Dunsfold 3rds, 6th March

Ah, back to road racing, and back to Dunsfold – one of my favourite road courses. We had three other Dynamo riders in the first major race of the season, up against strong teams from (in particular) Addiscombe and Kingston Wheelers (the organisers, who had flooded the field with about 11 riders in a Dynamo-style points mission). I quite like the fact that we no longer field the biggest teams in races as we don’t get moaned at so much now.

Weather – chilly but bright (and, more importantly, dry) with fairly light wind. Preparation – poor. We spent the night consuming cocktails, wine and overly expensive food to celebrate my wife’s birthday week extravaganza (as she insists on calling it) so I think it would be fair to say that I wasn’t feeling on top form come 7am on Sunday morning!

We set off at a fair pace and before long a break of about 8 riders had gone. They didn’t build much of a gap initially but, over the course of the next 2 laps, they started to remain out of sight for longer periods of time. This is always problematic (out of sight, out of mind) so a few of us went to the front to up the pace and begin the slow process of dragging them back. I knew that the Addiscombe riders in the break were handy, and also that AndyL from Wheelers was up there, so the ‘engine room’ of the break was well served.

After about two and a half laps of solid effort the break was caught – unfortunately in the process I had tired myself out a little too much. I still haven’t got the balance right between trying to drive the pace and sitting in to recover, and was continually worried that with only 3 or 4 of us working in the bunch we might never catch the break. With hindsight I should have realised that the break weren’t working too well together.

So there I was, resting mid-bunch after some quite concerted effort, thinking “I bet another break goes, should try and get forwards” when another break went! Final lap, stuck mid-bunch, no chance of getting over to it, game over for this non-sprinter. I rolled over the line around 20-something – two of the ‘Mos got in the top 10, so not a bad outing overall.

So on the one hand it was a good workout, I felt I raced reasonably well and can certainly ‘read’ races better that a few years ago. On the other hand I do too much work to benefit others, so I’m not really much of a racer!

And in other news, one of my sons told me that he didn’t want to go out riding on his bicycle on Sunday afternoon because a) it was cold, and b) he was scared of falling off. On the one hand I was relieved that I didn’t have to go on a post-race bike ride, but it doesn’t reflect too well on me, does it?!