5
Tactically Boxed In

Since my last blog I’ve had good and bad races. The first bad race was the first round of a series being held at the Mountbatten centre. I was tactically boxed in well by other teams, who, I think, see me as a threat, due to having won the previous series held at the same venue. I suppose I should take it as a compliment, but in all honesty I really want to race and get in breakaways of more than two or three riders and not have people glued to my back wheel.

Ah well. I love riding/racing my bike and at the end of the day that’s all that matters. Having done lots of work at the front of the race along with my team-mate & colleague Richard Pearman, it seemed as though it was going to come down to a bunch sprint. So with two laps to go, I found myself in third wheel. Feeling pretty ok with this I was happy. Then suddenly, about five riders from one team surrounded/boxed me in on both sides. Not being able to go forward (as someone was in front of me), neither left or right, I had no choice. I let the wheel of the rider in front of me go. I then attempted to sprint, but was pushed right by what could be described as a dodgy manoeuvre and had to slam my brakes on, the dodgy manoeuvre then went left and put a fellow competitor off of the track.

A pretty heated sprint. The best thing that came of it was that the person who’s wheel I had previously let go, went on to win the race, a deserved victory and I was happy for him. I ended up in sixth place, which considering I had to slam the brakes on in the sprint wasn’t to bad. But I was still unhappy.
Following this race I decided to take part in one of the Goodwood Gallops at the Goodwood circuit, location of the World Champs back in ’82. This race is a handicap style, this means the lower category riders get to start a few minutes before the higher category riders, so basically, a staggered time start. It’s years since I had raced at this circuit, and even longer since I raced in the Gallops, over 10 years in fact.

I remember travelling with my dad down to Chichester on a summers evening all the way from Bristol. It was great as a junior to be riding around in a bunch of upto 200 riders, the pro effect. These days I am simply more EURO than pro. The race got underway, and again, Richard Pearman and I were keen to get the group working together. Richard was videoing the race on a tiny little camera on his stem. Having seen some of the footage, the quality of the camera footage was fantastic for such a small product. Our group caught the group in front of us after a couple of laps and I took two sets of full point primes in this period too, as well as Rich sneaking some points under his jersey in a prime.

Once we were caught by the Elite group, it was a big shock, I didn’t have a clue there were on their way. Not that I think I would of had the legs to hang in there if I’d been able to of gone with them. So a breakaway of eight riders went away and my large group/peloton didn’t get organised in chasing quickly enough or organised enough. A shame as I think we had enough strong riders to of brought them back. Not to worry though. I think a few riders were confused that we were still eligible for points in the chase group for the prime classification. As they appeared to be really sprinting for the line every lap. I even had to check with a fellow competitor as I was confused.

Coming into the penultimate bend before the chicane there were riders everywhere, battling for spaces and places that weren’t there. Having been in a fair few bunch sprints in the past, it all came flooding back to me. However, the risks people take sometimes does amaze me, but hey, that’s bike racing and I love it!, fortunately nobody hit the tarmac as far as I know. I managed to get tenth in the bunch sprint, which wasn’t bad, as i was in at least 20th place heading into the chicane! I really enjoyed the racing at Goodwood and it continued the good memories of the past that I had there.

Last night I competed in the second round of the new series at the Mountbatten centre, the weather was dodgy, having rained quite heavily an hour or so before the race, the circuit was a little slippery in places. I won’t go into it, but this race was very much a game of cat and mouse with teams playing off against each other. The wind picked up quite a bit during the race, so my initial plan of attacking with about eight laps to go was put on the back burner.

I was looking around for Richard Pearman to see where he was and if he was going to do his trademark attack. No sign of him, seemed he had a slow puncture and was not going to take any risks. I positioned myself perfectly at the head of the race for the final sprint, then, bang boxed in again! “NO! Not again” I thought. A repeat of last week. However, this week I really had the bit between my teeth and wasn’t allowing this. So I managed to squeeze my way out of the situation and got the gear wound up for the sprint and cruised through to victory. This has moved me up to 2nd category rider, which I’m pretty chuffed about as I haven’t raced much but when I have raced, have done pretty well, I think.

Until next time.

Tot straks

JC