Lincoln GP 2006

08/05/06
Yesterday was the Lincoln GP road race. Probably one of the hardest races in the country, due to a fast circuit and the international field - this year there were teams from Australia, Holland and Ireland, as well as the top domestic riders. So a good outing for my first road race of the year.... It didn't help that I didn't feel totally recovered from last week's effort at the Gorrick, either (can you tell I'm getting the excuses ready early?), or the fact that it was raining. About 150 starters, and having sheltered in the car as long as possible, I was fairly near the back when we rolled out. All a bit nervous in the bunch in the wet; braking on carbon rims is never fantastic in the dry, and pretty awful in the wet, and the course has a fast descent with several sharp turns. Fortunately the roads are fully closed, so we can use the whole width without having to worry about traffic. It took me half a lap (we were facing 11 laps of an eight mile circuit) to get near the front, but got positioned well to hit the 1:6 cobbled climb of Michaelgate in the first ten riders. The pace was really high, and no-one was managing to get much daylight on the bunch. I had a couple of little digs, just to test the legs - they weren't responding all that great, but then I never ride all that well in the cold and wet anyway. I held my place near the front on the second and third laps, then on the fourth got somewhat boxed in and ended up near the back as we hit the climb. The pace was a lot slower at the back of the bunch, and with the road so narrow there is no room to move up. And then of course it is a chase to get back to the bunch over the top. Here I was really struggling - just proves how much harder you have to work at the back of a pack, because of the concertina effect in the corners. I am lacking that top end bit of power to easily close gaps, which means I end up hanging out in the wind a lot longer, not good. I eventually worked my way back to the front, and immediately off it in a small group. We got a bit of a gap, but the bunch came back to us on Michaelgate. But at the same spot on the next lap, four riders had got a small gap, so I attacked up the left gutter and, with two others, got across. The group contained two of the Australian team, Duncan Urquart of Agisko, Chris Newton of Recycling, one of the SiS guys, one of the Irish, and me. I just about held onto the back of them over the hill, then round the back of the course they put the neutral service car in behind us, so we obviously had a decent gap. My mother had come along to help out with feeding, however the feed zone was just over the top of the hill, where you were generally accelerating hard, and especially with the wet making bottles slippery, I hadn't managed to get a bottle yet. So it wasn't surprising that I was starting to get twinges of cramp. Still, despite getting gapped on the climb again, I was still with the group with four laps to go. But Newton stopped working (I think due to what he was hearing on the radio), and I was stuffed, and so unfortunately we got caught. At which point I went back through the bunch - which was now about half the size of when we started. On the climb I couldn't hang on, and so decided I'd had a good go, and so it wasn't a disgrace to call it a day with three laps to go. Good to get back to the showers and into dry clothes! I was reasonably pleased with how I rode - I generally held my position well and read the race well; I just need that extra bit in my legs to compliment it....