It was an early rise to get to Essex for a 10am start in the Jock Wadley Memorial Road Race. Driving up the A12 from the M25 to Colchester I recognised this road from the Channel Five Friday night show Police Interceptors. I half thought about putting my foot down to see if I could attract the attention of a bobbie in an Impreza to get on the telly. I think I need to get out more.
On arriving in Essex it became immediately obvious that wind was going to be the dominant factor of the day. No kidding. It was a very strong line up with several Premier Calendar teams, race radios and all, choosing this race as a final warm up for their first big event at the Bikeline next weekend. Things were going to be tough.
As my first race on the road this year I found it hard to hold position in the bunch, probably a result of being a bit rusty, the quality of the field and the killer crosswinds. After a few laps I think a move had got away and then the bunch split neatly into two. I was very wary of being left in the back group so decided to ‘man-up’ and bridge across to the front group. It took me about five minutes of hard riding but just as I was making the junction I turned around to see the second group closing in fast thus nullifying my big effort. This left me a little tired for the next lap, and this is when the group split again, this time for the rest of the race. Resigned to being in the rear bunch of about thirty riders I decided to at least make it a good workout so got involved with working on the front, chasing attacks and practicing riding in an echelon (pretty essential in today’s weather- life in the gutter was not fun). I have never felt quite so unsafe in a race where the choice was either ride in the echelon on the wrong side of the road with oncoming traffic or get dropped, and I saw two crashes resulting from riders trying to squeeze a little extra draft riding in the gutter and hitting either holes or police cones. The race was won solo by James Millard of Plowman Craven/Madison and you can have a gander at the results yourself- it looks like only half the field finished the race.
I finished feeling very tired and puzzled that my computer had registered 150km for a race that was advertised as 136km. I think they must have added an extra lap, and I think most of us felt it!
The drive home was in much worse traffic, this time I was worried those Interceptors might pull me over for erratic driving so polished off two cans of coke on leaving race HQ before setting off.
All in all, happy to have finished a tough race, and happy to have made a good bridging effort as it shows a bit of form coming. The downsides were not holding position well in the bunch and missing a split, a bit of a wheezy cough on finishing that worries me (doc tomorrow), a sore back but worse of all a very sore rear end from my last pair of race shorts starting to fall to bits. Kingston Wheelers kit masters- please get those new shorts in ASAP!
Off to Kent for the Wally Gimber Road Race next week, really looking forward to that course, I just hope the wind goes away…
Early April- you can keep them going till then!