Another Busy Day

I’m back in front of the computer, trying and failing to watch the highlights of today’s tour stage to Verbier on ITVplayer (I’ve spent all day insulating myself from any talk of the tour so I have no idea of the results!), so I figured what better time to write another blog entry! Today, I spent the day racing the first race of the new Eastern Series at Danbury country park. Having never been down to that part of the world (I’ve never been to Chelmsford before, I realise this morning as I was driving down), I didn’t really know what to expect. Having got there early to make sure I got a ride (in practice that wasn’t really an issue apparently, but never mind – good to have time) I had plenty of time to preview the course. Too much time, it transpired, as the course itself was only around 15mins long! I ended up doing four laps just to fill the time before my race at 1pm!

I also had a nice chat with marshall extraordinare Tony Williams, and the organisers were nice enough to warn me that there was a pretty serious competitor also entered in my race (but not who it was!). It became apparent when I went to line up that I would be racing, amongst other, Alex Dowsett, who’s road- and time-trial exploits I’ve read about many a time on the British Cycling website. As long as he could stayj upright, it was pretty clear it was going to be a race for second!

As race time arrived, I quashed my usual instincts and lined up on the front row for the downhill start that went almost immediately into the singletrack, as I was concerned about the possible bottleneck this could cause. I ended up in a nice little group of four riders at the front of the race, but after a couple of minutes of sitting in, I started to worry about the faster guys behind, and decided to strike out alone. I led for most of the first lap until Alex came flying past me at a totally unmatchable pace on the gentle fire road climb towards the start-finish. So it remained for the rest of the race, with the marshalls giving me ever-increasing time checks to Alex (they even seemed disappointed every lap when they realised I couldn’t close a six-minute gap!), and the guys behind remaining a pretty constant distance back.

I crossed the line for second place feeling really pretty pleased with myself – I hate to say it, but it’s probably an indication of the lack of strength of the field that I came second, but it was nice to get to stand on the podium and spray champagne (Essex champagne, no less!). My back is now killing me from all the lumps and bumps in the course – it definitely wasn’t hardtail country, but with only one bike I didn’t have the luxury of a more comfortable machine!

Once I’d finished, and picked up my prize, I dashed back to the car to ring Rachel and find out how her race had gone. Sadly, she’d got a puncture at the top of the climb on the first lap, and been unable to get any air into her tyre, in spite of the help of Anna Buick, and pulled out. In fact, it sound like only one Expert woman managed to finish the Senior race! In the men’s U23 race, the guy who’s been leading expert all year, Scott Thwaites, managed to overhaul Dave Fletcher to get himself a nice stripy jersey, and Sion O’Boyle who’d been pushing him all the way came in 3rd, which makes me feel rather better about the torrid time I’ve been having in Expert.

Now I’m going to head back to the sofa to watch the remains of this very-slowly streaming video of the high mountains, so ta ta for now!