After last week's 3rd i had been brewing all week to not make the same mistakes again (unseen escapee). Not wanting to get ahead of myself and just finish midfield again, I planned to break it up into mini-goals. 1-dont let anyone escape! 2-position correctly in last lap 3-get on good wheel and have good shot at sprint. Sounded so simple in the planning? What could go wrong 🙄
Arrive, signup. Oh carp. forgotten licence! "He got third last week" Older guy pipes up. cheers.
"So your still gonna race Dgrade then? commisaire-y guy asks".
"Yeah, till i can figure out what's going on" 🙄 .
Roll round for awhile, chat to Hippy, some other aboc'ers too and Jazmo.
Gotta love his style, priorities in the right place (reference to car v bike 😄 ).
Get to start, get the speel and go. do the dumb 10min controlled start (WTF?) and then shortly after the first of the half dozen mini attacks start but add up to little. guys go off and get 30m ahead and we just watch em suffer. At approx 30min mark one guy goes, another jumps after him and my big Pinarello goes too. I sit on and byt the end of the back straight we are about half the straight in front! woohoo! a breakaway. Only ever seen em in higher grades and on TV. Where's the team car. wadda-we do now? 😄. Oh yeah. take turns, hurt some. Jazmo comes past on the greenmachine-sandbagger's wheel and J is lookin shot.
Shortly after GT-man who got away on me last week gets across to us and announces loudly "and now we are 5!".
Good stuff. i look back and we still have a sizeable gap. This could work.
If we all work! which we dont, ery well. too many short turns and not enough of us 5 have enough juice to push it. We last 3-4 more laps and then we get caught. Oh well, time to hide and wheelsuck and save it up for the inevitable sprint.
Meanwhile Jazmo's breakaway had grown to 4 and it looked like they had it in the bag. Hippy was still to inspire a chase but alas, there would be post race steam again 🙄 (note the sandbagger went on to not only win Cgrade but ride strongly in Bgrade too!!!).
Dgrade get to '3-to-go' . Somehow i end up at the front as the frontrunners look for an easier ride 🙄 so i follow suit, soft pedal and drop back to 5-6th-ish behind 'MyPinarelloGuy' (MPG). Tthe pace is picking up slightly with a couple of feeble attempts to getaway but its all together.
One to go and Im feeling fresh. Goals 1+2 down now just get to that last corner in good possie and make it count!
On the 3rd last corner, guy i hadnt noticed before in allblack kit goes and gets a decent jump but Im guessin he cant last. "Dont panic". This is the point i have screwed it before! 🙄 The other havent been doin Carl's evil-up-hill sprints, right?
Another guy on orange Orbea (nice lookin bike fella!) goes but justmanages to drag us all back up to black-guy by the 2nd last corner. Someone 2 wheels ahead, and luckily a few metres ahead of 'MPG', scrapes the pedal stil ltrying to keep it spinning thru the corner. We all momentarilt baulk and realise we're all still upright, and now 'MPG' is 2nd entering the final corner and Im still allover his wheel.
Wait, wait, wait, dont blow it. Having already selsected gear short of last corner its now jut down to this or nothing.
We come out of the corner smoothly, 'MPG' hesitates a bit then starts to wind it up. Im so close to him that I just sit on, pushing a gear probably 3-4 bigger than i would normally sittng at this speed.
I cant wait any longer. we are only 50-75m out of corner and flying but i cant risk getting boxed in if someone passes on my right. Someone was already on my left but not going faster. I jump, and get a BIG kick form my big gear. I pass 'MPG' very quickly.
He shouts "FCKIT". Im thinkin he has done my trick of droppin the chain or screwda gearchange (later found out he just realised he was in too smaller gear and no time to react/change up). Im clear!
That's alot of open road. I havent even passed the signup table location yet!!
Gulp. Keep it going. Not yet really ontop of gear. Feeling good. Cant see any shadows on my sides. Cant look. Dont look!
Heyzooos! Im gonna win!!! am I?
I hear this hissing sound. realise its me sucking up any air on offer.
think people watching must think Im nuts. Put on the face of 'grrrrrrrrrr'.
Almost there... GOT IT!!!!!!!!!
um, did I?
there wasnt anyone up the raod was there? was the first thing i asked when GTMan pulls alongside and congratulates me. "Nope".
Coooooooooooooooooolll. D😄😄😄😄😄😄:😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄
So that's what it feels like when a plan comes together 🙄
Carl come sup and takes a photo of me looking shagged, stunned, chuffed.
Stick about to watch Jazmo's inevitable placing and see him pip another guy in a long shoulder-to-shoulder sprint for 2nd. Sandbagger won, apparently.
Go and hand in my number to lady at table.
"I'll claim the win for D" i say.
"Well, third last week and a win today! Well done. Perhaps you can go and give C grade a go next week".
Gulp! I knew that was gonna be the case but it wasnt till i heard those words that it sunk in. Hippy and friends are gonna hand me my tail on a silver platter. Back to square one again (way back in Feb04).
1 - dont fall. 2 - finish. 3 - dont get dropped.
awwwww [censored].
Still Im a grinnin idiot at the mo.
Perhaps i should retire whilst Im ahead? 😄
F"Alajet-for-a-day"Dutch
PS BIG thanks to Hippy for telling me to have a go, Carl 'the' coach (especially for the mental/tactical-WTF-to-do-stuff) and 'MPG' for the leadout 😄