RR Newham Handicap

Nice fine day, little wind, temp around 10 deg at the start, so a little
cool.

Field was down on numbers as most of the big boys were off racing
elsewhere, but still a decent field.

There was to be 2 laps of a 30km course, mainly flat to rolling, with a
couple of short sharp hills.

After winning C-grade last week I was expecting a toughish handicap,
and was thus given 3 mins with limit off 20min. This was going
to be my first real introduction to B-grade, so I was determined to
stay with my bunch of 8. Not sure why but I could tell I was going to
have a slow start, but get stronger as the race ticked on.

Group was working well, but was caught a little too quickly by the 3
guys off scratch (apparently they were off 1min) before the first lap
was off. The increase in pace hurt me, and I was struggling to come
through for my turn..

Towards the end of the first lap I was in a bit of bother, just trying
to hang onto the back, losing the wheel in front and just praying noone
decided to push the pace up. Thankfully the pace eased up slightly for
me to catch my breath. After sitting on for a few k's, my legs started
to freshen up, and I had no problems rolling through. We started to
pick up a few guys towards the middle of the lap, with the front group
not too far ahead. Riders then started f#%in around, so out of
frustration I rode off the front hoping a few guys would come with me
and snap our group in half, but just resulted in me having to sit up.
I tried again a few k's later after way too much foxing was going on,
but once again I had to wait..sheesh you'd think they didn't want to
catch the lead group who were now in sight a few k's from the finish.

Someone from that lead group ended up holding us off by about 100m, so
gotta make you wonder. The final couple of k's was a bit much for me,
as I fell off the back.

Oh yeah, the one guy on limit got caught with 2k's to go...thats gotta
suck.

Very happy with the way I rode, and for the first time I had the
confidence that I might just be a legitimate B-grader. I just tend to
be a bit erratic at times, and a little impatient

Now it's time to put in a bit of decent training I guess!

Distance 60km
Av speed 38km/hr

ess "about to get a whole lot faster "93


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essendon93

Oh come oooonn you've been a B Grader dor at least a month now

Top stuff, I bet you'd be faster on a Cervelo, but that'll never
happen!


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Jono L

Jono L Wrote:
Oh come oooonn you've been a B Grader dor at least a month now

Top stuff, I bet you'd be faster on a Cervelo, but that'll never
happen!
Yeah that'll be the day! Hmmm a few showers on Tue..hope it clears for
tue torture


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essendon93