Westerley and Archer Road Races - April 09
Sun 03 May 2009
Traffic Jams and Last Minute Starts
Westerly CC Crits – Hillingdon 18/4/09
Archer CC Road Race – Bucks 19/4/09
Fancying a bit of lie in on Saturday and keen to avoid the Saturday road race / club run while trying to shake the remnants of my everlasting cold, I opted for a quick jaunt to the Hillingdon circuit, more out of curiosity rather than a notion that I might do well. I tried to tempt Jon Appleby to join me but he wasn’t having any of it, and whilst embedded in a typical M25 jam I thought I really should listen to Jon more.
The race itself was utterly processional. With no disrespect to the eventual leaders who pulled the group around at a fearsome pace (the average was over 26 mph), if you started the second lap in the bunch, the chances are you were going to finish there, and so it was. It’s a narrow track and with over 60 entrants it was difficult to force a way through.
Barely out of breath, I returned my numbers and saw the start sheet for the Archer RR on the desk. I knew it was hilly (a good thing), and I knew I needed the miles, so after a brief stint in another M25 jam I returned home to bombard the organisers with e-mails and calls for a last minute entry. It was never likely I would be able to secure a starting slot with 14 hours before the off, so I went out for a curry and a couple of beers only to return home near midnight and find out I was in.
Fortunately it was an 11am start, which gave me another lie in and gave the M25 just enough time to form a rather nice jam for me before the M40 junction. The race itself was quite short, just 3 laps of a 15 mile circuit, but there was a great deal of climbing including 3 passes of the long Whiteleaf Hill at 22%. The race was tight at first but the first ascent split the group. Suffering both gear trouble and a lack of form I was part of a group dropped on the first climb but some first class team work along the flatter sections enabled us to rejoin the leading group after half a lap or so. Unfortunately that effort took its toll (together with my duff gears and aforementioned lack of form) and the lead group again fragmented on the Whiteleaf ascent.
The final lap was still fiercely contested despite the fact that my adopted mini group (of which the Kingston Wheelers provided the most pro-active members) knew we were out of the points. A frankly terrifying final couple of miles that included a 40 mph descent, passing equally terrified oncoming traffic, culminated in an exhausting final sprint for 23rd. There were about 70 entrants and only 34 recorded finishers, which I hope goes someway to highlighting how tough the course was. Despite my rather mediocre performance, I thoroughly enjoyed the more open format of a road race, and the more disciplined teamwork that is hard to achieve in the circuit racing I have mainly competed in so far.
As if by magic, my fourth M25 snarl up awaited me on my return. Despite not scoring a single BC point and feeling about 100 years old on the Monday morning, it was a strangely satisfying weekend. I can now look forward to being fully prepared for the Saturday thrash – which I can mercifully achieve without having to suffer another traffic jam on the M25.