So by the time that I arrived, I'd already been on the bike for an hour (slow riding plus traffic) so I was feeling pretty warm - a bit hot even - by the time that I arrived at the circuit. I sorted myself out in the clubhouse, wearing a lot of thin layers because of the cold and the light easterly breeze. A couple of laps warm up and we were good to go.
Starting this week, I had every intention of seeing what I could at the front of the race. The race started badly with someone squeezing into a gap in front of me as we set off, who then proceeded to try to put his gloves on... A slow start to say the least, but with the lack of wind relative to previous weeks it wasn't too hard to get involved in the bunch and started to watch the other riders.
I managed to get myself further forward in the first five or so laps, making moves round the outside down the long straights, but to be honest it was massively stressful in the middle of the bunch. With people on the front reluctant to do too much work (fair enough) sometimes the whole field would make sudden waves from one side of the track to the other. Pretty sketchy stuff, and nothing gained given that the group never split and the breakaways never stayed away for more than a lap or two.
That meant that for much of the middle of the race I was floating around the back, doing my best to keep alert to any serious breakaway attempts. I've been doing my best to learn who the riders to watch are, which certainly helps from a tactical point of view. We flew past the 4th Cats without incident, but at that point our pace slowed up significantly, which was understandable with still 35 minutes left to race.
From there to the finish, it was all about controlling my efforts and trying to put my last 5 lap routine into place. I'd been thinking about it all week, and I figured that the best idea would be to move forward very assertively (i.e. right to the front of the race) and from there be in a position to stick onto the wheels of any moves that did take off.
Well, that was the plan, but it didn't really work out that way. There had been a proper crash on the finishing straight in the final sprint of the 4th Cat race. Half the racetrack was blocked with 250m to go to the finish line. Needless to say, in laps 6-3 to go it made for some hairy moments as riders who had flown around the outside of the bottom corners tried to barge across into the smaller gap. Not very sensible at all. Lots of close moments between wheels and riders! As we came round with 2 laps to go, an ambulance had appeared! It hadn't pulled up to the side, but from where I was, it seemed to be parked pretty much in the middle (it certainly felt that way, even if we had more room in reality). So as we came up the finishing straight into the bell, I was tucked in on the left hand side, about halfway back in the field. No one had gone away from the front, so we were left with a flat out sprint, with an ambulance creating a bottleneck. Brilliant(!)
What happened after that was all really very very very lucky. I stayed on the left for the hairpins, but managed to make my way over to the right hand side along the short top straight. This was exactly what I wanted to do last week, but went so wrong when I got caught up outside the crash. There were still 15 or so riders in front, with about 6 in a line at the front. I was sheltering from the (gentle) crosswind on the right, when suddenly the line of 6 disintegrated at the start of the back straight. I have no idea why, but they went in all directions across the track and seemed to be watching each other. I was at the back of a little train of 3 on the very right hand side, and we squeezed through, just missing one of the 6 who had veered sharply right. I think one of my train peeled off, and I decided to stay tucked in second wheel since no one seemed to be coming past. My top speed for the race was 34.1 mph, and that could well have been at this point with the final sprint being uphill. Anyway, I rounded 'crash corner' second wheel, absolutely delighted with my luck, and moved out to move past the rider in front.
First wheel into the final corner, I absolutely buried myself. I went clear through the ambulance bottleneck, very relieved, but coming into the two kinks I decided that I was in the wrong gear. Learning from one of my first 4th Cat races last February where I could've won, I sat down, changed down, and then sprinted again. I could see the long shadows of the pursuing riders, I just had to pray that no one came past - and no one did! Hopefully they'll post the photo-finish, as it shows just how close 1,2,3,4 all were, but I was absolutely over the moon with my first ever win. During the summer, even a top 5 finish in any race had seemed beyond me, so this has lit a massive fire in me to do more and get better. If it hadn't been for being in the right place at the right time coming down the back straight, then the result could've easily been a different one, but everything came good in the end and I can't wait for more!
Many thanks to Lucy at Imperial Racing Team for the photo finish! I remember the lunge being a lot less upright.
Well done!
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