Woke up this morning at 6.30, I'm slightly sick so I wasn't feeling top notch, but overall not too bad. Had a shower, breakfast, and got my gear on ready for the race. Arrived at 7.30 for an 8.00 start.
After the A and B graders finished all us C graders had a few warm up laps round the 1.2k course. Got ourselves organised and we were ready for the start... I'm in the yellow.
In C Grade the Crit goes for 40 minutes, plus 2 laps. The first 15 minutes were pretty routine and I just drafted the whole time. There was one incident when a guy in front of me wobbled and braked and I almost ran into his back wheel.. which made me fall off the back of the pack. But i had no trouble regaining contact. Phew. At the 20 minute mark there is a 'prime'. At this point I was near the back of the pack, but I knew that a breakaway usually develops after the prime so I sprinted up the outside and got myself into 5th place.
As i suspected there was a breakaway, 2 guys with the same jersey on.. not sure what club. So i planted myself on the front of the main field with a mission of reeling them back in... (look at that determination
)
We caught them and i stayed on the front of the main field for a couple more laps (bad decision).
About half an hour in and my race almost ended (a couple of others did). We were going through the S bend, there were 2 pacelines, and some douche bag decided to try and go up on the inside of me through the corner!!! what an idiot, and then he tried to cut into a non-existent gap in front of me, so of course i had to brake or I would have hit his back wheel, someone hit my back wheel but he managed to stay on. A few others behind him had to pull out although I'm not sure exactly what happened...
3 laps to go and i was stuck in the middle of the field trying to find a way to get near the front. Someone next to me pulled out to the side and made his way to the front, so I followed his line. The bam.. off he went for a breakaway and I followed intently.
He was flying but a few hundred metres down the track he decided to wait for me so we could work together...
We opened up quite a sizable gap on the bunch, on the bell lap I was leading the race. 700m to go and I was dying, and good lord here comes the bunch.. Look at me, head down trying to squeeze every ounce of energy out, what a sad sight..
So a couple of people passed me and i thought.. bugger it ive had enough, so i sat up and cruised home... no placings for me today, but i stirred things up a bit. I think i would have been able to maintain the break if i didnt lead the peloton for those laps earlier on. But oh well, live and learn. It was an enjoyable race.
