Podiums and Punctures

The Surrey League Revolutions stage race is the second longest you can do in Britain after the Tour of Britain itself, a Protour event. The race is held over five days in Surrey and Sussex, with each stage taking in several road circuits (hence the name “revolutions”) to keep things interesting and to make sure you end up confused at the start each day!

Stage 1- Newdigate area
This was a long opening stage of 155km held on the Rusper, Henfold Hill and Charlewood circuits. I was probably a bit too active in the first ten minutes or so, but it’s hard to contain yourself when you have good form and are itching to get up the road. An early move did escape and held on for a large part of the stage, until a chase move I was in started to reel them back. Unfortunately the bunch caught our move at the same time leaving the race all together. As we entered the finishing circuits the heavens opened, and as riders started to worry about the weather more than the race a couple of groups took the chance to get away. I was really annoyed to miss these, so on the last lap did a ten minute solo effort to try and bridge, never quite making it but at least getting some time on the bunch. Dan Staite (Python RT) took the win, and with it being the first stage, the yellow jersey.

Stage 2- Staplefield
This area is now very familiar after riding the London Dynamo race in the break and doing the Surrey League time trials. Once again an early move went, but the strong riders in the bunch could sense this might be a day to get time. With no team mates the the yellow jersey covered a lot of moves in the first half of the race, and as he tired four of us took the chance to attack, and after some hard riding caught the early move, leaving eight of us up the road. With a lead of over two minutes we were safely away, and on the final finishing circuit a few attacks went in without success. I took the chance to attack with about eight hundred metres to go, getting a small gap. I gunned it around the final bend but the legs couldn’t quite make it to the line meaning Gareth Hewitt (Team Claytan-Sabbath) and Richard Cartland (Team Corley- Cervelo) came around me, with Cartland taking the win. Third place was a good result, but once again the win eluded me! The real positive was moving up to fourth on GC, a result of the solo effort on stage one.

Stage 3a- Goodwood
This day involved two stages, the first of which was a one lap time trial of the Goodwood motor circuit. I know that on a good day I can climb for over five minutes at 450w, so aimed to try and hold 430w for this effort. I managed 422w and this was enough for another third place with Lee Tunnicliffe (Fit-For) taking the win. Being such a short TT the time gaps were seconds rather than minutes so there was no change on GC, with me still in fourth place.

Stage 3b- Goodwood
After only an hour of rest, we lined up for the 130km road stage, that involved several tough climbs in the South Downs including The Trundle and South Harting Hill. This stage starts with a few laps of the motor circuit, and sure enough the early break shot off here. On reaching the open roads Alexandre Guimaraes (Fit-For) had a mishap coming off on the first roundabout. Only minutes later disaster was to strike me as well. Just as the bunch was surging towards the bottom of the first climb I heard the dreaded staccato hiss of a rear wheel puncture, and seconds later realised it was my wheel and not the guy next to me. Luckily we had a service car and I had the wheel out in a jiffy. The next part of the change was like slow-motion (actually I think it was slow-motion) as the skewer was too loose, with the nut and spring falling off into the road. After what seemed like an eternity I was going again, having shouted to the service car to give me a tow. Just as I got going Guimaraes passed me with blood on his arms shouting to get going. No worries- I now had a service car and a rider to work with to get back on.

As we started the chase, the service car pulled in front on a sharp rise, and rather than let us get on his bumper he shot off back to the race convoy! My head sank a little, but I still felt like we would get back on. Climbing up the hill we made it around a couple of cars stuck behind the race, but on passing Glyn at the King of the Mountains line he said we were a minute back. On turning onto the false flats up to the Goodwood racecourse I rode hard, with it becoming increasingly obvious Guimaraes was in some pain and not going to contribute to the chase. At the racecourse we were given a time gap of a minute again but I was tiring from the effort, and next time up the climb we were a couple of minutes down. Both Glyn at the KoM line and my support crew of Cat and her sister Samantha got a mouthful of expletives each time they gave me a time gap!

Rather than sit up I opted to ride tempo for the rest of the stage, dropping Guimaraes in the process. The big loop out to South Harting was a mind numbing effort solo, and I was horrified to see the race ambulance looking after Mark Sussex (Wildside) who looked in bad shape flat on the road (thankfully ‘just’ a broken collarbone- speedy recovery Mark!).

