembering my struggling up it only a few days ago). I'd love Davide Rebellin to win again and strike a blow for the older riders, but Cunego seems to be the rampant favourite. We'll see tomorrow.