Ben Houston writes…
Managed to ride 3 Crits at Thruxton this year. Big fields – 60 riders and with no bunch racing for so long due to pandemic the standard of riding was frankly awful.
First race in June I was pushed onto the grass in the final 2km and lost my position, so bunch finish 27th place.
Honestly was not keen to go back given how the riding standard was, and vowed to only ride Masters RR in future. However by August I took a break from the TT racing and headed back to Thruxton once again! Another big field, this time my strategy was to get in the break every time and stay out of trouble. Missed the winning move of course, which went on the counter attack as my own move was caught. Recovered for a couple of laps and then pushed very hard the final km up through club chicane and got a small gap on the bunch for 6th place.
Following week I returned, this time a wet race, one hero broke clear on the second lap of 10 (approx. 1 hour race) and managed to stay clear, there was not much organisation to chase down and no other breaks were allowed to bridge across so it came to a bunch sprint where I got 9th.
Few photos courtesy of Behind the Bikeshed racing.
