Saturday 22 January 2011

Imperial Winter Series Race 9: Saturday 22nd January

Quite a large field of at least 40 riders turned out for today’s 3rd cat race. At the sign in Lucy kindly promised me no wind, which turned out to be a half kept promise. The wind was merely strong, rather than last week’s gale, and came from the North so forming a headwind up the finishing straight. A seasonal 6ºC. Perhaps because of the better conditions, and perhaps partly also because I took the precaution of taking the train to work yesterday, I had a much better race. There were some spirited attacks including a solo attempt in the last two laps. I often get this wrong but I do not think anyone stayed away. We must have been doing a reasonable pace as we lapped the 4th cat race twice today, not something that’s happened on the races I have done in this series so far. Came in within the bunch.  No crashes.
26.65 miles in 1:06:09. Average speed 24.17 mph. Max 32.3 mph
As I was leaving my fellow cycling blogger Skippy found me and we had a quick chat, curtailed by the fact I had to get home to walk the dog before dark. He is clearly doing good work finding sponsorship for paralympic athletes.  It was a pleasure to meet him in the flesh. He had struggled to find the circuit so it may be worth pointing to directions here (with added bonus of a rear shot of one of my clubmates!). Hillingdon is a good place to start racing especially if you first get yourself there for some Thursday evening Prime Coaching sessions in the summer months to get used to bunch riding at speed and the layout of the circuit.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for Promo and good to see encouragement fror more to join the racing !

    Any Parra cyclists out there that can take the time to visit , go say hello to Lucy . Could be you will find, if you are shy, a warm welcome if not encouragement from those visiting to race.

    Who knows a Hand bike or other activities could be fitted into the weekly program.

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