NCRA Handicap Road Race Rd 2, 12 Mar 2022

This was my first road race and 2nd race of the 2022 season. Due to waking up late and needing to get petrol on the way I arrived with 30 mins to get me and the bike ready, sign on, warm up and get to the line which I ended up being able to do, although the 5 minute warmup wasn’t exactly adequate.

I had been put in group 3 of 5 which I was surprised about seeing as I have only done 5 races before, all of which have been crits and 4 had been youth only unlike this. We set off and as I was at the front I brought the pace up to around 26 mph before rolling off into rotation. We worked well as a group for the first half of the lap until the speed started causing gaps, I was already starting to struggle a bit because of the surges in pace. As we hit the head wind section I was holding onto the wheel in-front as hard as possible. I was able to hang on out of the section and when we went through the start line I felt comfortable on the hill as climbing is my stronger point.

However just after the finish line as we were going into the second lap, group 4 appeared from what seemed like nowhere. As they came past a lot faster the stronger guys in my group were able to sprint and catch them however as we surged over the small rise and then downhill I was just spinning out and my legs were blowing up. I got dropped but managed to join onto some riders that had attacked off group 5, I was able to stay with them for 2/3rds of a lap before being dropped by them too. Going into the last lap I was doing a 3up with 2 other dropped riders, half way round, 3 other riders from group 5 made it to us and we went with them into the headwind section, I was able to skip turns as the three stronger guys drove the pace. As we came into the bottom of the uphill finish I attacked to try and catch the more powerful guys off guard which I did and got a few meters on them, but I looked up and saw that there were crashed riders on the floor, a first aid vehicle on one side and traffic on the other, all 6 of us eased off as we navigated through the small gap, we then all had to sprint again in the wrong gears from standstill the last 50 feet, I was able to beat 4 of the other 5 riders but it was all sort of in vain as I rolled in at 37th position. A good racing experience none the less.

Chris King