Sunday 16 March 2014

Wansbeck CC Australian Pursuit: Win

My second race of the season was the Wansbeck CC Australian Pursuit (16/03/14), up in Northumberland. The race covered 6 laps of a 12km circuit on grippy roads with a strong wind blowing. The race was a handicapped race with the first group setting off 8 minutes before me in the scratch group.





For the first 3 laps the scratch group was working well to close the gap to the first and second groups, clawing 1 minute back after lap 1, and a further 3 minutes after lap 2, by the end of the third lap it was all back together and didn't take long for the first attack to take place. The conditions were tough with the wind being exceptionally strong the break of 2 were brought back with just less than a lap to go. Some hard riding by James Moss, James Alder, Matt Kipling, Tom Timothy, and Myself saw the gap to the break come down quickly and a natural selection occur whittling the race down to around 15 riders in the front group.
Scratch group chasing early in the race
Getting rid of my gilet and an empty bottle 

On the last lap there were lots of attacks, the last 10km were very tough, and the screw was really being turned. James Moss and Myself got a reasonable gap with 6km to go and a couple of riders bridged across but got caught. The last 2km saw some last attempts to get away by some riders. Going into the last 1km everyone knew it was going to come down to a sprint... slightly uphill... into a block headwind... I knew if I positioned myself right I would have a good chance of grabbing the win. I tried to leave it late but found myself getting squeezed up against the grass so as soon as I found a gap I kicked for the line. (Here is a video of the finish http://instagram.com/p/lmxlfFIgwr/ ) 33 riders finished the race from a field of 80, which quantifies just how tough it was out there today. 
The finish (f-stop photography)



I'm really happy to have won, a big thanks to the organisers for putting on a great race. 

My next race is the Coalville RR on April 6th, then the Tour of the Reservoir on April 12th-13th.
As the team head to Majorca for a training camp next week I'll find myself in the Lake District on a Geology Field Trip mapping an area close to Ambleside and looking at rocks.

(Managed to get my heart rate as high as 210 in the sprint. So 220 minus your age would make me 10.)

Thanks for reading

James

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