What a race! Hard course or what! This was definitely the hardest race, course wise, that I have been in yet. On the other hand the race was over for all but 11 riders before the end of the first lap, this didn't exactly make it easier but at least more manageable, no one was ever going to take a flyer from a long way back.
Firstly the course, the weather was dry, very fortunately, overcast most of the time, occaisionally sunny and about 20c, wind not bad too a lot of the course was quite sheltered.
The course, from the start / finish line, up an incline for 250m, right turn, 200m right turn, downhill for 500m into a difficult 90 degree left, narrow road across a kerb! up a short sharp climb of 300m, down a little hill then up drag (3%) for 400m, 90 degree right turn for about 1km, wrong way through a roundabout (bought you back to the top of the finishing straight), 120 degree right turn up another drag for about 1 km, 90 degree left slightly downhill, both sides of a roundabout into a fast 90 degree right, straight for about 400m, hit the cobbles! 250m into 110 degree left, still on the cobbles straight for 1.5km all but the last 200m on cobbles, after about 300m of the cobbles the road tilted downhill through a fastish left hander, which was kind of 'exciting' at speed on the cobbles. 200m of fast downhill, hit a speed bump fast (50kph+), turn 90 left while still in the air, left again after 20 m, turn right after another 50m, turn right after another 50m down hill, turn left after 100m, still downhill, turn left immediately, effectively making the corner a horseshoe, 100m turn right, 50m turn left onto a quick downhill for 100m turn left at speed back onto the mainstraight with 800/900 m to the line up an incline of maybe 3%.
So a really tricky course, but fortunately dry, but with all the straw bales, waved warning flags, blown whistles and flashing blue lights it was all very 'Le Tour". Gotta love the atmosphere.
This was a new course to everybody, so it was a bit of a farce trying to do a warm up on the course, by following different riders I saw about 60% but not necessarily in the right direction! What I had seen was the first loop of what was almost a figure of eight layout, and I knew that the first real attack was going to come out of the tight left hander, that required a 'bunny hop' across the kerb and then a full on sprint up the nasty little hill. I had seen the cobbled section and was a little windy of that but I had not seen the incredible sequence of corners that followed it.
Anyway, sure enough, the first serious move came out of that corner but I was well placed and ready for it, unlike many of these 'hard types' I generally flick it down a couple of gears going into corners so that I can pick it up quickly on the way out. I'm sure they think I'm a bit of a wimp but hey it works for me.
From there we were basically in a single line until we hit the cobbles, boy did we hit the cobbles, possibly not a 3 star section in the Paris Roubaix but definitely a 2 star, with bike riders going everywhere, the first left hander was a critical point, its virtually impossible to get out of the saddle to pick up speed from a low speed corner on the cobbles, it has to be done in the saddle, then flat tack to the end, picking up speed as it sloped downwards. There were some gaps but I was firmly in the line and although my bike was making such noises that I was sure that it was disentegrating, however the dreadful noise stopped as soon as we hit the smooth tarmac again, so from there on I just ignored it.
A quick look around as we sped downhill into the amazing sequence of corners and I realised I was last in the line! A quick count revealed there were 10 of us, then it was concentrate as we flowed through the complex of corners that I hadn't previously seen, I thought they were never going to end! Power on up the home straight as the group realised that the race was decimated, one rider rejoined as we came across the finish line, he subsequently stayed on the back regardless for the balance of the race. So one lap down, six more to go and assuming that I can hang on I'm almost guaranteed of being in the 'money', keeping the record going at least, although I wasn't totally convinced at that point I could go the distance on this course.
Next lap was the usual mix of attack, counter attack etc., no collective thoughts of working together to consolidate the gap! Anyway through the cobbles again, no problem, well no special problem anyway, out of that into the corner complex, I'm sitting eighth wheel just minding my own business, it was all 'no brakes' stuff and I was doing it all without any issues. Then the guy in front of me got it all wrong, it is unusual but he stopped us, then compounded it by not getting out of the way, I was trying to get around him on the correct line, he was almost on an opposite tack, I was swearing and he was just getting in the way!
Long story short thge first 6 came out of the last of the corners onto the home straight almost 100m clear, I jumped really hard and nearly got there as we crossed the finish line but the front six had seen the gap and were full on, I had to wait for the rest of the group.
So we are now 5 chasing 6, I have no idea where the rest of the race was at this point. In the group was my big mate from the 'team' that always tries to work the race over, but at least he was working, I was working and the joker that had caused the problem was letting us work and then trying to jump across on his own, pillock,the other two were just sitting on, or hanging on, didn't make any difference they were doing bugger all to help.
It took us 3 laps, we rejoined just coming up to the line with two to go and it was hard chase, what I found interesting was that I was getting really strong through the cobbled section and very quick through the corner complex. In fact as we were closing the last of the gap I came out of the cobbled section about 100m clear and hooked onto the back through the corners, the rest didn't catch on until we reached the finish.
However the two strongest riders had obviously seen us coming and clipped off the front as I was rejoining, by this point I had no legs at all but the balance of the group was looking around, I got off the front a few times but wasn't strong enough to make it stick on my own so reverted to plan B, or actually plan A, sprint!
We had picked up 3 or 4 riders from an earlier race which was getting irritating cos they weren't just sitting on the back they were getting in the mix, I did give one an earful for chasing me down and dragging back the group.
Through the cobbles the last time I made sure I was well placed pushing past some of our unwanted passengers, down into the start of the 'corners' section I was fourth, made one position through the sequence of corners and came out onto the home straight third wheel, stayed to the left hand side as the road curved gently round to the right and wanted to avoid any 'congestion' even if it was slightly longer. I was right too, two riders managed to get into a contretemps but I was moving well, the speed was picking up and although it was my less favoured uphill sprint we had the wind behind us which countered the slope. They kicked off early, well I though they did, I waited a bit and started my sprint at 161m to go according to my SRM, peaked at 55kph and was clear on the left.
Pity about the breakaway and my legs are totally wrecked now. I'm looking forward to a recovery day tomorrow.
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