For my final road race of the season I competed in the inaugural B38/UOSCC road race. It’s on a revived course through Stannage. It was sold to me as “having the least amount of flat in any road race”. It consisted of “just” 105km but around 2200m of climbing. It’s 15 reps up a 4-5 minute climb and makes it almost ideal training for hill climb season.
Having just achieved my first category license I was under no personal pressure and just wanted to treat it as prep for hill climbs. I wasn’t that desperate for a result. Of course winning would be nice though!
There were a few probing attacks from the gun but nothing was allowed to get away. I just kept to the front. On the second time up the climb I gave it a bit of an attack. I was followed by my good mate Kieran Savage and we established a tiny gap over the peloton. We were riding pretty hard (420W for 4 minutes) and caught two riders who were up the road.
Pressing on as a foursome we crested with a minuscule gap. The peloton was stretched out single file (with me at the front) but not splitting catastrophically. I slipped back into 4th wheel and let Louis Szymanski lead with Kieran in second and Joe Clark in 3rd (all Cycling Sheffield).
On the start of the descent Joe let the wheel to Kieran go. I passed him and closed the gap. Then Kieran let the wheel to Louis go. I passed him and closed the gap. I wasn’t playing any of their games so immediately countered and gapped Louis (and therefore the peloton). I drilled it and made Louis bridge to me.
He helped me pull turns and as a duo we established a 30s lead. Now a 2-up break for the next 93km would be pretty hard work, but why not try?
We rode the climb hard again but not outrageously fast and by the top several riders were on the verge of catching us. I was still feeling really good, upped the pace to keep them away, rather than calling off the attack. 5 riders managed to get across with a few more trying to close the gap to us.
What happened next was perhaps the most bizarre racing nuance to have happened this season. Louis was on the front going very hard (I was in second wheel doing nearly 400W) whilst Kieran was chasing behind shouting “LOUIS, LOUIS!!” trying to get him to slow down so he could join the break. Now I don’t know if Louis heard Kieran or not but I was proper creasing up. Kieran smashing himself to bridge to the break with Louis driving it, preventing him from joining. I think they may have got into trouble for this.
Now there were 7 of us: me, Louis, Cameron Jeffers (Cyclingcam), Cameron Biddle, James Jobber, Charlie Passfield and Gregory Fiztek. Excluding Greg, we are all either Elite or 1 st category so it was a good move. We established a gap of 90 seconds after 2 laps which eeked out to over 2 minutes by the next lap.
It was still very early in the race and we began to get a bit complacent. We subconsciously eased off a bit just as the peloton started to chase. Suddenly our lead was down to merely 67 seconds. I thought we’d lost it.
I had a word with Cameron Jeffers and basically said “let’s just have 2 full gas laps and see what happens”. We did just that. We really started to hammer it. It was pretty hard as you can imagine but after 3 laps of this, the gap had stabilised back to 95 seconds.
We were frequently told the situation behind and there seemed to be several attacks and bridging attempts and finally a group of two got away.
With 3 laps left I was getting a bit fatigued but felt as though I was one of the strongest in the break. Cam Jeffers was really the one to watch, but even he seemed to be flagging. I had been working hard though. As I said before, I was treating it as a training race so didn’t mind about smashing myself. I just kept pulling turns. Even as we spat Greg, I pushed the pace to stop him getting back in.
With two laps to go I thought I was in with a shout of the win, and once we hit the main climb for the 14th time I had a dig. I had about 15 seconds (if that) at 700W and regretted it. My legs were sore, so I called off the attack and just kept the pace hard, hoping to put them under pressure rather than go solo.
Over the top of the climb there were a few attacks. I chased the first, then got countered and did a slow bridge to close that gap down. I wasn’t letting anything get away this late. Again this took a lot out of me. I’d simply done too much work, but had I not then the break might not have stuck.
As we approached the final climb the commasairs had to pull out of the gap. Then chasing duo was merely 30 seconds behind. If we fanny’d around then we could lose it. So once again I tried to keep it hard on the climb. It was all just tactically poor and when Charlie attacked with 1km to go I couldn’t follow. I looked to Louis and Cameron Biddle to help me chase it. We held the gap but I knew I had nothing left and as Cameron Jeffers (who had been sitting on) attacked to take the win, it was over for me. The remaining three of them (Jobber snapped a spoke earlier on) gapped me to take the top 4 spots leaving me in 5th . Meh. Once again I couldn’t finish it off. Jeffers put out over 600W in the last minute, I can barely do that fresh let alone after 97km in the break.
I’d lost this race by doing too much work. I averaged 295W for 2 hours 40 mins including 348 for 20 mins just setting it up… No wonder I was wrecked. Once again I made the winning move, and that’s a solid way to end the season. Watching the rest of the riders finish was pretty funny. It was totally shredded; it was just single riders like 20m apart from each other for the next 5 minutes.
