Surrey League Road Race

I think that the last time I took part in a road race, I was probably in the Under 13 category when I used to race in South Africa. Back then, it was about 20 of us on easy to race on roads in the sunshine. Yesterday saw my return to road racing, but this time it was with 70 other pretty hard cyclists on narrow Surrey roads with any number of possible crash causing dangers. The weather report had mentioned that we may be in for some sleet and hail so I got my layers on and headed out for the 60 mile course comprising 9 laps of an undulating course.

The pace at the start was not too bad and after about 2 laps, I thought that things were a bit too sedentary so I slowly (that being the operating word, as it does take a long time) to move to the front of the pack. Once there, I pushed hard out of a corner and then up over a few hills with the hope of breaking up the group a bit. Alas, this did not work and only served to be the opening salvo in the race. From this point on, the pace was erratic, going from flat out to quite slow in a constant yo-yo fashion. This up and down really was not my game though and I was suffering. Some of the other London Dynamos asked if I wanted to be taken to the front at one point to try and help bring a break back in, or perhaps make a move off the front. My legs did not feel too clever though so I rested in the group for a bit longer.

With about two laps to go, the London Dynamo boys started to work a bit harder to bring the break back in - they had managed to get about 90s up the road so it was time for some hard work. I did a couple of stints at the front to narrow the gap and I we started to catch them up. In the end though, it was not enough as they managed to cross the line some 20s before the rest of the pack came across the line with me at the back - I was pretty whacked.






The 60 miles took us less than 2:30 though, averaging close to 25mph for the ride. Still, it was good fun though and I would love to do some more in the future. I have 2 day race in May, so that will be my next chance for some more road racing.