Archer Spring Road Race

This race was originally intended to support the Archer GP round of the Premier Calender series, but because of the cancellation of the main event due to costs the 1/2/3 Cat Spring Road Race and 3/4 Junior Road Race were held as a standalone event. There was a good sized field entered, with some noticable past winners:

“…entries are headed by Andy Betts, Sigma Sport, last year’s winner, with his predecessors in the Spring or Junior races including such notables as Graham Webb, Steve Heffernan, Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, Roger Hammond in their younger days…”

I lined up with team mates James Beaumont and Luke Wallis, both coming off the back of the Surrey League Easter Three-Day last weekend. The Kingston Wheelers also had riders in the 3/4 race, with Phil Ember and Andy Lack braving the same course and distance as our race.

A bright morning greeted the riders to the HQ, and I took advantage of an early arrival to drive a lap of the fifteen mile circuit we were to race on. It begins with a long drag up before a descent onto the back end of the course. A few tough undulations then led into the bottom of Whiteleaf Hill, a 22% climb that goes on longer than you think! On making the top, there was a fast run on wider roads past the RAF base at Walters Ash before a potentially dangerous steep decent past race HQ and then about a kilometre to the flat finish.

After the Ras Mumhan last weekend and the long drive home I have felt pretty tired this week, so took a couple of days off the bike and rode very easy for the other days. I was expecting to feel tired in the race knowing that hopefully form should arrive in time for next weeks Les Ingham.

Sure enough, on the first of three laps (yes it was only a forty-five mile race!) my legs felt heavy, with the first climb up Whiteleaf a little laboured. Things stayed together for the first lap, and it took the second climb up Whiteleaf to cause a split, with about twelve or so riders getting a gap and then forcing it over the top. I was expecting this to happen so had stayed at the front up the climb so made the group.

There was a rider still up the road who had attacked earlier, but eventually the break settled into some sort of rhythm and we caught him with just over a lap to go. A good steady climb back up the first long drag made sure chasing groups were left well behind.

On the last lap the climb up Whiteleaf did nothing to break our lead group up, leaving only the fast tailwind flat road for attacks to take place. This they did, with Andy Betts of Sigma Sport and one of the Hemmants from London Dynamo taking the initiative on a couple of occasions. I went with both of them on separate attacks, but fresh legs in the chasers meant nothing was sticking. Just before the descent three riders got a small gap, and extended it on the downhill. The rest of us were slightly guilty of looking around to see who would chase, until Betts put in a big effort to close them down, although they managed to hold off the surging chasers with Cameron Austin of London Dynamo taking the win. I came in 9th place with a pretty poor effort in the sprint. Luke and James both finished in chasing groups further back.

I wish more races used courses like this with selective climbs in them, as it removes some of the guesswork out of tactics. Even then however, there is still this hurdle of working out how to win a race from a winnable situation to get over! Perhaps if the race had been longer, the final attacks would have been more likely to succeed, but then again, you just don’t know…

On the plus side my tan lines made another step in the right direction, and my freshly cleaned white shoes sparkled in the sun. To top off a good day I checked my work e-mail to find I have been underpaid since September and should get a back-dated payment next month. I’ll sleep better knowing I can actually afford the new wheels I have on order.