Best race yet and the best result too

Yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) the race was in St Laureins very close to the Dutch border.  A sunny day but very windy on the open course mostly out in the country side except for a small section through the township. The name didn't ring any bells on the way there but as I pulled into the town I realized that I raced there in 2013 and remembered the day very well. It was windy the last time too although from a slightly different direction, I was just starting to hit some form in 2013 and the boys were trying to psych me out by telling me how many ex TDF riders there were in the field, there was also a guy making  a nuisance of himself in the sprint, swinging right and then left, still that was all history.

I was there nice and early, I'm not letting the traffic or poor directions hold me back for the last few races, parked up where I did last time down a nice quiet side street.  I signed on early and opted to do two laps of the 7.5km circuit as a good warm up already suspecting that the race was going to be hard in the strong wind.

I'm not sure whether I've mentioned that with the WAOD they usually put two races on the course at the same time, on a longer course like this one it's not so much of a problem but on shorter ones it can be a real pain.  Normally the younger (faster) race starts first followed 2 minutes later by the older (slower) race which is usually enough to keep the races separate.

With us it can be three races on the course, my race, the next age group down (younger) and a women's race if any women sign on. However with us they start us first then the younger race 2 minutes later!  If and when they catch us it becomes one race with two prize lists, the WAOD are the only ones to do it this way, everybody else starts the younger race first, I'm really not sure why.

Today there were four women who nominally race with the younger race but start with us, a sort of two minute head start but they also race for a separate prize list. Confused? Me too it gets quite difficult understanding where you are in the race, number colours are different which helps but when two large bunches merge it can be difficult to check all the numbers, I usually just race for the best result I can and hope that it works out in my race.

I should also mention that when I say women I mean young women, teens or early twenties, usually good racers that I assume would normally race in UCI races but racing with the old guys gives them a good hit out, two of the girls in todays race were very strong, at least until three laps to go when it really got lively!

Our race got underway, almost immediately lining out almost from the go, I rather foolishly started at the back, chatting!!, it took me almost the first lap to get into position where I wanted to be, the race split on the second lap (of seven) for the first time, I managed to make it, just as the last one to cross the gap, into a group of eight that went clear. I was still trying to recover from crossing the gap on my own when half a lap later the break from the race behind us came roaring through taking a few of our race with them. I was in a small group trying to get back, the group comprised those of us that had been shaken out of the lead group and a small number of riders from our bunch that had managed to hang on for a bit, this included two of the Dutch girls, one of whom was pulling turns, quite impressive into that wind.  This went for a lap or so and we could see a small group holding just in front of us, I wasn't sure who was in it but we were pulling them back especially into the wind.

Coming around to two to go the rest of the younger race came up with a good number of our race in tow!  I got quite cross at that point since about 10/12 riders in our race had been trying to race the other 25/30 followed their usual tactic of saving themselves to hang on with the other race and in so doing get a decent place. Since I'd been bashing my brains out trying to earn a decent result I wasn't best pleased when I was now in a bunch with maybe 12/15 of the race behind us and about the same number of my own race, 8/10 of whom had just been dragged around. we lost the two girls at about the time the junction was made since there was a flurry of attacks which did shake out a small number of weaker riders.

Having worked out that the sprint would certainly be for a place in the top ten or better, given the tough racing I would have been happy with that so did nothing but swing on the back, or near the back for the last two laps, vigilant for any splits but otherwise being a 'sprinter'.  The final straight, from three corners out, was all into the wind, along the narrow 3m wide straight I managed to move up quite well, riders tried jumping into the second last corner but were closed pretty quickly, there is only a short straight before the last corner which gave us a dead straight headwind run in for somewhere between 800/1000m.  Riders jumped out of that corner, I just followed wheels, about half way up the home straight there was a very stall as the riders that had gone for it out of the corner died, the stall was only for a second as a new wave of riders hit out for the line, 400/500m to go. I stayed on the wheels, moving from wheel to wheel to keep going forward looking for an opening to start my own sprint, a lot of riders seemed to be dying so I hit out down the right hand gutter, maybe 200m out and took it all the way to the line to win the sprint.

 

Hanging around the back for the last couple of laps!

Bit of a surprise, one of the reasons may have been I chose to sprint in 52*15, I'm pretty sure most of the others were 53*12 or 11, so although I was dying at the end just like everybody else, in the lighter gear I was able to keep the legs turning over to maintain momentum.  I usually put a sprint win down to being one of the riders that uses his head better, not necessarily the quickest, today I may have been both. So very happy with a win, don't really care how the last races go now.

Today Thursday was another wet one to start with, so after breakfast I had almost resigned myself to no ride even though I only wanted to a max of 90 minutes to keep the legs ticking over.  But at about 11am the skies cleared and I went looking for a minimum of 60 minutes in the countryside.  In the end I managed a dry 75 minutes in the dry and about 20 minutes after I got back it rained on and off for the rest of the day.  The forecast for the rest of the stay is good though, 30c at the weekend.