Whats the hardest circuit in London? Hmmm... I've asked a few of peeps and most believe its still Palace. Yes unquestionably extreme efforts up the Hoggenberg are a difficult test for all but the strongest. But the two words that comes up time and time again with Crystal Palace is "relentless intensity" - couple its intensity with technical nous thats required to navigate the circuit and for me it beats Hog Hill (Redbridge Cycle centre)...
My 2009 trip to SE23 has been somewhat delayed this year - lets not go there :-/
The threat of rain and I guess many riders recovering from the recent 3 day SERRL stage race meant a very small field of approximately twelve E12 riders, including yours truly of course. I felt suprisingly at ease on the start line and even managed to share a joke about being 'an indiviual' in the race with Cyclefits Warrick Spence.
Lap 1 - I'm feeling pretty good although my lack of practice on the circuit means I'm a little tentative on both of the key bends (hair pin and bottom left). There had been nothing but leg flexing surges to cope with and things appeared to fairly smooth. Hold that thought! On lap 6 typically I was last wheel and misjudged the hair pin bend; more specifically my wheel got stuck in the grove between circuit and grass. Shit!!That was enough for a gap of three-four bike lengths to open up. Like I've said I ain't no sprinter so a quick jump from 0mph to 22mph takes some effort. The gap grew on the descent and became entrenched on the climb. I dug deep to get back on but after a lap and a half in TT mode I surrended to the LOW (Lack Of Watts) GODS.
There's apparently a fine line between what you love and what you hate: Arsenal, Ex girlfriends and Palace. So after a brief recovery (a minute of tempo riding) it was time to make the most of a bad job. Away I went trying to make friends and then influencing them - I pulled weak 3/4 riders back to the bunch and got demoralised soloists to jump on my wheel. Marek Glowinski (VCL) jumped on for a lap and then I hooked up with a 3/4 Dulwich rider and a Brixton Cycles E12 rider for the rest of the race. We took unbalanced turns and the Dulwich rider schooled us on his superior hairpin techniques. Hmmm nice...
Before I got warned by the comissionaires I'd sat near the back of the 3/4 race and watched with some amusement as the girls shouted at the blokes to "keep left" because they were coming through. What do we blokes normally do when women bark instructions at us?...er exactly we respond very slowly cause we can only do one thing at a time...LOL!..Anyways with 3 laps to go I received some nice friendly advice which basically just confirmed it truly was game over. - "WILL ALL LAPPED RIDERS PLEASE PULL OUT OF THE RACE". Grrrr!!! I'll be back.
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