Ike Saul Memorial Road Race 2/3/4 8th March 2015

The course at Orwell, Cambridgeshire is rolling, with one reasonably tough incline, then one stretch of road punctuated by numerous sunken manhole covers and on race day we had a bit of wind to make it a bit harder in other places too.

Present on the day were Paul McGrath and myself, with Frank Rawlins on the start sheet but out of action due to a cold. The race got underway with an elongated neutralised section to let the riders check out a few dodgy corners early on in the course. Soon after the flag was dropped, Paul, as you might expect from the winner of the NRCC Hardest Rider Award, was off up the road with one other, soon establishing a steady gap of around thirty seconds. I took the start rather more easily, but once I had warmed up a touch I manoeuvred up to the front of the bunch to keep a watching brief on proceedings.

The next go up the course’s main drag saw several riders chip off the front and I decided it might be nice to give Paul some company and duly bridged over. The ensuing group of nine or so started working quite nicely and we set about reeling in the two out front. A crash on one of the aforementioned greasy corners took two out, but it soon got organised again and before long it was back to nine, albeit without any leaders up the road. The composition was good, with Paul and I the only pair of team mates and all but one rider seemingly quite happy to work steadily early on. Some reasonably well coordinated through and off saw our lead stretch out to 1:30 so we could be fairly sure that we’d stay away as long the impetus remained.

It’s at this point I’ll mention the guy who sat on all bloody day. He was the original escapee with Paul, who did a few turns when we first made the catch, before supposedly having his saddle come loose, which meant that although he was perfectly able to sit on the back, he was incapable of taking a turn. Right. There was something on the Cambridge CC twitter feed about him going back to the neutral support where his saddle got some magic spanner treatment, before rejoining us. Anyway, I digress. Half a lap to go and who should shoot straight up the inside and off the front? Yes, Mr Sit-On-All-Day! Paul had already decided to go for a late break to allow me to play the teammate role and rest up for the sprint so he bridged across, initially not working, where matey boy somewhat ironically had a go at him.

A Cambridge rider jumped away on the incline and made a good effort, closing in on the leaders. This prompted Paul to lead out it out to hold off their lone pursuer, but without much of a sprint to speak of he was passed close to the line, ending up second. I opened my sprint a bit too early and was passed for fourth place by a rider from Strada Sport. Second and fifth for the team was great though, especially considering Paul also got the first two primes and I the third. The only down side was what I saw as somewhat unsporting riding from the eventual winner. He did assure us afterwards that he “wouldn’t usually ride like that” but needed the points for his 1^st Category licence, which would perhaps make it a bit better, were it not for the fact that I also need points for my 1^st Cat, but still did my share of the pace making. Not that I’m bitter about the experience at all... The Roy Thame Cup on the 14^th will be our next outing, with Paul and I signed up with what looks to be a fairly strong E/1/2/3 field, but with a bit of luck hopefully we can both get in the points again!

Jobe Usher