.. well that got your attention didn’t it?

Okay so it wasn’t really a victory as such.

Last night Ewen and I raced the SSSCCRRL Round 3 at Admaston, just outside Telford. Bit of a spur of the moment decision for me really, thought it would liven my legs up for Sunday.  It was a handicap with the slower riders off first (about 20 or so), then I was in the second group of 30 riders, setting off 4/5 mins later, then the Elites/1/2 went off (2o or so) another 5 mins or so after that. As it turned out Cervelo Test Team rider Roger Hammond was in attendance, in the third group with Ewen. It was 6 laps of a 5.5 mile circuit, pretty flat and fast with a nasty headwind on the long back straight.

We caught the first group on the 4th lap and with everyone being a bit cagey with working on the front, it soon became clear that we were going to get mopped up by the fast boys or it was going to come down to a gallop.  Everyone was waiting for the third group to come past any moment on the last lap, but it never happened – it seemed they just had too much ground to make up. Apparently, they got to within 40 seconds, with Hammond towing the pack along into the stiff headwind at 33mph (!) with Ewen putting in some strong work at the front too. But luckily for our group they didn’t have enough time to catch us (another lap and it would’ve been carnage though!)

I worked my way up to a decent position on the last lap and was about 5th wheel with 200m to go, but my ’sprint’ started to fade on the slightly uphill finish, and I got squeezed out to what looked about 15th (not had results yet). Close, but no  BC points for me yet.

Fab night – pretty surreal being stood with Ewen, Gary Mac & Roger Hammond just chatting before the start. Roger (first name terms? maybe not) commenting how he thought Mick Rogers new Bont shoes were “a bit gay” for his liking