NCRA Naseby (where some battle happened) Report, March 1st After perhaps 48 hours of feeling nervous about the first race of the 2014 season Nick collected me in the Core Cycling Solutions van along with Steve Wood. It was a pretty great feeing to be travelling with team mates and awaiting to put on the new kit. We were blessed with some pretty good weather for early March and got some PCC photos taken before warm-up. I didnt know the course and was shocked when I rolled up to the start to find I was in group 5 of 6, one group behind the very speedy Steve Wood. I was used to setting off in group 1 or 2 with the Cat 4s (I am a Cat 4 with no points). Nick Smith set off in group 1. Nick has been injured for several weeks so requested to ride with the Cat 4s under the condition he would not contest any points or contest prime laps. I was amazed to see all of these fast riders set off before me and I believe my group may have started as much as 7 - 8 minutes back?! I had a poor start struggling to clip in as I had foolishly tightened my pedal springs earlier. Christophe was long gone by then along with one other rider! I rode believing I would be dropped after a few hundred metres but found myself sitting comfortably after one lap and did do some of the work, not as much as some others but it is race right? The 2nd Cats caught us halfway through the race and I believe some raced off whilst my group worked well with some of them. We swept up some of the front groups with 3/4 lap to go (to my dizzy disoriented recollection) and passed a group of Cat 4s with a few minutes to go. The course was relatively flat with some tight bends made extra interesting by the addition of pot holes bordering on land mine test sites by the look of it. The course ramped up towards the end then finished on a grinding hill. Some Cat 2s gave it some beans on the second to last hill and were gone. I was immenseley happy to stay with a fast group that I consider to be way out of my league and have never been so satisfied with how Ive raced. I finished 30th, perhaps one of my worst results ever but also my best and strongest ride to date. I believe most credit should go to Core Cycling Solutions for the top quality training and thank Team PCC for taking me on board. Steve Wood had a great first race as well: Starting from the 4th group the initial pace was a little to sedate, I tried to encourage a working group but to no avail. Christophe caught us from the 5th group as we passed the finish line for the 1st of 3laps. I did try to go with Christophe but after a short time gave up the effort as we were dragging the Peleton along. A few more riders started making an effort and the pace soon increased. On the last lap we caught all the riders from earlier groups and so swelling our numbers. As the race neared its conclusion I stayed near to the front keeping an eye out for attacks but everyone saved themselves for the final sprint climb. As we started the climb I was 4th wheel and 1 rider came past at an unsustainable pace but everyone reacted, I quickly caught and passed 2 riders leaving a further 2. With 20m to go I passed the brave soul that had just lead us the last mile to the finish, leaving just Christophe ahead. He crossed the line a couple of lengths ahead of me, not my 1st win today but very pleased with 2nd and congratulations to Christophe on a great win from the group behind and a fantastic start to the year for PCC. Steve Wood. What an amazing start to the year for PCC: Anne was the first Lady across the line. Christophe got a well deserved first, Woody rolled in a tight well contested 2nd, Nicks on his way back to finding form and Im happy as Larry with my performance improvement. Cheers Team PCC, sponsored by Alston Country Homes, Qualtitetch and of course Core Cycling. Joe Brierley
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 09:07:18 +0000
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