LVRC Glendene RR - Sun 15th Mar 09
Wed 18 Mar 2009
LVRC Road Race hosted by Glendene CC, Sunday 15th March 2009.
Report by Ashley Glass
Despite being so early in the season for racing as far as I am concerned I decided to enter the Glendene LVRC event at Thaxted last Sunday. The weather was perfect: sunshine and not too much wind. Although not feeling particularly 'race fit', I thought this event would give me a good training exercise and an indication of how I was going. Having survived a very brisk sportive two weeks prior I was reasonably confident I would be able to keep up.
I was also joined at the start by fellow North Roaders: Jeff Robinson, Dave Kiely, Ian Turner and Phil Moon. Goeff Oliver also turned up to ride in the more senior event being run ten mins after the start of our age categories. So a magnificent turn out of North Roaders.
After the neutral zone the pace picked up to a comfortable speed with not much happening and I cruised along within what was a large field of riders. As with so many riders swapping places I eventually found myself towards the rear of the field so decided to move up. The pace seemed to have dropped sustantially and I could see a couple of riders off the front and nobody was giving chase. Disastrous I thought.
I went past the field and found myself powering away on the front hoping I would do a short stint and another rider or more would share the work. It just didn't happen. I was left there at the front for a couple of miles and eventually I pulled over and slowed to 15mph to force the riders behind me to come through. Very frrustrating and I was now knackered.
A short distance down the road the course went up a fairly steep hill and I slipped bakwards through the field. Then a gap formed between me and the riders in front. I chased hard but they were now pulling away. I thought I was the only one to be dropped but a few miles further on I was caught by another rider who had dropped and we chased for another lap, but the field was out of sight. Time for a cup of tea, and to cheer on my clubmates.
I went past the field and found myself powering away on the front hoping I would do a short stint and another rider or more would share the work. It just didn't happen. I was left there at the front for a couple of miles and eventually I pulled over and slowed to 15mph to force the riders behind me to come through. Very frrustrating and I was now knackered.
A short distance down the road the course went up a fairly steep hill and I slipped bakwards through the field. Then a gap formed between me and the riders in front. I chased hard but they were now pulling away. I thought I was the only one to be dropped but a few miles further on I was caught by another rider who had dropped and we chased for another lap, but the field was out of sight. Time for a cup of tea, and to cheer on my clubmates.
Geoff Oliver also joined me at HQ having dropped out of his event. I last witnessed Jeff Robinson chasing the bunch, and despite there being a gap, he fought on. Dave Kiely almost survived, eventually being spat out on the last but one lap. A fine effort. And the last I saw Phil Moon and Ian Turner were still in it, and I look forward to hearing the final outcome. I didn't stay for the final result, but it was such a beautiful day, so no point in wasting it, stood by the side of the road wondering if I had ridden differently...........?