A day at the Races!

Steph and I decided to make Hog Hill (Redbridge Cycling Centre) our outward destination for Saturday's ride. I'm not sure Steph agrees but I tried to make it an interesting loop by circumnavigating some North?East London back streets (Hackney ) before we eventually headed out to Essex. We left around 11.30 and got to Hog Hill two hours later. The 3/4's and seperate women's race were already in full swing. Obviously I was really interested in the 3/4 race which featured Sylv and George
from my club Addiscombe CC but I also had an eye on the womens race which featured Liz from Eagle Road Club. She's a very strong rider and does the popular Regents Park loop with her boyfriend Chris.

The 3/4 bunch cruised by and George gave me the thumbs up. He looked like he was on a holiday camp. Sylv looked comfortable but not quite in the George 'stroll- along-the-beach' mode. The women rode by shortly after and Liz was part of a four girl front group which had pulled away from the rest; the group included two Dynamo girls and the eventual race winner. With there still being forty minutes to go Steph and I left them to it for a while and went to get warmed up and carbed up with coffee and cakes. I emerged back on to the circuit 10 minutes later and George being that claustrophobic young man he is decided he needed some fresh air. A tad early perhaps but as we all know he's far too strong and excitable to hang around for long. Behind him the chase was on. Jimmy from Economic Energy was chasing hard and behind him was David from Economic Energy and behind him was a guy in a Rapha top and then finally the bunch. A few laps later George had settled into full Jens Voight mode and had a 23 sec gap on the Economic Energy rider.




In the women's race Liz was dropped from the front group. The front three looked fairly comfortable, like they were on a club run, and I wondered if the two Dynamo girs would do the old one two to the other rider. Mmm

Back to George. "Toks get me a front wheel I've got a puncture", he shouts with 6 laps to go. Oh my gosh so much drama, fifteen minutes earlier the G-Man had the race comfortably sown up. Sure, the guy behind George was strong but George had him pegged at 20 secs and was definitely good for the win. According to the commissionaire George couldn't hava a lap out because there were now only 5 laps to go.



I got the wheel out of the George's wheel bag and gave it to Sylv to do the honours. As George crested the hill Jimmy from Economic Energy was right on top of him. While George and Sylv fiddled with the wheel change Jimmy took full advantage and raced by. I reckon he had around 25 seconds by the time George got going. David from Economic Energy was coming up fast behind George but I was confident he'd never catch George. With 4 laps to go I shouted out 12sec, (it was closer to 16) but I didn't want George to blow up trying to get him back. With three laps to go I shouted 7 secs (it was really 10). To be honest with you I didn't think George could do at this point but true to his Smiling Assassin credentials he must have surged on the penultimate lap and at the bell they both honked up the hill together.

With the girls things were pretty much as they were except Liz had dropped back a place to 5th position. The 3 up front would definitely be fighting it out for the win and Liz stood a good chance of 4th if she could stay with the girl just a few metres in front of her.

George knew he couldn't risk sprinting against Jimmy and jumped him hard just before the descent. On the windy curvy section George had a massive gap and it looked like job done. I was freezing my proverbial off on the sidelines with a big cheesy grin on my face. But then I couldn't believe it. The big gap George had was shrinking fast - Jimmy was coming back fast. George was clearly tiring. "sprint George" I shouted he's coming'. Sylv put out a max of 819watts on the climb, I reckon George musta been close to 1100 on that last blast up the climb. He dug deep and despite a great return by Jimmy beat him comfortably in the end by about six bike lengths...Liz got 4th spot in her first race ever. A great day at the races!













Thanks to ACC's Sylv and the fella from Idea-Beta.co.uk for the Race Pictures. The races took place back in August and September 2008.