March 2008 Results
Finchley Crits - March 1st 2008
Mike Inder reports: "We had 3 from the Velo at Hillingdon this afternoon, myself and Ian Lowe in the Masters E/1/2/3 and Martin Porter in his first race in the later 3/4/J event. Building on Ian's recent success and placings was the plan for the day - from me at least.
Conditions were just how I like it, dry, bright and windy!! This usually helps in breaking the race up and reducing the chances on a dull old bunch sprint.
We set off with around 35 riders and straight away a couple of riders attacked from the first corner. This being my first race of the season and year I was still in chat mode at the back of the race, weighing up my options.
After letting the duo escape, they were seen to tire - or at least not able to maintain the gap. The bunch saw this and chased down the break. As the pace eased, I sensed that it was now an ideal time to counter attack and as I mulled over who would be favourite to do this, I elected myself! Switching to the left I left the group and tried not to go too hard, opting to see what reaction the move had made. I looked back and saw Matt Seaton (Rapha Condor) coming to join me, but alone. We worked for a lap steady, but still not full throttle. Next across was Colin Roshier (Team Quest), swiftly followed by Gianluca Cappelo (Private).
The 4 of us then cruised into a higher gear and got down to putting the bunch well and truly behind us.
This was only 4 or 5 laps into the race and so we had a long way to go. Fortunately, the wind was in our favour as nobody in the bunch was prepared to organise a coordinated chase.
We were making good progress, but Gianluca was struggling - more from the lack of time to recover from his bridging effort and started to miss turns.
I was pretty much at my limit and so needed a smooth through and off from the group to survive and contribute adequately. So I too then started to struggle with the disjointed pace.
As we were coming up to lap the bunch - probably 20 seconds behind, Matt attacked. He eased and then Colin went - creating a gap. Matt then waited, waited, then .. jumped me and Gianluca bridging to Colin with ease.
So we were 2 and 2 and the bunch behind, or so we thought. As the gap between our pairings grew, Colin McDermott (Festival RC) - who had been riding in no-mans land between the bunch and break made contact with us. We were in a bit of a mess and so his company was welcome. We had started to lose ground on the bunch who were visibly gaining. Thanks to our additional rider, we started to pull away again.
Up front Roshier and Seaton had rejoined the bunch and were left to fight it out.
Our group worked well and with a lap to go it was time to see who had any kind of sprint left. This ruled me out completely, but Gianluca attacked from 3rd place but got overhauled at about 100m. I cruised home in 5th place, happy with my work for the day and getting a result on my first race of the year.
Ian was sitting in the bunch, concious of not pulling too much at the front and came in around 14th place.
Another early season placing for the club - fantastic!"
Martin Porter had a tough race to compete in a bit later in the afternoon. A big field, younger riders and a fast pace saw him slip off the bunch, to be lapped a couple of times. His lack of speed work showed, but this will come with more races.