It’s safe to say that my race day did not start well. I punctured in the warm up and then discovered that my spare wheel rubbed on my frame. Luckily some very kind team member’s parents lent me a wheel and I made it up to the start line just as the race rolled away. No stopping I quickly took my jacket off and got on with the race. We had 5 riders today including myself.
The race, as is always the case, started fast and being on unfamiliar tyres i was cautious. Too cautious as it turned out as just as the pace went up again I found myself hanging off the back in danger of being dropped. Fighting my way back to the front through the headwind I saved my race and was able to re-connect with Mark, Sam, Henry and George. For a while everything was calm but then the big players of the series decided it was time for them to leave. A break of six stormed away leaving the rest of the bunch to chase. In the frenetic bursts of speed and decelerations Henry (who had been in a break of his own, George and Sam were dropped leaving Mark and I to fend for ourselves.
The bunch chased well and kept the gap to the break constant but many of us were unhappy that we could not close the gap. With five laps to go I saw my chance as a rider for VC Jubilee , who had being trying to break away all race, attacked just ahead of me.
We worked well together and as I was very tired I let him do most of the work. The laps flew past and on the final lap we had the front six in our sights. I fired up the sprint and we continued to gain on them but just at the wrong moment we were spotted and they burst towards the line. I managed to beat my companion to seventh earning myself 3 ranking points.
