Imperial RT Round 13 - Sat 10th Feb

Race 13 Imperial RT Winter Series on Saturday 10th February 2007, Hillingdon
by Ian Coles

photo, see below 

I was joined by Mike Bridge in representing North Road at round 13 of the Imperial RT winter series at Hillingdon. After a very wet morning the conditions improved marginally to leave a damp track and a keen headwind down the back straight. We discussed tactics at the start and decided that it would be best for us both to sit in the bunch and for Mike to attack with the last 5 laps and me to counter if he got caught.

These tactics soon flew out the window when after 5 minutes gone of the 35 minute race I realised my legs felt good and went on the attack with another rider. This attempt quickly failed and we were caught after a few laps so I decided to sit in for a while and try again. I tried to break-away twice more, once with a VC Elan rider and then later with an Oxford City RC rider but the bunch of 30 riders behind were keen to reel in any breaks and seemed content to chase us down each time. After my last fruitless attempt I dropped back to find Mike sitting comfortably in the bunch taking each corner as smoothly as a derailed freight train. After a brief chat (in which Mike wondered where our team tactics had gone) it was decided to revert to plan A.

Mike attacked strongly off the front during a brief lull in activity as we went past the 35 minute point and soon established a good lead going into the last 5 laps. I managed to get back to the front and tried to slow the field down a bit, probably helped by wearing the old style jersey! I could see Mike time trialling his way ahead and looking like a good bet to stay away until the finish but unfortunately the pace picked up and he was caught going into the last lap and a half.

It was then inevitable that a bunch sprint was going to decide the race so we worked our way through the bunch and we were approaching the last bend when a crash took down 2 riders to my left. Luckily Mike was not involved and we both worked hard to come around the outside of the bend and wind up for the sprint. I was now in a good position but was blocked and had to ease up but still managed to claim a few extra places with another jump to finish 7th, Mike came in 19th. The winner was Daniel Sullivan from Norwood Paragon.

All in all we decided that we had given a good effort for North Road which was greatly helped by the ‘Fan Club’ – my wife and 2 kids who gave us a good shout every lap, so much so that Mike said “That it felt very Tour de France, I think I even heard ‘Allez’ being shouted at one point in my break”. Well the Tour is coming to London this year but I don’t think Hillingdon in February is quite the same!