ELV Winter Series - 10/01/15
Wed 14 Jan 2015
With no local ‘Cross’ fixture on the calendar, a return to the road
scene was in store to keep fitness in check. A return to Hillingdon
was out of the picture even though I had a good 2nd place there. Every
week by all accounts there has been a significant amount of crashes,
which isn't worth risking.
So off to Hog Hill for the ELV winter series round 1. I have a
love/hate for Hog Hill, mainly because I do not tend to do very well
because of the repeated climb, but because I find it so hard it is
perfect training. At Hillingdon people can just sit in and get towed
to the end. Hanging on lap after lap up the Hoggenberg is tough and if
you’re not fit enough to battle at the pointy end you get dropped. I
like that and in general mean fields get whittled down and makes safer
racing. It also means I've DNF’ed there more times than I've finished.
It was cold and windy, very windy. So windy in fact that the gust’s
kept blowing me off my rollers during my warm up. I made several
positional changes with little effect. In the end I just settled for
having the wind constantly batter my back.
After a quick few laps of the top circuit and after putting my rain
jacket away I lined up right at the back of the starting grid. The
young guns on the front row went off like a gun and within 10m of the
roll out a lads chain snapped in front of me. He then found the need
to swerve right across the track nearly taking me out. With the pack
already halfway up the back rise I got myself going and headed off for
business. The first lap was taken at a steady consistent race pace
with good caution being taken due to the gusty wind in the corners. By
the end of lap one I was now mid pack. Lap 2 was identical to the 1st
and by the time the climb approached I was now sitting at the head of
affairs leading the pack up the climb. Normally there are attacks left
right and centre every time up the climb. With the fierce wind, riders
where obviously being cautious and where happy to get plenty of
shelter from the big bloke in blue.
With the pack sitting on I wasn't going to make it easy so decided to
up the ante and keep the gas on over the top and all the way round the
top part of the circuit. On the downhill section I glanced behind me
and saw I had a gap. I kept the gas going for the next couple of
corners and by the hairpin I could see I had quite reasonable gap. The
pack must have thought I was crazy making a move so early in those
conditions as no-one followed me. I thought I ‘d keep the pressure on
the pedals for lap or too and wait to see who comes across as after
all there was still over an hr of racing ahead of me.
The wind hit you like a freight train every time you hit the climb and
then got stronger once crested and felt like you were going to come to
a standstill. I looked down at the time to see that I’d only being
riding 15+ mins. It’s was going to be hard work and needed some
company as there was no way I could take the battering for that length
of time.
I kept taking momentary glances to see what was evolving behind me but
saw nothing. I looked at the time, 40mins to go. Voices in the head
telling me to sit up it’s too hard the winds getting stronger, there’s
to long left to go, you’re going to get caught then dropped. I had a
severe mental battle going on with what appeared to be constant
barrage of negative thoughts. This eternal battle continued and by the
time I had a hard a word with myself plus the random encouragement
coming from lapped riders and spectators pushing me on there was
approx. 20+mins of racing left. Could I actually do this?
At this point I had surge of adrenaline as maybe I could possibly
actually win. This surge meant I took the next lap rather quicker than
I had been and it raised the pain levels in my body to all sorts of
new heights. This brought that pesky voice back and the mental battle
began all over again, what’s that noise, are the gears slipping, have
I got a flat. All sorts of shit going on, how the hell to do you shut
the bloody voice up. A distraction appeared in the form of the 5 to go
board. Maybe I could do this.
With the 4 laps to go board approaching I had a look behind and could
see 2 had made an effort off the front and had made inroads into my
lead. From this point on I can’t really tell you much about the rest
of the race or how much gap I had etc. as I have no clue what was
going on. I had been out there too long to get done in the last few
laps. I put my head down, told myself no glances back until the finish
and just emptied the tank. When I finished I was well and truly
ruined, it took my whole control to stay on the bike and not fall off
the thing, almost slumping over the bars. I've been sick on the bike
before at Hog Hill, I thought this was going to be no 2. So no lavish
celebratory victory salute across the line for the archives
unfortunately.
