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I highly recommend this race – great town, great organization and a kid’s race to boot!
Actually, my four year old, Hazel, took home some glory (I registered her as BRC, hope no-one minds!), winning the 4-6 year old with training wheels girl section!! My other daughter, Annabel (6) finished in the bunch in the without training wheels section (she has now been taken over by the green eyed monster of course!). The kids race is a 600m straight slightly uphill race if anyone is interested for next year.
Anyhow, as for the grown-up race: A four corner criterium around the town of Portsmouth. Turn 1 and 3 are tight and turn 3 comes after a slight downhill. Then a slightly uphill 600m dash to the line. The race runs for 45 minutes for Cat4 – about 30 laps i think it was. The pace was fast from the start, with very frequent attacks. I didnt have the energy for a break-away and thankfully none of the breaks stayed away. With a tight course and about 60 riders, it was important to stay in the front 20 for the race. There were opportunities to make up ground on the uphill straight in particular. I did some work on the front in the first few laps which helped to warm me up a bit. Halfway thru i conserved energy a bit more. I fell back to about 25th with 4 laps to go. With 3 to go i knew i had to get back up the front before the hammer dropped. I made a track up the inside on the start finish line and positioned myself in top ten by the time it was 2 to go. The pace increased so there werent masses of people making up places. Came thru with 1 to go in top 5 or 6. Into the tight turn 3 and lost a few places as people jostled for position. There was quite a bit of bar rubbing and shoulder rubbing throughout the race, but all done well, with no silly crashes. Any how, out of turn 4 on final lap and i’m about 15th. Knew i had to just sprint early to move up. Lost one place on the line, but finished 8th (just in the money!).
All in all, a gem of a race and a great day out.
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