Richard Jerome has made his debut on the blog with reports of his recent races.
Welcome Richard.
AW cycles road race – Woodcote 3rd April
The race was going quite well for me until the bunch was split by a horse that had been spooked by the cyclists. I was at the back recovering fromgoing up Goring Hill and spent the rest of the race trying to catch the bunch. I was joined half a lap later by another 10-ish riders who were also victims of the same incident and we all worked well together to try and getback to the main race and use the race as training.
With half a lap to go Itried to get away on one of the hills and was joined by two other riders and we managed to get away from our group and redeemed ourselves slightly.
Thames Velo Road Race – Great Milton
I left quite early for this race and it was a good job as I managed tobreak my car on the M40. Luckily my Dad was able to get out to me and weabandoned my car and he took me to the HQ.
It was a very windy day and a few small groups had managed to get away butnot for long. Due to the lack of a decent hill it was likely to be a bunchsprint at the end so my plan was just to sit in and conserve my energy forthe sprint. The previous year I had sprinted off too early and found myself rolling in at the back of the race so I really wanted to make sure I didn’t repeat that.
A decent group of around 8 riders had managed to get a small gap between us and them and as we came round for the last climb up Claire Hill I thought if they managed to get up there they will probably make it to the finish line. I tried to catch them on the road up towards Claire Hill and managed to drag the rest of the race with me, I really struggled up the hill after this and this took a lot out of me. I left my sprint as late as I could but I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was also stuffed from my earlier efforts so I rolled in just behind the bunch in 61st. Whoops.
Richard Jerome