Somehow though I held on and managed to take the win. It was certainly
a tough day and will be thinking twice when I start making foolish
efforts so early in race again.
scene was in store to keep fitness in check. A return to Hillingdon
was out of the picture even though I had a good 2nd place there. Every
week by all accounts there has been a significant amount of crashes,
which isn't worth risking.
So off to Hog Hill for the ELV winter series round 1. I have a
love/hate for Hog Hill, mainly because I do not tend to do very well
because of the repeated climb, but because I find it so hard it is
perfect training. At Hillingdon people can just sit in and get towed
to the end. Hanging on lap after lap up the Hoggenberg is tough and if
you’re not fit enough to battle at the pointy end you get dropped. I
like that and in general mean fields get whittled down and makes safer
racing. It also means I've DNF’ed there more times than I've finished.
It was cold and windy, very windy. So windy in fact that the gust’s
kept blowing me off my rollers during my warm up. I made several
positional changes with little effect. In the end I just settled for
having the wind constantly batter my back.
After a quick few laps of the top circuit and after putting my rain
jacket away I lined up right at the back of the starting grid. The
young guns on the front row went off like a gun and within 10m of the
roll out a lads chain snapped in front of me. He then found the need
to swerve right across the track nearly taking me out. With the pack
already halfway up the back rise I got myself going and headed off for
business. The first lap was taken at a steady consistent race pace
with good caution being taken due to the gusty wind in the corners. By
the end of lap one I was now mid pack. Lap 2 was identical to the 1st
and by the time the climb approached I was now sitting at the head of
affairs leading the pack up the climb. Normally there are attacks left
right and centre every time up the climb. With the fierce wind, riders
where obviously being cautious and where happy to get plenty of
shelter from the big bloke in blue.
With the pack sitting on I wasn't going to make it easy so decided to
up the ante and keep the gas on over the top and all the way round the
top part of the circuit. On the downhill section I glanced behind me
and saw I had a gap. I kept the gas going for the next couple of
corners and by the hairpin I could see I had quite reasonable gap. The
pack must have thought I was crazy making a move so early in those
conditions as no-one followed me. I thought I ‘d keep the pressure on
the pedals for lap or too and wait to see who comes across as after
all there was still over an hr of racing ahead of me.
The wind hit you like a freight train every time you hit the climb and
then got stronger once crested and felt like you were going to come to
a standstill. I looked down at the time to see that I’d only being
riding 15+ mins. It’s was going to be hard work and needed some
company as there was no way I could take the battering for that length
of time.
I kept taking momentary glances to see what was evolving behind me but
saw nothing. I looked at the time, 40mins to go. Voices in the head
telling me to sit up it’s too hard the winds getting stronger, there’s
to long left to go, you’re going to get caught then dropped. I had a
severe mental battle going on with what appeared to be constant
barrage of negative thoughts. This eternal battle continued and by the
time I had a hard a word with myself plus the random encouragement
coming from lapped riders and spectators pushing me on there was
approx. 20+mins of racing left. Could I actually do this?
At this point I had surge of adrenaline as maybe I could possibly
actually win. This surge meant I took the next lap rather quicker than
I had been and it raised the pain levels in my body to all sorts of
new heights. This brought that pesky voice back and the mental battle
began all over again, what’s that noise, are the gears slipping, have
I got a flat. All sorts of shit going on, how the hell to do you shut
the bloody voice up. A distraction appeared in the form of the 5 to go
board. Maybe I could do this.
With the 4 laps to go board approaching I had a look behind and could
see 2 had made an effort off the front and had made inroads into my
lead. From this point on I can’t really tell you much about the rest
of the race or how much gap I had etc. as I have no clue what was
going on. I had been out there too long to get done in the last few
laps. I put my head down, told myself no glances back until the finish
and just emptied the tank. When I finished I was well and truly
ruined, it took my whole control to stay on the bike and not fall off
the thing, almost slumping over the bars. I've been sick on the bike
before at Hog Hill, I thought this was going to be no 2. So no lavish
celebratory victory salute across the line for the archives
unfortunately.
Somehow though I held on and managed to take the win. It was certainly
a tough day and will be thinking twice when I start making foolish
efforts so early in race again.