Thursday 28 June 2012

Still racing?


Time to get away with my disillusionment with commuting and the criminal justice system and turn to more pleasant thoughts.  Whilst my commuting mileage is down I am upping my mileage riding to and then racing.  Unlike last year these are almost exclusively at racing circuits.  Although I love racing on the open road I am realistic enough to recognise that I will almost always be dropped (most probably on a descent) and, since road race fields are invariably full,  I am preventing somebody from having a proper race.  Overall I am a bit heavier and a bit slower than last year.  I am also a far more nervous rider on the downhill as a consequence of, not one but, two front tyre blow outs when descending this spring.
I am though, I think, marginally faster in the sprint.  Last year I was usually crossing the line 100 metres behind the peloton.  This year I am managing to cross the line with other riders all around me.  This helped me to a 9th place last week which, though hardly stunning, is my best result for two years and earned me 2 BC points.
When I started this blog 3 years ago I was a 4th cat and managed the 10 BC points required to become a 3rd cat.  Now half way through this season I have 2 points so, to answer my reader who kindly enquired whether I would ever make 2nd cat,  'no' I am afraid not; 40 points are required and short of EPO and blood transfusions, 2nd cat status is for me an impossibility.  About as likely, I would say, as being appointed Lord Chief Justice.

On a slightly different note, I will be doing the etape in the Pyrenees in a few weeks time.

3 comments:

  1. Maybe see you in the Pyrenees then... Promises to be one of the more brutal editions.

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  2. A new pair of knees for the Pyrenees?

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  3. I like your racing accounts, It makes me want to take it up. I would like to do a open road race, I dont fancy crits, I dont have the sprint power to finish it off.

    more racing stories please.

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