Big butterflies in the stomach tonight!
Started about an hour before hand.
In another lifetime, i got these on a regualr basis prior to a baseball game and realised my pitching was gonna be a cannon or a wayward lethal weapon (apologies to all lefthand batters i mighta nailed back in the 80/90's). Lots of familiar faces. Gags, BT, Blah and later DaveB and Jazmo plus a few other faces i knew from other exploits...
We got going. large field again. maybe 30 riders? (gags?).
Kept near the front. doing the easier cruisy option up the hill and letting others do the work over the top and down the other side and then short sprint to go thru the hairpin again and up the hill easy.
I was really looking forward to sittin on Gags' wheel but he was going back-forward haphazardly so I just kept within a sniff of the front for the first 20min.
There is always a patch in the middle where the pace picks up and seems to sort out the bunch. It arrived but the front group didnt get away enough and slowly came back but the overall tempo had been set and was staying constant.
I invariably (and Gags mentioned this after too) fight the mind hereabouts and have ften just slowly fallen of fthe back but last week and this week too have fought to hang on. All together again.
Many hard yards are done up the hill and trying to hangon over the top.
Gags seems to be making a comeback and appaears periodically towards the front.
at about the 28-9min mark Comissaire calls 3 laps to go and Im wondering how Im going to keep pushing. Cmon! its 'only' 5 minutes away!
2 laps to go. we appraoch the 2nd-last hairpin. I pull alongside Gags and say that if someone's gonna go, they will go now.
I cant make out clearly what Gags says but Im guessing he's tiring like me.
We go round again. the tempo goes up another notch. Very strung out pack. No idea what's going on behind me. Me gags are about 10-11th wheel appraoching the last hairpin.
A guy flies up the left and tries to enter the corner way too fast and then proceeds to brake all the way round which totally screws Gags up (on my left). Im sticking to my theory of fast-wide entry, fast-wide exit.
There's a guy about 10m ahead.
I put my head down and pass.
then another. reach the corner towards the finish line. Can see the top 8'ish riders all doing hard yards ahead. The front-few-runners are out of reach but encouragingly, the others are going 'backwards'. Change up a gear and really thumping it now. Pass another. and another. then pass almost 3 others all at the same time approaching the line. they seemed to be standing still.
**** why didnt i go earlier? (ah, isnt hindsight a wonderful thing!!!).
Cross the line within about 20-30m of the winners and count that there is 4 of them in front of me.
5th!!!
Cool. Kept saying to myself "Its a training ride".
I aint no climber, and that might just be the closest i ever get.
...Unless Im within cooee at that last corner and have the juice in the legs I had tonight (pity it only lasts a short distance!).
Isnt theory a wonderful thing!
Self delusion aint bad either
Started about an hour before hand.
In another lifetime, i got these on a regualr basis prior to a baseball game and realised my pitching was gonna be a cannon or a wayward lethal weapon (apologies to all lefthand batters i mighta nailed back in the 80/90's). Lots of familiar faces. Gags, BT, Blah and later DaveB and Jazmo plus a few other faces i knew from other exploits...
We got going. large field again. maybe 30 riders? (gags?).
Kept near the front. doing the easier cruisy option up the hill and letting others do the work over the top and down the other side and then short sprint to go thru the hairpin again and up the hill easy.
I was really looking forward to sittin on Gags' wheel but he was going back-forward haphazardly so I just kept within a sniff of the front for the first 20min.
There is always a patch in the middle where the pace picks up and seems to sort out the bunch. It arrived but the front group didnt get away enough and slowly came back but the overall tempo had been set and was staying constant.
I invariably (and Gags mentioned this after too) fight the mind hereabouts and have ften just slowly fallen of fthe back but last week and this week too have fought to hang on. All together again.
Many hard yards are done up the hill and trying to hangon over the top.
Gags seems to be making a comeback and appaears periodically towards the front.
at about the 28-9min mark Comissaire calls 3 laps to go and Im wondering how Im going to keep pushing. Cmon! its 'only' 5 minutes away!
2 laps to go. we appraoch the 2nd-last hairpin. I pull alongside Gags and say that if someone's gonna go, they will go now.
I cant make out clearly what Gags says but Im guessing he's tiring like me.
We go round again. the tempo goes up another notch. Very strung out pack. No idea what's going on behind me. Me gags are about 10-11th wheel appraoching the last hairpin.
A guy flies up the left and tries to enter the corner way too fast and then proceeds to brake all the way round which totally screws Gags up (on my left). Im sticking to my theory of fast-wide entry, fast-wide exit.
There's a guy about 10m ahead.
I put my head down and pass.
then another. reach the corner towards the finish line. Can see the top 8'ish riders all doing hard yards ahead. The front-few-runners are out of reach but encouragingly, the others are going 'backwards'. Change up a gear and really thumping it now. Pass another. and another. then pass almost 3 others all at the same time approaching the line. they seemed to be standing still.
**** why didnt i go earlier? (ah, isnt hindsight a wonderful thing!!!).
Cross the line within about 20-30m of the winners and count that there is 4 of them in front of me.
5th!!!
Cool. Kept saying to myself "Its a training ride".
I aint no climber, and that might just be the closest i ever get.
...Unless Im within cooee at that last corner and have the juice in the legs I had tonight (pity it only lasts a short distance!).
Isnt theory a wonderful thing!
Self delusion aint bad either