Having just achieved my first category license I was under no personal pressure and just wanted to treat it as prep for hill climbs. I wasn’t that desperate for a result. Of course winning would be nice though!
There were a few probing attacks from the gun but nothing was allowed to get away. I just kept to the front. On the second time up the climb I gave it a bit of an attack. I was followed by my good mate Kieran Savage and we established a tiny gap over the peloton. We were riding pretty hard (420W for 4 minutes) and caught two riders who were up the road.
Pressing on as a foursome we crested with a minuscule gap. The peloton was stretched out single file (with me at the front) but not splitting catastrophically. I slipped back into 4th wheel and let Louis Szymanski lead with Kieran in second and Joe Clark in 3rd (all Cycling Sheffield).
On the start of the descent Joe let the wheel to Kieran go. I passed him and closed the gap. Then Kieran let the wheel to Louis go. I passed him and closed the gap. I wasn’t playing any of their games so immediately countered and gapped Louis (and therefore the peloton). I drilled it and made Louis bridge to me.
He helped me pull turns and as a duo we established a 30s lead. Now a 2-up break for the next 93km would be pretty hard work, but why not try?
We rode the climb hard again but not outrageously fast and by the top several riders were on the verge of catching us. I was still feeling really good, upped the pace to keep them away, rather than calling off the attack. 5 riders managed to get across with a few more trying to close the gap to us.
What happened next was perhaps the most bizarre racing nuance to have happened this season. Louis was on the front going very hard (I was in second wheel doing nearly 400W) whilst Kieran was chasing behind shouting “LOUIS, LOUIS!!” trying to get him to slow down so he could join the break. Now I don’t know if Louis heard Kieran or not but I was proper creasing up. Kieran smashing himself to bridge to the break with Louis driving it, preventing him from joining. I think they may have got into trouble for this.
Now there were 7 of us: me, Louis, Cameron Jeffers (Cyclingcam), Cameron Biddle, James Jobber, Charlie Passfield and Gregory Fiztek. Excluding Greg, we are all either Elite or 1 st category so it was a good move. We established a gap of 90 seconds after 2 laps which eeked out to over 2 minutes by the next lap.
It was still very early in the race and we began to get a bit complacent. We subconsciously eased off a bit just as the peloton started to chase. Suddenly our lead was down to merely 67 seconds. I thought we’d lost it.
I had a word with Cameron Jeffers and basically said “let’s just have 2 full gas laps and see what happens”. We did just that. We really started to hammer it. It was pretty hard as you can imagine but after 3 laps of this, the gap had stabilised back to 95 seconds.
We were frequently told the situation behind and there seemed to be several attacks and bridging attempts and finally a group of two got away.
With 3 laps left I was getting a bit fatigued but felt as though I was one of the strongest in the break. Cam Jeffers was really the one to watch, but even he seemed to be flagging. I had been working hard though. As I said before, I was treating it as a training race so didn’t mind about smashing myself. I just kept pulling turns. Even as we spat Greg, I pushed the pace to stop him getting back in.
With two laps to go I thought I was in with a shout of the win, and once we hit the main climb for the 14th time I had a dig. I had about 15 seconds (if that) at 700W and regretted it. My legs were sore, so I called off the attack and just kept the pace hard, hoping to put them under pressure rather than go solo.
Over the top of the climb there were a few attacks. I chased the first, then got countered and did a slow bridge to close that gap down. I wasn’t letting anything get away this late. Again this took a lot out of me. I’d simply done too much work, but had I not then the break might not have stuck.
As we approached the final climb the commasairs had to pull out of the gap. Then chasing duo was merely 30 seconds behind. If we fanny’d around then we could lose it. So once again I tried to keep it hard on the climb. It was all just tactically poor and when Charlie attacked with 1km to go I couldn’t follow. I looked to Louis and Cameron Biddle to help me chase it. We held the gap but I knew I had nothing left and as Cameron Jeffers (who had been sitting on) attacked to take the win, it was over for me. The remaining three of them (Jobber snapped a spoke earlier on) gapped me to take the top 4 spots leaving me in 5th . Meh. Once again I couldn’t finish it off. Jeffers put out over 600W in the last minute, I can barely do that fresh let alone after 97km in the break.
I’d lost this race by doing too much work. I averaged 295W for 2 hours 40 mins including 348 for 20 mins just setting it up… No wonder I was wrecked. Once again I made the winning move, and that’s a solid way to end the season. Watching the rest of the riders finish was pretty funny. It was totally shredded; it was just single riders like 20m apart from each other for the next 5 minutes.
