I’d planned to start racing track this year, and had been going almost every week to training sessions on the track to get used to racing environments etc, along with riding 200-250k per week and 5 or 6 weights sessions in the gym.
I had what I imagine are all the usual reservations about starting to race - Am I fast enough, am I comfortable enough in a bunch etc? But then, the Easter weekend came around and the first few crits of the year on an outdoor circuit presented themselves, so I thought fuck it, there’s only one way to find out, so I signed up for the Eagle RC Cat 3/4 race at Redbridge Cycling Centre.
I knew full well that it would be tough, and I knew that it wasn’t necessarily the easiest circuit to get started on with the hill and one or two technical turns, but I could hold race pace on the training sessions on the track, so I was quietly confident I’d be able to stick with the pack for the race.
Over 100 riders had registered for the race, so my main concern was staying upright and not snapping my collarbone. I had to get the train and then ride out to Redbridge which I was sure wasn’t great prep, but 12k taken very gently as a warm up seemed fine.
I wanted to get to the circuit early to do a couple laps just to get a feel for the cornering and gearing etc. My mate Nath was riding it too, so the nerves weren’t too bad before I started. We did a couple laps, and realised the hill had a proper sting in it, which would no doubt take its toll during the 40k/1 hour race.
We’d registered and pinned our numbers on. In terms of who was riding I wasn’t hugely surprised it was a mixture. Some serious deep section carbon and serious looking legs, clad in skinsuits, and some guys on more ‘training wheels’ with hairy guns. Either way, my Caad10 on H Plus Son rims didn’t look completely out of place. And who cared anyway.
Turns out a lot of the Cat 3 guys riding were in Cat 2 last year but just didn’t quite manage to get the 200 BC points they needed to keep their Cat 2 licence. So they were racing this first race of the season to quickly accumulate enough points to get bumped back into Cat 2. Essentially, all this pointed towards the pace was going to be rapid, and it would be an hour of absolute murder.
Me and Nath were chatting, and didn’t realise everyone had lined up, so we took our places on the start at the back. Happily so as we were newcomers to racing, but on reflection, you’re better off getting towards the front, or at least in amongst it if you can, cause you don’t have to fight so hard to get on a wheel to start off with.
The commissaire gave his briefing, nothing out of the ordinary, just telling us that if you’d been lapped once, they would pull you out of the race with 5 laps to go, and if you’d been lapped twice, they’d pull you out altogether. So off we went.
Everyone was in easy gears to get off the line and clip in quickly, then they bombed to the first corner, which is a bit of downhill corkscrew at 40-45kph. Then bunch had 5 metres on me or so and I took the corner fairly gingerly, as they shot out of it and straight up and over the hill into the 60kph descent down into the low portion of the circuit. I put in an effort to get on the back of the bunch and just about caught them going into a couple of sweeping right handers, but I already knew I needed to get in amongst the wheels properly otherwise I wasn’t going to last long.
We’d only done a kilometre before a turn into a hairpin left hander which has to be taken at sensible pace, and I took too much speed off at the start of the bend, and as the bunch shot out of the other side I realised I was in trouble. I was on the drops and put in a big effort to get back on, but even in a pretty much flat sprint on the drops I couldn’t close the gap, and rode with the gap at the same distance, despite being full gas to catch up. We came into the hill and the bunch just started to disappear away. I was gutted. I knew that was the end of my race before it had even really started, and the disappointment was almost as painful as my legs. My heart rate was yet to go under 185 bpm. My FTHR is about 175.
My mate Nath faired similarly, and was dropped a little bit further up the road. I know I’m fitter than him, but I was chuffed he’d got a bit longer in the bunch, but I realised it was way more about race craft than just being able to smash out miles at a certain power output.
Yes, if you want to win races, you’ve got to be a really strong rider, but the thing I’d dismissed before the race as being okay was race craft. I’m comfortable in a bunch, especially on the track where it’s frantic, but on road circuits it’s a different kettle of fish. The bunch moves around more due to turns being both left and right, and accelerating out of them consistently is a much bigger drain on the legs than the fairly constant pace of scratch races on the boards, and even elimination races to some extent.
It was a steep learning curve, so while I was doing laps on my own I really concentrated on cornering as fast as I could, and definitely increased my confidence in getting more horizontal in the bends.
I was chuffed I’d given it a go, despite it being a shite performance, and I’d got the bug to race more. If nothing else it had prompted me to buy some club kit for Welwyn, as you can’t race without (something I only found out the day before, so had a nice trip up to Welwyn and back the previous evening).
I knew I had to train harder to be able to put in the efforts to stay with the pack. Better riders don’t need to put in these bursts, but if I’m to stay with the pack, then I need to be able to go harder into and out of the corners. The standard pace I was okay with, it’s just the intervals/bursts that were killer.
Next race is at Hillingdon. It’s just Cat 4 and flat. 16th April. Plenty of work to do before now and then, and I’m riding the Tour of Flanders next week, but really excited to get involved again and try and hold my own.
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