Alfold 2/3 – 1st place!

The team and circuit 
Seamus, Declan, Nigel and I met Nathan at the start for todays ~63 mile race around Alfold, which is 5 laps around 12.5 miles each. Fairly flat with a couple of rollers, but nothing more than 30s long. The finish was about 300m out of a left hand turn, had a slight hump across the road, and was downhill. The final 2km were with a tailwind. I instantly knew that I did not want to be competing this as a bunch sprint as it’d be chaos as its such a non-selective circuit.

The race 
Instantly, a group of 5 went. I saw a Dynamo go, but no Meudon. The first half lap was a pedestrian 22.5mph before it picked up. The group of 5 had 30s on us at the end of the first lap. After an hour of racing at the end of the 2nd lap, this was a 25s gap.

The 3rd lap I said to 2 Meudon boys, were they interested in going across with me with 1 or 2 to go, as I felt I could get across to a 30s gap. They ummed and arred, about it, and said maybe. I had an idea of where I wanted to go though, and hoped they would follow.

The 4th and penultimate lap was uneventful other than a 4×4 hurling around a 90 degree bend which caused the bunch to move to the left. I slammed on the brakes and ended up in some gravel, but managed to save it. I didn’t realise I’d delaminated 2″ of my tyre tread! I was fortunate not to puncture! We got a time check – The break had increased their gap to 35 seconds however.

Making the move 
Dynamo had been blocking well all race, with Peter Allan and Paul Edwards doing a lot of work to try to bring the break back on the final lap. I moved up to about 8th wheel and attacked. A couple came with me, but Meudon I saw were dragging me back. Their DS was there and shouted “come on Meudon – control this!”. A few moments later, I heard a Meudon rider telling his teammate to “slow it down” – obviously there were Meudon in the break!

I saw James Wright of Charlotteville following me as he has done this season. I attacked hard for a 2nd time, desperate for it not to become a sprint. I was spared 100 yards, and 2 came with me – Charlotteville and another guy, I think Nick Gasson from 34th Nomads. Joe James of Velosport tried coming, but cramped. I felt like I was doing the majority of the work, and on one of the 30s rollers, I managed to drop them both. I got into my low position and just carried on, hoping the front 5 would be playing cat and mouse. I passed one who had been dropped from the break, and I could see them up the road about 20s ahead, and quite quickly, I managed to get across to them.

Last lap, in the break 
I slipped into 3rd wheel and took a turn, wanting to gauge how strong they were. There was a guy in black kit, a London Dynamo, and 2 Meudon riders. One of the Meudon riders told his teammate to sit in, and do no work. Again, I felt my turns were harder and longer than the rest of the breaks, weighing up that I wanted to stay away to extend my lead in the Surrey League, or gambling and risk being caught in trying to conserve for the win.

Gaps were appearing, and I’d had enough of the Meudon guy sitting in, so I attacked with 3 miles to go. A 5 second effort on a little incline and then I got low. There was a lot of shouting at me, but I ignored it and continued. I heard a crash, and looked behind to see the Dynamo guy had come down unfortunately. I hit the next little roller and was a bit gutted that one of the Meudon guys (Darrell Pembroke) had got across to me, but at least I’d shelled it down to just me and him.

I told him to do a turn, but he refused saying he was fucked, so I attacked 600w for 20 seconds. He managed to stay with me. He clearly was playing me. I told him to do a turn, and he refused, saying he’d been away since 60 miles. I attacked him again with 500w for 20 seconds on the final kick, trying to wear him down. We now had 2km to go, and he was sat on my wheel, with a tailwind. I was doing 280w, so he would have been cruising. I decided I’d need to do a long one before the final corner if I was to have the beating of him as he’d now been sat on for 2 miles.

I kicked before the corner. 850w for 10s. I sat in the saddle, keeping as low as possible, and with the line coming up fast at 35mph, I could feel him beginning to come round in the last 100m, so I kicked again and managed to beat him by about 6-12″ with a lunge. Tight, but my 6th win of the season!  I was absolutely ecstatic how it panned out!

After the race, Nathan said he was doing some blocking for which I’m grateful. Declan had punctured before the first corner, which was gutting. Nigel got top 15 he thinks and I think Shay got held up behind a crash with 3-4km to go as there were drabs coming over the line. I think in terms of style, 2 attempts to bridge across, having to go solo, attacking the break, and then managing to win the sprint from someone who’d sat on, it’s definitely my best win of the season so far. The last 24 minutes were 320w/338w NP after 2 hours of racing, which highlights how lazy I am in TT’s!