Imperial RT Round 11 - Sat 27th Jan

Sun 29 Apr 2007

Imperial RT Round 11 on Saturday 27th January 2007 at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit

By Ian Coles

Photo - see below 

Combining a trip to see my brother in west London on a rare free Saturday afternoon I decided to test my form at the popular Imperial RT winter race series at Hillingdon. The race was 35 minutes plus 5 laps with a field of around 30-40 4th Cat riders.

The pace started off sedately, which was good as a 2 lap spin on a fresh and breezy day was not the best warm up. After 5 minutes the pace quickened and an attack went on the back straight by a single rider, I jumped across and hoped that we could work together to form a gap but he wouldn’t come through so I sat up and returned to the bunch for a breather.

The next 20 minutes was kept at a steady pace and the only highlight for me was a spot of cyclo-cross as I was squeezed into the verge on the finishing straight by some dubious riding in front. I recovered and made my way back through the bunch only to hear one of the six St. Ives riders in the say it was “Time to go”. It was quite good to see their team go to the front and put the hammer down, but the field stayed together as it wasn’t exactly ‘The Blue Train’. Some gutsy riding with an attack by a Lea Valley junior who hung out for a few laps killed the remaining time until he was caught and we raced into the final 5 laps.

I kept my place near the front of the field and with 3 laps I decided that I didn’t want to risk partaking a bunch sprint so attacked hard down the back straight (probably too hard!). I hung out for a lap trying to time trial my way to the finish, but found my form lacking and couldn’t maintain the high pace with bunch hunting me down. I saw a shadow coming up on my left shoulder as I came through the s-bends and I wrongly assumed that this was the bunch, which was a bad mistake as it was a lone rider who then soloed to the finish line and I should have got on his wheel. I eased up instead and then the rest of the field came past. I finished the race off the back but was pleased with my performance as at least I had attacked and gave it my best shot at staying away, so not achieving a top ten place in the first race of the season was not a disappointment at all.

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