PGT Day 6 - Race Chasing

Work commitments during the day meant that PGT 6 started late by my usual standards at 6pm. That was when Finn and I slung our legs over our bidon laden bikes and headed for Bobbington Village Hall, the start venue for Round 5 of the South Staffordshire and Shropshire Cycling Clubs Road Race League - referred to henceforth as the SSSCCRRL if only to prevent a bandwidth shortage. On a very warm evening there was a good turnout and Fred's Racing Team, well placed in the league having held the yellow jersey until last week, was well represented by six riders. The vets had a few minutes head start before the other Cat groups rolled (!) off at two minute intervals. All of the roads on the 11 mile long circuit (covered 3 and a bit times in the 55km/ 35m race) are very familiar to me, a combination of long grinds and undulations interspersed with the odd drag strip on a slight downhill.

Once the racers were all on the road Finn, myself and a couple of friends we'd bumped into at HQ headed up the slow climb from Bobbington before stopping outside the Six Ashes pub which marks the top and provides a corner vantage point that is ideal for seeing pained riders heading off one climb onto a heavy, treated road surface that undulates like a fairground roller coaster. Here, in a stunning, selfless act of solidarity with the Peloton, Fred's team manager John Taylor removed his cold, refreshing pint from view as they passed. After they had been through that junction three times we saddled up and followed the course for 2 or 3km (I was amused to see that Finn hadn't had chance to dispose of his J2O bottle before our rapid departure and so was carrying it in his jersey) before diving off onto a shortcut to the finish which is on another slow starting hill that fires pain into the muscles on a small gradient then starts to steepen - it tortures me EVERY time I ride it let alone race it.

Ad and Edgeways

The finishing straight itself is the first 300 metres or so of the rising road, averaging around 3% I'd guess. It was brilliant to see James Ratcliffe of the Fred's team cross the line first a few minutes after our arrival. Better still Adam Howells and Paul "Edgeways" Horton crossed the line a few seconds later utterly exhausted but equally elated by the contribution they'd been able to make to Jay's win. The buzz of the race accentuated by the buzz of the team ethic and success. Chapeau chaps, and to all the Fred's boys.



With the dust settled and daylight fading Finn and I headed the 3 or 4 (mainly downhill) km home. Unfortunately a momentary lapse of concentration at the top of Camp Hill sent my Dude into a zero speed fall. He got up and dusted himself down (aided by me and a helpful race official) but seemed unusually hurt by the incident, which is when I realised that he'd managed to fall straight onto that J2O bottle, leaving him with a "dead leg" injury and nice bruise on his left buttock.

And so ended sultry day 6.

Finn (slightly more mileage than me due to my Garmin starting oversight)
Steve