A couple of months ago I decided it would be a good idea to enter this Surrey League Race, it’s pretty local and although the course does feature a 25% incline, it’s pretty short though and we’d only need to go up it 6 times so I figured it wouldn’t be too bad.
I knew it would still be hard for me to stay with the bunch though so I knew it would be really important to stay at the front for the climb as there was a short sprint afterwards, a hard left turn followed by a long uphill drag. It’s easy to get over the 25% bit and ease off but if you do that you will soon get dropped.
Lap one went quite well but I did find it quite hard to stay with the bunch on the first climb of the hill. I kept to the front and did quite well, a few of my friends had been dropped by this point so I was pleased to still be with the bunch. On lap two a rider was riding on the front on the approach to the climb to make it harder. I got over the sharp incline but I really struggled on the uphill drag afterwards.
I tried to get back to the bunch and after half a lap of trying I got to the first aid car but it was just as the bunch were going up another hill. I didn’t have the legs to get back in and I realised I would be riding the rest of the race on my own.
After two laps on my own at TT pace, I started to feel pretty tired, I wanted to keep going though because I knew that some of my mates were behind me and that if they caught me, then I would probably get dropped as I was pretty tired. I saw them up the 25 climb and we rode a lap together before I was dropped by them on the hill, I’d blown completely!
I had another two laps left and I wanted to finish, I got round (just about) and all the officials had packed up and gone back to HQ.
I was pleased to finish but I’ve decided I’m just too big to get up these sort of hills, I think next season it would be more sensible for me to choose races that I can be more competitive in.