On climbing South Harting Hill on my own (and on a service wheel that refused to stay in the 23 sprocket making the climb even worse) My support crew at the top said another rider had punctured and was just up the road, so a speedy descent soon brought me up to none other than Chris Mcnamara (Team Corley-Cervelo) who had been in third on GC. Chris had had even worse luck: at the point he punctured the service car was still back at the earlier crash scene, meaning a good five minute wait until he could get a change. Chris had a much more positive outlook on the days events (although obviously was still frustrated!) and we rode in together feeling philosophical about it all. At least we could now slip up the road for stage wins…

Stage 4- Alford
This was to be the longest stage of the race at 166km, although the parcours involved flatter roads around Alford, Kirdford and Dunsfold. In spite of tired legs, a big early break went clear, with some GC contenders in it. This meant a lot of chasing and high average speeds for the first couple of hours racing. At one point I got in a group away from the bunch with the yellow jersey and it took a big chase behind to pull it back. This, and some chasing from the GC riders in the bunch eventually brought the early break back. At this point, it was obvious counter-attacking would begin. I launched one, and went with another as the race behind started to split up. Then my fellow puncture victim Mcnamara launched an attack including the top three on GC and this was the move that stuck. Not content to sit back and let the stage slip away, several of us instigated a chase move, and got pretty close towards the end but failed to catch them. Dan Staite was again the winner, and I came in eleventh, not quite able to muster a sprint for the top ten!

Stage 5- Ashdown Forest
This final stage was only 120km, but to make up for the shorter length it goes up every climb Keith Butler could find in the Ashdown Forest. In fact on the Surrey League website this is advertised as “Our version of an Alpine Stage – not a flat bit of road anywhere. Sussex roads don’t go very high but they go there very quickly and far too frequently if you have tired legs.”

This was the last chance to rescue something more from the race, and it turned out Mcnamara, his team mate Richard Cartland, and John Heaton-Armstrong (Fit-for) had the same idea. My plan was to watch the Corely riders as Cartland wanted to win the King of the Mountains jersey he lost in this stage last year. On the very first incline of the day we shot off the front, taking Dan Staite with us. A few words with Staite encouraged him to return to the bunch as the four of us were well back on GC, but with him there we were doomed to fail. We started working well in a single pace line and soon pulled out to over a minute on the lumpy Ladies mile circuit.

After five laps we moved onto the steep climb from Friars Gate into Crowborough, holding a gap just over a minute and a half. After the second loop of this circuit we made the long steady climb up Kingstanding to the top of the Ashdown Forest. At this point I was feeling good, and shared the work with Cartland.

The real kick of this stage however, is the final circuit that takes in Kidd’s Hill (aka “The Wall”) three times. To be honest, although steep the climb was bearable, but not for Heaton-Armstrong who dropped off on the first ascent, leaving the three of is to work into the horrible headwind drag after the descent that I found tougher than the climb itself!

On the final lap, we had word the yellow jersey (Gareth Hewitt) and second place Chris Spence were bridging to us. On the final climb up the wall Hewitt made the junction having dropped Spence, and proceeded to yell at us to pull through. All I wanted to do was sit on and try and save some energy for the finale, but Hewitt was kind enough to point out that if I did so he would “rip me to pieces” for the stage… (see his correction below!) I did pull through a couple of times, but by now the legs were pretty well toasted.

On the final drags up to the Crowbprough finish, Mcnamara launched his attack, and although he got a gap he wasn’t pulling away. I tried one counter-attack, but Cartland was covering my every move, and to be brutally honest I was on the limit. Coming to the uphill sprint I jumped hard (as hard as you can at the end of this race anyway!) only to have Cartland come around me for the second time in the race, taking second place. Still, I was on the podium again, and happy with a strong ride on the “queen” stage. Gareth Hewitt held onto the overall lead in some style and was a deserving winner.

Final thoughts then. This is an epic race, and one in which I experienced some bad luck. I feel sure a top five on GC was well within reach, but in bike racing you need form and fortune to be on your side. With strong rides on the last two days I managed to pull back over fifteen minutes on half the field to come from the back into the top twenty on GC. I’m already thinking of next year, but there is the small matter of a wedding around the same time that may affect plans!

Thanks to team mate James for advice and support, all the organisers, NEG riders, volunteer marshals and drivers (including Stewie, Adam, Maryka, Jim and Leona from the Kingston Wheelers) and to to Cat and Samantha for passing me bottles, massaging the legs and taking the pressure on that third stage!