Robin Parker writes…
And so to this weekend. LVRC road race at Blackmore (yes really! It’s in Essex, near Brentwood) on 17th March. The race kicked off right from the flag. I got into the first break, which nearly shattered the bunch – but it all came back together. Inevitably, the successful break went very soon after the general regroupment. I was there in the right place and saw it go. But I was already hurting and didn’t have the bottle to go with it! The race then settled down pretty much for the duration.
Unfortunately I got some grit in my eye about half way through that just would not shift. With just 4 guys up the road, I could have/should have done better in the sprint, but I couldn’t really push myself into it what with eye hurting and not really being able out of that side of my head (which isn’t great when jostling for position!). The sprint itself didn’t enthuse me much either. With about 400m to go we went past a line of parked cars (car boot sale or something) on the left.
Then as we started winding it up with about 200m to go the daft b*ggers had let a couple of cars through the finish area. I didn’t fancy giving it full gas into an oncoming car, but I pushed the pedals hard enough to get near the front and then hold station. I ended up about 4th in the bunch sprint giving me 3rd place in age category.
So if I was giving a school report on the story so far, it would be something like a solid start to the term and showing promising signs of having laid a good foundation. Needs to start adding some intensity to training to build up through April for the important events at the end of May / early June.
