57

Location: Brentor, Devon
24/07/11

After having another good race at Castle Combe on the Thursday gaining 9th I decided that I was going to race the Brentor Road Race on Sunday. It is quite a drive from my house but with nothing else on the calendar and I knew the course had a tough climb which would suit me. The weather forecast was set to be good so I spent all day Saturday cleaning my bike and replaced the chain and cassette so the bike was running perfectly. Sunday morning I woke up and the weather was nice in South Wales and even better by the time I got across the bridge near to Bristol. This was not the case by the time I got to the race HQ it was another story…grey cloud, rain and even fog!
The weather did clear up slightly by the time the race started and was quite humid which I soon realised after the first lap as I stripped off my arm warmers and unzipped my jersey. The course was 5 miles long with a leg burning climb which was also the finish. The race was 10 laps so that climb was going to really hurt the whole field of riders so there was no where for people to hide. On some flatter courses weaker riders can get around in a race and still get a good result if the position themselves well but with a hard climb there is no hiding.

The race started fast with immediate attacks and by the second lap I found myself away in a small group of 4 riders with a decent gap back to then bunch. A lap later we were joined by 5 more riders and were all working well together and taking it steady up the climb so that we all remained together. On lap 5 there was a prime on the climb which I managed to win and also gained a good gap on the other riders. This gave me a bit of confidence showing I was climbing well but decided to let the riders catch me up as I didn’t fancy a solo pursuit to the finish line. With about 3 laps to go Yanto Barker (Pendragon – Le Col) attacked up the climb which I was able to respond to with 3 other riders. This left us with 5 and the other four riders to chase behind. It was tough going through and off with the 5 of us all riding strong.

With two laps to go we were down to 4 riders as the climb took another victim and by this point the remainder of our break away group was no where to be seen. On the final lap Yanto attacked yet again trying to break away and this put a lot of pressure on all of us but we remained together. With about 2 miles to go to the finish Yanto attacked yet again and got a gap I was on the front chasing and caught him at the bottom of the climb. As soon as I got to Yanto’s Wheel Gary Chambers (Willier) attacked with Pete (Mid Devon CC) on his wheel. I had to kick again to get on Pete’s wheel and Gary eased once he knew we were on his wheel. As soon as Gary eased Pete kicked which I followed but I didn’t have the legs to come around him. Pete crossed the finish line leaving me to take 2nd place, Gary 3rd and Yanto 4th.

I was pleased with my performance throughout the race and really enjoyed the hard course as the strongest men are left to battle it out at the end. This weekend I will be racing the National Criterium Championships in Beverley on Friday and also the East Yorkshire Classic on the Sunday so will be another tough weekends racing away!

Ben

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