BUSA road race, 15th June 2003



Results can be found here
The Team:

John Barry Michael Watt Rob Driver Alex Higham Peter Watson Pete Leek

Marshals/Helpers:

Bart Hallmark Mr. Roger Driver (many thanks to them for coming along)

A very hot day and quite a long race for most of us. 10 laps of an 8 mile circuit with a substantial climb.

A pretty good team effort, even if some of our tactics were somewhat dubious. Spending rather too much time on the front early on should probably have been avoided...

The only crash of the day happened remarkably just before the start line, and while several of us were nearby and narrowly avoided it, Alex got the worst of it, going straight over his handlebars. He bravely got back on, and managed to chase back into the race over several miles (including the climb...). Good effort.

A few early solo breaks went away and we thought it prudent to keep these in sight, so we sat on the front for a while. In hindsight, we should probably have let someone else do the work. After they were reeled back in, John managed to break with two others and stay away through laps 3 & 4. But the dedication apparently wasn't quite there to keep the break going, and they were eventually brought back, climbing into lap 5.

I managed to get myself dropped at this point, riding off the front just before the steep climb started and promptly discovering that I wasn't quite as strong as I thought, as everyone else then flew past me. Good move :-)

Several breaks were attempted in the next few laps and the pace picked up considerably, the bunch breaking into 4 groups at one point. It came together again eventually and all breaks were caught by about lap 8. Simon Harding (Oxf**d) then went for a solo effort, while the bunch pretty much stopped and had a picnic after chasing down the last break, and remarkably found himself with a gap of nearly 2 minutes. To those of us watching from the sidelines, he looked like he had timed it perfectly and might pull off an impressive win. He got caught though in lap 9... and the bunch sprint became virtually inevitable.

Peter was unlucky not to make it through the last few laps due to a puncture, and perhaps something of Friday's may ball still in his legs :-) (he's had some other good results recently though - making it up to 3rd cat just last week - well done for that).

Alex was unfortunate (again) and had gear trouble as the pace picked up for the sprint on the final straight, meaning he finished just behind the main bunch. John and Rob tried to get away on the final straight and hold off the bunch, but sadly they didn't quite manage it, and the (by now only ~20 strong) bunch sprinted it out for the medals. A tyre's width separated 1st and 2nd on the line from what I could see. John moved up from near the rear of the bunch to manage a creditable 7th place. Michael and Rob finished a bit further back at 14th and 16th.

Pete Leek