Today's race was on a much more Ray friendly course, not dead flat but no more than rolling, definitely big ring all the way.
To cut to the chase, I went from completely stuffed over the last couple of laps through 'I'm going to win this' with 300m to go to getting savagely chopped approaching the last corner, through to third at the line!
I had a plan, which was to race as hard as I could and not really worry about the result, I wanted this last race before the championship to be as hard as I could make it. I think it was the biggest age group field I have raced in, it had one world champion, 2 Belgian champions? and one European champion. None of these gentleman featured in the finish.
Unfortunately we had a minutes silence on the line for a rider who died in his sleep last night, aged 61, he had raced with us on Monday!
The course laid out with a short 250m finishing straight (with 'street furniture' that made passing a real challenge), left up a hill and along a straight to a left turn with a traffic 'calmer' to negotiate mid turn, straight into a repeat 100m later, then a long fast straight about 3km long with the middle km being a not too lumpy cobbled run before getting into narrow uphill section until a fast left turn which took us down through a built up area, with two lefts and a right turn in quick succession followed by two rights and a left out onto a main road with some bad concrete gaps that had the bunch snaking right and left, a fast left across 50/60m of bad bad cobbles onto a fast down hill with a right then a left, 300m of uphill, sharp narrow right hander into the finish straight, about 8 and a bit k.
We did the first 500m reasonably sedately but as soon as we hit the long straight it was on for young and old, or in our case, old and old! Having started at the back I had used the modest early pace to move nearer the front which was just as well because there were gaps opening immediately. For the next four laps it was attack after attack, I made sure that if I wasn't in the break attempt that I was with the next group trying to get across, I know I put myself deep into the red often, my downloaded data says I got my heart rate consistently 3/4 beats above what I thought was my max!
The organisation threw a 'primie' up at four laps to go that got some action on the front from 3 guys that had been hiding out at the back, having stretched the bunch out, 3/4 of us counter attacked and went clear that drive lasted almost 2 full laps, a few riders had clawed their way across, 2/3 at a time, but we just kept battering away. At two laps to go there was a bit of a lull and I looked around for the first time and realised that there were only 12 riders actually 'in' the race now, which was good but I'd spent a lot of 'pennies'. I managed to get off the front for a while on my own on the fast run through the built up area, well it was either gently downhill or flat and mostly out of the wind, I'm good at those bits!
We were all back together, well the 12 of us, for the bell, then it got a bit odd for a couple of k with some chatting going on before one of the riders sidled over to me to tell me what had been discussed. In tribute to the rider that had died they were going to 'give' the win to his best friend and team mate who was with us in the dozen riders. I couldn't really argue with that and if I'm honest I was feeling really stuffed and figured I wasn't going to feature in the tricky sprint anyway, I'm more of a straight line sprinter, I don't generate the power to get out of slow corners and up to sprint speed quickly. So for a couple of K we cruised along although there was more 'chat' going on, I assumed that they were working out how to deliver the win, I thought we would need to let the chosen rider go quite soon so the rest of us could fight out the placing and not catch him in the process.
However it turned out differently, the chap had decided he didn't want the win and we were racing again, they did have the decency to let me know before we started jumping around again. Coming along the main road section I was trying so hard I was definitely moving into nauseous territory, left across the cobbled section, for some reason I was fast across those, down the fast downhill with a right and left and onto the last 300m up hill into the last turn. I seemed to go from 'stuffed' to moving past everybody without really hurting myself, so then I committed to getting into that last corner first, however with only two riders left to pass, as I moved to pass them they came left on me forcing me into an erratic line on the inside for the corner. Of course I was going to get around it slower than most on that line, even worse by moving to defend against me they gave two other riders a fast run around the outside.
So I beat the two who had blocked me, sheer bloody mindedness I think, the two with the fast line where away and gone. Initially I was a bit p....off but then I decided I should never have been that far back at the start of the final hill, if I had been nearer the front it would have been me first into the corner and .......
I'm sorely tempted to race again on Friday but I feel I should resist and give myself the best chance on Sunday, on the other hand Sunday is going to be a bit of a lottery and can you imagine a full field sprint of circa 120 charging down the finish straight? That will get the adrenalin going for sure, not a place for the faint hearted but I doubt whether it will come to that.
Tomorrow will be an easy day, spend some time getting my bike in the best order I can, another recovery day on Friday, I'll do my pre race day intervals on Saturday then the big one on Sunday. I definitely feel I'm a chance if I can ride to my capabilities on Sunday but I I've still got to put myself in the right places at the right time. I'm not going to lose sleep over it and I've already had a great trip and got some good results, so I'm content however my last two races pan out.
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