Win for Jobe at Maldon CC 3/4 Road Race - 05/10/14

Jobe wins the 3/4 Road Race promoted my Maldon and District CC after some good team tactics from John Rombold and a few Herts Wheelers John Rumbold and I lined up for this MADCC promotion on the Steeple circuit just the other side of Maldon. I was somewhat apprehensive about a very twisty course, especially after heavy rain the day before, but happily the weather was lovely and the vast majority of the course was dry, with just a few damp corners on the back end of the course. As for the topography, it was mostly flat to rolling, with a very short section of 10% uphill, coming on a little way out from the final left turn off the main course to the finishing straight.

We both started off towards the back, steadily moving up over the first few laps. We were both well positioned passing the one to go board. I had been toying with the idea of going for a long one since Wednesday or so, so with just over 9 miles to go and approaching a series of left/right bends, I started to make my way up to the front. As I came round I saw that John was now on the front with two Herts Wheelers on his wheel; he’d had a chat with them earlier and we’d talked about the possibility of working together. I took the next left hand bend on John’s outside at speed and sprinted out and off the front. The attack was underway! Right, then another left (at a much higher speed than I up usually like to corner!) took me alone onto a straight section and I settled into time trial mode, telling myself I just had a Brickendon to go. Picking my own lines through the next few corners felt much faster than it had been in bunch and a glance behind showed a fairly good gap opening. I have John and the Wheelers to thank for this as they blocked for me, apparently slow enough to let me off up the road, but not so slow as to make other rides come through to chase. So big thanks to John!  

Another glance behind revealed a CC Ashwell rider closing in, so I eased up slightly so he could catch and I’d have some energy to grab the wheel if he decided to try and rip straight past. Fortunately he gave the shout to work and with just two of us we quickly got into a great rhythm. With the bunch not really chasing we got quite a lead within a pretty short space of time. The short, sharp hill beckoned and we hit it while I was on the front, so I powered up, flicked my elbow just over the summit and heard “I can’t mate” in response. I felt like I was tying up at this point and just asked for a few seconds rest, which in hindsight was a silly display of weakness, which resulted in him jumping past me!

Thankfully anger at myself gave me some motivation to fight through the pain and claw my way back up to his wheel and with him having shown he was bluffing, I felt entirely justified to then sit on for the final half mile run in to the finishing turn. Through the final 90 degree left hander onto the finishing straight, now with just 250m to go, I stayed on his wheel while he opened up his sprint, before opening up mine with about 100m to go. I came past a fair bit quicker to come across the line for my first bunch race win of the season! Or indeed ever...

I had a chat with my breakaway companion afterwards; he was quite understanding of my sitting on after his attack, as was I of his attacking after saying he couldn’t even come through! I guess that’s racing, with me knowing I can rely on a sprint most of the time and him telling me afterwards that he knows that his sprint is bad so he had to try and get away. So I now lie just 3 points shy of 2^nd Cat.

 Jobe