I don’t usually write race reports for club races but this was an odd one.
I hadn’t really prepared for it and wasn’t expecting much, I was pretty going there to say hello to the new club and to get some race time and fitness in.
The M4 race was a 30 minute plus 2 lap crit. Race started as expected and we were doing laps as expected with a few half hearted break away attempts which didn’t amount to much and were brought back easily.
Then at about the 22 minute I went up to do a turn on the front. As usual I like to apply a little pressure just to keep the people behind me working. After about half a lap I looked over my shoulder to see who was up next and to my surprise there was nobody there, I had ridden off the front, with the bunch about 200 metres behind and the M2 bunch between. Unsure of what to do or how it happened I actually sat up and thought about letting them catch me. Then in a split second I thought “Hang on, I can use the M2 bunch to cover my escape” So I upped the pace to about 44km/hr and thanks to racing with a power meter I knew I was pushing about 350 watts which was sustainable for me with time left in the race.
After about 2 laps out in the front I could see my lead was out to about 400 to 500 metres. Which was good, because I figured at the pace I was going and with 2 laps to go it was going to be hard for them to catch me, I was starting to think I was in with a real chance of staying away.
Then with one lap to go, I caught the M3 bunch which had started two minutes before us, boy, those guys were having a slack day :). This helped me initially as I imagine it would have been harder for the M4 bunch to get around them than a single rider further helping my escape. However as we came down the finishing straight it was impossible to tell the M4 from the M3 riders and Andy Patten came from out of the bunch to roll me on the line. Still coming second to Andy Patten is something I can live with. Maybe I could have worked harder on that final lap but that is all “what ifs”
In the end I think I was just lucky, being the new guy I suspect when I went off the front, nobody knew who I was and let me got. That is the sort of thing you only get away with once.
My take-aways from the race.
- Never give up, Once you get in a breakaway, you need to commit 100% or don’t bother. Just get your head down and go for it.
- Racing with a Power Meter rocks. Especially in situations like this it allows you control your effort so you don’t blow yourself to pieces trying to break away.
