Colchester Centurion Summer Series race #3, 10 Sep 2022

Unfortunately the road race I was supposed to be doing on Sunday was cancelled so I last minute emailed the race organiser of the Colchester crit and got let in! Came into the race quite hopeful to get some points as I was feeling alright and there were only 21 people in the race.

It was a fairly relaxed start with the first few laps being quite steady with the odd person putting a dig in until about 15 minutes in the guy two wheels in front of me took an awful line through one of the corners and sent it right into the metal barrier. A group of 6 suddenly had a gap ahead with a few chasing in between then literally at the next corner another rider decked it and we slowed further, the break took advantage of the chaos and got a gap of 20 seconds. We started chasing from behind in a thinned down peloton as quite a few had not been positioned well for the crash. A few riders tried to bridge across and failed at the same time two riders got dropped from the break and joined our chase group of 10. I sent it with a max effort to try bridge the gap and got within 5 seconds of them but I hit the head wind section again and just couldn’t quite make it which was incredibly frustrating, bear in mind we weren’t even 1/3rd of the way into this race yet I settled for dropping back into the chase.

I immediately started pulling turns even though only half the group was. A few attacks went but no one ever managed to get across. We got the gap down to 15 seconds but we just couldn’t bring the group back and eventually settled for 5th onwards. As we had kept the pace quite high and a combination of it being very surge, lots of corners and windy the chase group was down to 6 of us so I knew I was guaranteed at least 1 point. Within the last 5 laps one guy kept attacking and I brought him back nearly every time. With 2 laps left I wound up an attack just before a tight right into the finish straight but I got squeezed into the barrier so I shut it off. In the last lap the same guy went again and I let the gap go so someone else would chase and they did, I was in 5th wheel up until 3 corners to the finish straight. Just before the 90 degree right into the finish straight the guy who I thought was the strongest wound it up to take the outside line round the three in front and I jumped onto the wheel. This was a very good move as the guy on the front was shattered and the wind was coming from the right so they gave us shelter and we blocked them in as we both opened up our sprints over the last 100 meters, I lost his wheel but still had a good kick in me and managed to beat the others by a bike length even with my junior gears, coming in for 6th overall and 2nd from the chasing group. I was upset I didn’t make the break as I’m positive I’d have been able to stay in it but I’m very happy with what I achieved and the result seeing as nearly exactly a year ago in my first ever race which was also here at Colchester I got dropped after 3 laps. I’m really enjoying my racing at the moment and am excited to see what I can do with the rest of this season!

Chris King