Horwich 30_05_12

CDNW Horwich

 Wednesday 30th May saw the annual evening handicap Horwich Road Race organised by CDNW. Having had brilliant weather for the previous week, everybody was looking forward to racing in good weather for once. However, 20 minutes before the start of the race, the heavens opened and it poured down. This heavy rain continued throughout the whole race!

Southport CC had 2 riders competing in this race with Clayton Howard and myself. The race consisted of 7 laps of a 4.37 mile lumpy circuit including the climb up Horrobin Lane over Rivington Reservoir combining to make a total race distance of 30.62 miles.

 At 19:30, all of the 4th category riders set off followed 2.5 minutes later by all the 3rd category riders which both myself & Clayton. After another 2.5 minutes, the E/1/2 category riders begun their race. We all knew the E/1/2 category riders would eventually catch us, nevertheless, the race was well and truly on! Having hardly touched the bike in 3 weeks due to my AS exams, I knew I had lost some fitness (and it showed).

Ryan Pike of High on Bikes RT attacked off the front of our group along with James Warren of Bill Nickson Cycles RT. Both of them successfully managed to stay away from the rest of our group with Ryan taking 4th place and James taking 7th place in the end. This was enough to enable Ryan to gain his 2nd category license! Meanwhile, taking turns during a through and off formation, our group was making good progress with the gap closing between our group and the 4th category group. Unfortunately, with 2 laps left, the E/1/2 group inevitably caught us and this is when the race really sprung into life with the pace significantly increasing. I realized at this point my legs did not have the top-end speed required to stay with this strong group of riders. However, I managed to stay with the E/1/2 group for 1 lap before trying to bridge a gap during an attack. This effort took its toll on me and unfortunately I dropped off the main peloton. I was disappointed at this but I more or less knew this was going to happen.

I rode the remainder of the race with Mike Fugaccia of Liverpool Century RC, taking equal turns on the front until we finally crossed the finished line. Due to its lumpy profile and the relentless torrential rain, the race took its toll on many riders. This resulted in the field slowly declining in size as some riders decided to pull out of the race resulting in only 34 riders finishing the race out of approximately 50 starters. I finished 31st position and Clayton finished in 34th position. My Garmin showed that I had covered 30.85 miles in 1 Hour 20 Minutes at an average speed of 23.2mph. The Garmin also shows that I reached a maximum speed of 40.1mph. The well-deserved win went to Michael Ashurst of Maxgear RT. I was not pleased with the end result, but I expected it.

 Nevertheless, this race was good to get some speed into my legs. Onward and upward! My next event is the 25 mile 2/3/4 Horwich Race on Sunday 17th June.

 CDNW Horwich Results -

CDNW Horwich Garmin Link -

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