14/6 Susie's Circuits (Thruxton)

Another perfect day at Thruxton, sunny and a light wind. Got changed and started to warm up slowly straight away. Started gentle laps in the 39 ring then up into the 53 after 10 mins. 15 mins to go started a few out of the saddle efforts, getting HR up to about 145-150. Had one last hard effort a few minutes before the race start. Looking around the other riders today was going to be completely different from Hillingdon. There were a lot of able looking people about and some strong turnouts from Fareham wheelers, Sotonia and Andover wheelers. A top 10 could be a challenge today. I was remembering my experiences from March where I'd ridden conservatively but not head the legs for the final sprint out of the chicane.

40 or so of us headed out into the first lap at a very steady pace. This was soon distrupted by 2 Bristolian's who considerably upped the pace coming into lap 2. I wasn't feeling great, but hovered around 10-15th position in the bunch keeping out of the wind. Soon after Claire appeared next to me, the organisers had let the womens start with the 4th Cat's as there were only 4 entries. This would later prove to be a big help.

The next few laps were pretty quiet, with just a few solo breakaway attempts being left to suffer before being swallowed up again after half a lap. Coming into the last 4-5 laps the Sotonia and Fareham Wheelers boys got active, having plently of riders they were able to launch a few attacks to up the pace of the race and let the other teams tire chasing them down. As these got more serious, Claire came to my aid and successfully chased down 2 concerted efforts by Sotonia and Fareham Wheelers.

On the 9th and second to last lap a potentially dangerous looking move of 3 riders formed just before the rise to the chicane. Having so far kept myself out of trouble and well below threshold the entire race so far I decided to close the gap and attacked out of the chicane. 100m or so later the move was nullified and the bunch back together for the final lap.

This time round wasn't going to make any mistakes. I'd kept in the front 5 coming into the last lap and positioned myself at the left of the bunch to be well out of the wind as we approached the rise before the chicane. To my right in a wheel length echelon were 3 others lead by one of the strong Bristol South CC lads from earlier. Coming into the base of the rise he attacked and I slipped past the others and glued myself to his wheel. This is where on the last 2 races I'd made my mistake.

Instead of opening up my sprint, I kept in the saddle and a centimetre from his wheel in front. As we approached the chicane two or three others came through on my left and right handside, but not fast enough to get past. Coming out of the chicane I could see my chance for a top 5 slowly slipping by with riders in my peripheral vision, though as yet none had come past. I was waiting for someone to power past at any second but as yet no one seemed be to closing. I put my foot down and got a wheel length on the Bristol South chap, but wasn't going full gas saving a final effort should there be a last ditch effort from someone.


With the finish approaching fast I instinctively kicked for the line, still expecting to be overtaken right at the last second. Freewheeling I couldn't believe I'd won it. I was so sure someone was going to overtake in the last 25m, I was still in disbelief. The Bristol South CC guy got second, about a bike length from the rest of the bunch sprinting after us. He rode over to congratulate me, saying he'd thought I'd win it after he saw me warm up earlier!

Technically the race couldn't have gone better. I'd only excerted myself once in the whole hour when closing down the move on the second to last lap. I'd bided my time when the final move was made on the rise into the chicane and kept the bunch at bay just enough to have another kick left should anyone pop through in the last few metres. Unknown to me the whole sprint was caught on camera by one of the British Cycling photographers.

Claire had rode an awesome race as well, getting 6th over all and 2nd out of the women. Having her there for the last few laps closing down attacks and offering some protection was a great help. As the weekends results began to sink in I was amazingly happy. I'd still not fully taken in getting 5th the day before at Hillingdon and getting a win the next day was better than I could have possibly imagined. I'd wanted to get my 3rd Cat with a win, not a few points here and there but I'd always known it would be very hard to achieve.

As a coincidence I now move into the Peak period of my training program which takes me right up to the Devil Ride before 2 weeks off in Wales and France. This next week has 3 races, this Tuesday at Dunsfold, Thursday for the last of the Lewes Crit series (currently 15th on GC) and Sunday is Goodwood.