B Grade
A cracker of a day and a big field of 21 riders set the scene for a solid race. The usual miraculous conditions are present – the grass not a movin’ yet a solid wind a blowin’. This one’s from the north-west so prevalent as a right hand cross-head wind across the top ‘start’ straight and coming across the left shoulder up the finish straight…. if you know what I mean…?
These B Grade crits are tending to follow a bit of a pattern especially when there’s a big bunch. A steady stream of attacks – some serious and some halfhearted – mostly unproductive. The trick is picking the right one. Going solo is not in my plans so I’m looking for a suitable partner to jump and I’ll try to join up. Meantime I’m playing safe generally in the top half of the field and even doing a few stretches on the front.
I don’t know all the riders these days so I may not mention all those who were active. Certainly there was John Pritchard, Martin Stalder, Wayne Doherty, Ian Smith and Glenn Pascal with occasional appearances of Matt White, Richard Dobson and Ian Milner. We even had an attack by the trackie, Ben Schofield at one point. And I’m sure I’ve not mentioned others who were in the mix.
As our hour of fun and games drew to a predictable conclusion – bunch sprint – there was a bit of a tangle with C Grade who decided to retake us after we had passed them. WTF? We surged past them again only to find they were given the bell from behind. Inevitably that would put them sprinting over us – unless we pulled a gap, which we didn’t. As we completed our lap and with C Grade close behind Ian Smith flew off the front and I saw an opportunity. The C Grade leaders zoomed past and naturally sat up after crossing the line. Fortunately mostly they kept out of the way as B Grade set off in pursuit of Ian and myself trying to bridge across the gap. When I finally managed to hook on Ian seemed to wilt and gradually the bunch caught us up. Maybe I should have rolled over and worked harder? We’ll never know.
Ian stayed on the front with me on his wheel and the bunch now happily sitting on. The bell sounded out our final lap – at last! Almost 75 minutes into a 65 minute race. Ian still seemed happy to drive the train and took us all the way around to the back straight where the hungry and impatient moved towards the front – Wayne Doherty? Much jockeying of positions to accommodate the ambitious continued all the way to the final bend at which point the surge to the line commenced. Talk about bedlam! A wall of riders took to the line like a tsunami. Anyone not perfectly positioned was going to be baulked and as I hit the brakes to avoid running up the back of someone I realise I was one of them – a non-positionee, that is.
Those with the better functioning brains found space and also the podium. Well done them.
1st Brett Henderson
2nd Dayle Goodall
3rd Darren Woolhouse
4th Greg Lipple
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/82924782
Some stats:
