TheSandwichMonster
Junior Senior
- Location
- Devon, UK
I haven't raced in a fair few weeks, so I had some nerves approaching this one, not to mention that it was 2/3/4 race, so I was going to be mixing it up with the "proper" racers. The nerves manifested themselves early on during my warm-up, when I managed to misjudge a totally innoccuous corner and ended up body checking a steel fence and bruising my shoulder. Confidence knocked and arm aching, I slowly made my way back to the event area to sign on and check out the course.
It was basically a go-kart track for bikes. Set up on the top of Plymouth Hoe, the circuit was maybe 600m long. From the line, the home straight peeled off to the left slightly, before twisting into a not-quite 180 degree right-hander. From there the back straight ran completely straight before ending in an full 180 degree right-hander, back into the wind and back over the line again. We had a decent amount of time to practice and warm up on the track. The other four guys from Mid Devon were flying round, whilst I was still being quite tentative round the corners because of my earlier mishap. Having spectators all the way around the course was a little bit intimidating too - I was convinced they were spotting all of my mistakes and laughing at them! Eventually, after giving myself a bit of a talking to and taking a bit of time picking my lines, I was relatively happy, just in time to be called forward to the line.
I was called up for the first heat, a mixed group of just under 20 riders, for our briefing: 20 minute heats, primes at 5 and 10 minutes, no swearing, no kamikaze runs into the corners... I felt like a boxer at a prize fight. With that, the whistle went, we were off and there wasn't time to be nervous anymore. I went out quite hard, but was surprised (given the field) to find myself in the first 5 or 6 wheels. After the first couple of laps though, it was soon obvious that it wasn't a pace that I could sustain, and I started to lose places to people who'd gone off at a more sensible place. I was engaged in my own little battle somewhere around mid-pack where there was a group of maybe four of us trying to maintain position. Mid Devon clubmate Mark Dolan was tearing up the race, lapping us shortly after the first prime, with another Mid Devon rider, Tom Bayliss, not far behind. I was aware of a couple of punctures, and also someone with a shipped chain, but after the first few laps I didn't really know where I was in relation to any of the other people on the course - I only had eyes on the Yogi rider and another guy in Nike shorts just ahead of me.
Just over halfway into the race, after the 2nd prime, I'd passed one of the guys in my group and then got the elbow to take a turn. I passed on the back straight, managed a tight line through the bottom corner and then tried to put a bit of a dig in to string people out some more. I gained a couple of lengths, managed a good line through the top corner and then realised that I'd gone harder than I should. I started to retch down the back straight and had to back off to stop from hurling. I was soon passed again as I chased to get back onto the wheel of the Yogi rider who had passed me. I clawed the distance back and I sensed that the Yogi rider was tiring, along with the Cyclesport South Hams rider in front of him. The MC gave us a five minutes to go warning and it was time to grit my teeth and dig. With two minutes to go, I managed to pick a faster line than the Yogi guy through the top corner, and went through on the inside. I went hard down the back straight, but I could see his shadow behind me and I knew he was close. I managed to close on the South Hams guy through the bottom corner, levelled with him, only to see him pull away down the home straight as the last lap was called. Into the top bend I managed to grab another good line up the inside and the South Hams guy was really unlucky as there was a rider down on the outside and he had to yank on the brakes. Pushing hard all the way to the line I had no idea where I'd placed, but it turns out I was 9th, due to mechanicals and people retiring. I was through to the final!
Ultimately, after getting my breath back (I set a new PB heartrate of 190, a whole 4bpm faster than ever before!) and having a bit of a rest, my shoulder really started to give me grief. Moving it was painful and riding was vaguely hellish. Ultimately, despite wanting to carry on, I decided to bin it and retire from the final in time to give the organisers time to get another rider in. Disappointed not to finish, but ultimately pleased with how I managed to do.
It was basically a go-kart track for bikes. Set up on the top of Plymouth Hoe, the circuit was maybe 600m long. From the line, the home straight peeled off to the left slightly, before twisting into a not-quite 180 degree right-hander. From there the back straight ran completely straight before ending in an full 180 degree right-hander, back into the wind and back over the line again. We had a decent amount of time to practice and warm up on the track. The other four guys from Mid Devon were flying round, whilst I was still being quite tentative round the corners because of my earlier mishap. Having spectators all the way around the course was a little bit intimidating too - I was convinced they were spotting all of my mistakes and laughing at them! Eventually, after giving myself a bit of a talking to and taking a bit of time picking my lines, I was relatively happy, just in time to be called forward to the line.
I was called up for the first heat, a mixed group of just under 20 riders, for our briefing: 20 minute heats, primes at 5 and 10 minutes, no swearing, no kamikaze runs into the corners... I felt like a boxer at a prize fight. With that, the whistle went, we were off and there wasn't time to be nervous anymore. I went out quite hard, but was surprised (given the field) to find myself in the first 5 or 6 wheels. After the first couple of laps though, it was soon obvious that it wasn't a pace that I could sustain, and I started to lose places to people who'd gone off at a more sensible place. I was engaged in my own little battle somewhere around mid-pack where there was a group of maybe four of us trying to maintain position. Mid Devon clubmate Mark Dolan was tearing up the race, lapping us shortly after the first prime, with another Mid Devon rider, Tom Bayliss, not far behind. I was aware of a couple of punctures, and also someone with a shipped chain, but after the first few laps I didn't really know where I was in relation to any of the other people on the course - I only had eyes on the Yogi rider and another guy in Nike shorts just ahead of me.
Just over halfway into the race, after the 2nd prime, I'd passed one of the guys in my group and then got the elbow to take a turn. I passed on the back straight, managed a tight line through the bottom corner and then tried to put a bit of a dig in to string people out some more. I gained a couple of lengths, managed a good line through the top corner and then realised that I'd gone harder than I should. I started to retch down the back straight and had to back off to stop from hurling. I was soon passed again as I chased to get back onto the wheel of the Yogi rider who had passed me. I clawed the distance back and I sensed that the Yogi rider was tiring, along with the Cyclesport South Hams rider in front of him. The MC gave us a five minutes to go warning and it was time to grit my teeth and dig. With two minutes to go, I managed to pick a faster line than the Yogi guy through the top corner, and went through on the inside. I went hard down the back straight, but I could see his shadow behind me and I knew he was close. I managed to close on the South Hams guy through the bottom corner, levelled with him, only to see him pull away down the home straight as the last lap was called. Into the top bend I managed to grab another good line up the inside and the South Hams guy was really unlucky as there was a rider down on the outside and he had to yank on the brakes. Pushing hard all the way to the line I had no idea where I'd placed, but it turns out I was 9th, due to mechanicals and people retiring. I was through to the final!
Ultimately, after getting my breath back (I set a new PB heartrate of 190, a whole 4bpm faster than ever before!) and having a bit of a rest, my shoulder really started to give me grief. Moving it was painful and riding was vaguely hellish. Ultimately, despite wanting to carry on, I decided to bin it and retire from the final in time to give the organisers time to get another rider in. Disappointed not to finish, but ultimately pleased with how I managed to do.
