WTRL Saturday Crit – Round 5

Course: London Classique Reverse
Distance: 40km/ Lead in + 6 laps

With big guns missing, probably riding the Ventoux on the L’Etape du Tour Stage this morning, I awoke with a hangover (Birthday yesterday!) and found the will to try a race this afternoon. Tired and with legs hungover from a couple of tough interval sessions this week too I joined a very small pen of A cat riders.

14 of us set off and the pace wasn’t balls out which was welcome. Once it settled down after a big surge up the ramp onto the course it was more a tough sweetspot pace than race but a few had a go with one going away for a lap early on mainting 5’s and 6’s for quite a while. In the later stages the race got strung out a few times and I had to dig deep and put my poor legs in some distress. It really strung out at the beginning of the penultimate lap with 4 away and gaps opening but the small lead group that had formed eventually got reeled in half way round the lap.

On the last lap a rider went early and the pack hesitated and let him get about a 6 sec lead with 2 km to. A few then took off and I hung onto the coat tails of the pack. I tried to open up my legs for the sprint but they were mush and done from a hard weeks riding.

I rolled in 11th. Good training though and time to recover now

• 

• 

• 

•