MOD Chertsey Surrey League Road Race- Sat 13th Oct report by Nick Latimer

After a late start to my road racing season I thought that I might as well keep going until the bitter end, and so I had a look on the BCF website and found this 4th cat only race at MOD Chertsey.  I only needed 4 more points to get my 3rd cat licence so thought this sounded like an ideal opportunity.

I'd really enjoyed the Victoria CC road race and the Last Chance Points Grabber, it was good to ride as a team, and watching the other NRCC riders as they got themselves some valuable points taught me a lot.  Riding comfortably at the front of the bunch at the LCPG and lasting the distance also gave me confidence and encouraged me to try to become a 3rd cat as soon as possible.

So it was that I went into the Surrey League race confident that I could do well, but not convinced that a 28 mile race round a 2 mile vehicle testing track would suit me too well.  The track was actually very good fun, with some short and steep inclines, banked corners and a long straight to the finish.  I decided that I'd try to break near the start - seeing as though it was a short race I thought that if a few of us got away we had a chance to make it all the way through to the finish.  As it was no-one went with me and although I lasted a lap on my own I was never going to stay away.  So I decided to stick in the top 10 or 15 and rest until the last lap, and to make sure that when it came to the last corner I was in the top 5. 

As it was, the usual stampede to the front ensued with 2 laps to go, and a bit of confusion hit the bunch at the start of the final lap when 4 riders went down after one clipped a cone.  One rider broke an elbow and another was temporarily knocked out, and the benefits of staying near the front were confirmed!  There was a bit of jockeying for position on the final uphill and the last corner, and having momentarily mistakenly hit the front on the uphill I managed to drop back to third wheel on the final corner.  Sprinting's not really my forte, but in my first contested bunch sprint I hung on to 5th and got the necessary points to start next season as a 3rd cat.  Although there were no other NRCC riders in the race, I put it down to my racing with the club over the last couple of months that I managed to get the points!

 

Full results from LCS website here