I have never done a circuit race before and in fact until a day before I actually mistakenly thought it was a Criterium race!! The only crit race I have ever done was last years Shred Classic where I crapped my pants for 20 minutes around a small twisty loop made of metal barriers until I tried to break off the front just for the sheer hell of it. As I recall I led for about a lap and a half whilst swallowing my lung and almost throwing up... I then got dropped from the bunch and didn’t have enough time to make it back into the bunch for the sprint.
Despite my lack of experience I was quietly confident that I could surprise myself since I entered the 4th cat only race and as far as I can gather from fellow racers, 4th cat races are preverbal carnage due to the wide ranges of abilities and very rarely end in a sprint finish. Now as you know I’m a more than handy mountain bike rider and naturally that equates to some decent speed on a road bike and I was confident that I would be able to put that to some good use.
When we arrived at the airfield, the first thing that struck me was the openness of the airfield (Duh of course!) and with the 10mph breeze blowing, staying in the bunch would save a lot of energy. The second thing was how big the circuit was!! As I said I thought it was a crit race at first but to see that it was a 4 mile lap wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
Nevertheless I donned my Lycra and did a small warm up before taking my place on the line with a good 30 other riders. We were told it was the perimeter circuit we were using (meant nothing to me) and the race would be 50 minutes plus 1 lap.
The whistle went and be all rolled out and got into the groove; one guy punctured with his very first pedal stroke, he must have been gutted!!
I used the first lap to suss out the course and try and get used to riding in close company whilst trying to concentrate and not look at the harrier making a lot of noise in the sky.
We finished the first lap in about 8 minutes so I tried to gauge that we would be doing more or less 7 laps and tried to formulate a rough game plan.
I planned to stay in the bunch for at least the first 3 laps unless a sizeable or quick looking break formed and then on lap 4 eek towards the front more as a move was more likely to come around then and at the very latest make my own break with 2 laps to go.
As the laps carried on I realised just how open the course was and how much of a drag you got in the bunch! Every now and then I kept getting hung on the outside of the bunch and immediately have to put in double the effort to get back in cover.
I underestimated the pace as well and it was obvious my warm up was not at all sufficient and I didn’t feel great at all.
I came to the conclusion that I needed to get in a break.
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| Setting Off |
The laps carried on trickling down and nobody had a breakaway that lasted more than a quarter of a lap. It was either charged down of they dropped back as there were too few of them with too far to go.
I really had to control myself to not try a breakaway early; I kept having to tell myself one more lap, one more lap.
Eventually we reached a lap and a half to go and down the back straight with the wind behind me I launched off the front!! My heart rate immediately spiked and I time trialed away! I looked behind to see if anyone was coming with me but nobody reacted and I was off on my own, seemingly death or glory.
I got a good gap and took the bell but hit the main straight after the start/finish line and was into a lovely headwind and started to slow and struggle a bit. I kept checking over my shoulder, hoping I would make it onto the back straight with a bit of time on the bunch to try and maintain the gap as I knew towards the end of the lap they would start looking at each other, not wanting to lead out the sprint.
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and I got caught right at the top of the straight. I managed to hang in the bunch and was towards the front of it planning another surprise assault on the last quarter of the lap to try and grab the win. Once again I was unfortunate and left it too late to go and got boxed in and when we got on the straight for the sprint everyone moved over to the left and I missed the jump for the main sprint. I sprinted anyway but was soon aware I was nowhere near the points positions so I eased up and coasted over the line.
I enjoyed my first experience of circuit racing and after chatting to Jayson on the way home about the race (he came 2nd in his race!) he was telling me what I should have done and all the tactics of circuit racing I now know I can do better in the future.
When I launched off the front, I should have just ridden 100 yards off to see if anyone would come with, if they don’t then just drop back into the bunch as it is a waste of energy and time.
Hopefully I will be able to hit up the Summer evening series and put those tactics into play and get some good results.
