Richard’s Race Report

After a sober night at my work Xmas party I drove home in some of the worst rain I have ever driven in, wondering if the next day would be dry enoughfor the first race at Hillingdon for the Imperial winter series. I woke up to dry weather, a bit of sun oh and man flu!

After a bit of indecision I decided I may as well race and have a bit of fun, it makes a change from riding around in the cold and the dark.The race was lively from the start with a few keen riders going for it and there were a few breaks, most of which didn’t really amount to anything. I didn’t want to over do it because of my cold so I took it easy and promised myself I wouldn’t be tempted to do anything too energetic.

Not much to report for the first half of the race but I started to feel very uncomfortable in my right leg and realised that the adjustments I had made to my cleats might not have been a very good idea. It felt like I had the right cleat too far forward and was using my toes to pedal. This was becoming quite painful and I wasn’t sure how long I would last. I was determined to make something of the day so I planned to stay in the bunch and try and get something from the sprint finish.

This all went to plan until two riders got ahead of the bunch and seemed to look like they might get away, so with 3 laps to go I put my foot down and tried to get to them. I looked behind me and realised I was just dragging the whole bunch with me so I pulled over to the right to let someone else take a turn but there was no response. I decided to rest for the finish however with half a lap to go I was badly placed and there was a small crash in front of me, two riders came off and I was caught behind them and pleased to stay on the bike.

After checking the other riders were OK I got back on my bike and finished my lap. To top it off I got soaked on my ride back home. Not a great day’s racing but at least I got all my bad luck out in one race.

Richard Jerome