I write this from a lovely rustic cottage in a small Yorkshire village called Haworth. Unfortunately, my bike's derailleur hanger broke at the end of yesterday's ride so if I can't cycle, I might as well write about cycling!
A lot has happened in my sporting world since the last update. I've raced 2 road races, 3 crits and have been on a family holiday turned training camp with ollie hucks. It's been a good month.
I'll be detailing 2 of the races here: Oxonian CC ORRL on 29th July and HHCC Bovingdon Bomber crit on 1st August.
Oxonian CC ORRL 3/4
It was a miserable day, persistent rain and a very strong gusting wind, but the conditions are the conditions and all competitors have the same to deal with over the race's 56 miles. High Wycombe CC had a strong contingent out so from the off we knew it was going to be good fun. Despite the rain, of course. Our warm up consisted of a 50 metre cycle from the comfort of the village hall to the start line. Admittedly not the most comprehensive warm up but perhaps the smartest given we had forgot to bring rollers/turbo. The race started promptly and the first 30 miles were relatively uneventful. Halfway round the 3rd lap of 4; I attacked up the climb and push the descent extremely hard. I managed to open up a gap on the peloton of 10 seconds by the time we were back on flat ground. Knowing this was an all or nothing effort I went to work on time trialing my way to the finish which was in 20 miles time. I was feeling reasonably good and I managed to open the gap to 49 seconds quite quickly. However, I then turned a 90 degree corner and was presented with a strong headwind for 4/5 miles.
A lot has happened in my sporting world since the last update. I've raced 2 road races, 3 crits and have been on a family holiday turned training camp with ollie hucks. It's been a good month.
I'll be detailing 2 of the races here: Oxonian CC ORRL on 29th July and HHCC Bovingdon Bomber crit on 1st August.
Oxonian CC ORRL 3/4
It was a miserable day, persistent rain and a very strong gusting wind, but the conditions are the conditions and all competitors have the same to deal with over the race's 56 miles. High Wycombe CC had a strong contingent out so from the off we knew it was going to be good fun. Despite the rain, of course. Our warm up consisted of a 50 metre cycle from the comfort of the village hall to the start line. Admittedly not the most comprehensive warm up but perhaps the smartest given we had forgot to bring rollers/turbo. The race started promptly and the first 30 miles were relatively uneventful. Halfway round the 3rd lap of 4; I attacked up the climb and push the descent extremely hard. I managed to open up a gap on the peloton of 10 seconds by the time we were back on flat ground. Knowing this was an all or nothing effort I went to work on time trialing my way to the finish which was in 20 miles time. I was feeling reasonably good and I managed to open the gap to 49 seconds quite quickly. However, I then turned a 90 degree corner and was presented with a strong headwind for 4/5 miles.
Took the win today from a 20 mile solo break in dire conditions at the Oxfordshire Road Race league. □:@OllieHucks@PedalPotential @ETEracing @Tripezza pic.twitter.com/Aj0ByWJi1y
— seb garry (@SebGarry) July 29, 2018
Despite being on my own with no shelter, I managed to maintain my buffer to the, now substantially depleted, group. I didn't ease up but once on the home straight with a powerful tailwind I knew I wasn't going to be caught. It was a great feeling coming across the line on my own and taking the win. This feeling was compounded when my teammates came across in 3rd, 5th, and 12th. A good day out for the club all round.
HHCC Bovingdon Bomber 3/4
This is a local Criterium race round an old airfield. The circuit is a short 1km with a very tight hairpin coming after a little rise. After 20 minutes of racing myself and another rider managed to escape off the front and opened a reasonable gap. We worked well together for the rest of the race continuing to increase our margin. We agreed early on to work together till the final lap which we began with ~1 minute lead. I was on my breakaway companion's wheel and I stayed there until 300m before the line when I unleashed my sprint, came around him and took the win.
Having bought my racing license just 6 weeks ago I'm now 1 point off 2nd cat. Hopefully I can find this annoying point and get my teeth stuck into a National B race before the year is up.... wish me luck!
HHCC Bovingdon Bomber 3/4
This is a local Criterium race round an old airfield. The circuit is a short 1km with a very tight hairpin coming after a little rise. After 20 minutes of racing myself and another rider managed to escape off the front and opened a reasonable gap. We worked well together for the rest of the race continuing to increase our margin. We agreed early on to work together till the final lap which we began with ~1 minute lead. I was on my breakaway companion's wheel and I stayed there until 300m before the line when I unleashed my sprint, came around him and took the win.
Having bought my racing license just 6 weeks ago I'm now 1 point off 2nd cat. Hopefully I can find this annoying point and get my teeth stuck into a National B race before the year is up.... wish me luck!
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