Easterley Road Race - Sunday 2nd Sep

Easterley Falling Leaves Road Race ERRL, 3/4 cat - 2nd September 2007

Report by ian Coles

Jonathan Appleby and myself represented North Road in the Easterley Falling Leaves road race. There was a full field of 60 riders for the six and a half laps of the Littlebury circuit and for me it was to be a test of bottle and nerve after crashing badly in a race just 2 weeks previously.

The race took the usual category 3/4 format of a very fast couple of early laps followed by an easier middle. John was riding well at the front half of the field, and although my climbing legs were good on the Littlebury climb I was finding it hard to hold my nerve on the descents and found myself riding comfortably at the rear of the bunch.

Going into the last lap a couple of riders had slipped off up the road and gained around 20 seconds going into the final 4km. John senesed a good opportunity to attack as the bunch slowed down and made a valiant effort to try and cross the gap before the finishing climb. He held off the peleton past the first steep uphill section but the pace was pretty hot and he was soon caught. I managed to redeem a bit of confidence and climbed well as the bunch split in two and contested the bunch sprint up a long drag to come 20th, which considering my race form was lacking I was quite pleased with. John who had ridden well up to the final climb was annoyed with the negative riding of some of the teams and sat up in the last kilometre to DNF.