English
Location: Burnham-On-Crouch, Essex.
3rd April 2011
After returning home from Mallorca in the early hours of Sunday morning I managed to get 5 hours of sleep before having to get up and drive four hours east to Essex to race the “Hell of the East”. I knew that this race was going to be tough after completing 10 days of training, traveling and lack of sleep but the sun was shining and I was looking forward to getting stuck in to some racing. The race was imitating the classics like the have in Belgium incorporating off road sections and rough lanes to test bike handling skills and to spice up the racing for spectators.
The race started extremely fast with the pace being set by the Rapha team at the front. There was a cross wind and this caused the peleton to be lined out along the narrow rough lanes. The peleton was splitting all the time and I don’t think I have ever known a road race to be so hard from the gun! My legs were not feeling the best but I was holding wheels fine but it was a shame some riders in front of me couldn’t hold them which caused the splits and mad chases.
The off road sectors were really rough with loose chippings and holes every where and this inevitably caused numerous crashes and an unbelievable amount of punctures. I know of some riders puncturing up to 4 times and a lot of riders puncturing and not being able to chase back on bringing their race to an end. I was really lucky an did not puncture once. I opted for a specialist FMB Paris-Roubaix 25mm tubular that the professional teams use in the Belgian classics and was confident that I wouldn’t puncture from the start and I was thankfully right.
In to the last quarter of the race the pace calmed down slightly and the remainder of the peleton was considerably smaller than from the beginning. I was happy sitting in trying to catch my breath and giving my legs a break from the consistent burning sensation of lactic acid I felt all race! At this point a select few riders managed to get away including former Paris Roubaix winner Magnus Backstead. That was the race winning break and I was left in a group of around 30 riders and we just rode around steady just to get to the finish.
The last kilometer I started to get ready for the sprint but didn’t really have much left in the tank. I finished just outside the top 20 which isn’t a bad result considering the amount of training I had in my legs and lack of recovery! I really enjoyed the race and will definitely try and ride the event again next year.
Full race report can be found HERE
Ben