Committee Alan McLean Posted September 7, 2008 Committee Report Share Posted September 7, 2008 Frank and I took some traditional west coast weather across to East Lothian, rain and strong winds again for the last outing in this series. On the way I listened to Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter winning Paralympic gold on the track, inspirational. In the B race (B for brilliant ) we had two 20k laps followed by four shorter 8k laps. About 60 starters. We were led out of East Saltoun and the bunch pretty much stayed together during the first two laps following a twisty circuit through Humbie. Lots of debris and puddles ensured a thorough soaking and locking of rear wheels at the tight turns. There were a couple of expensive sounding crashes behind me as I stayed in the front dozen or so. Wind was strong and position was important to save energy. One or two guys went off the front but the series leaders did not let them get far ahead. There were a couple of twisty fast descents which were pretty much neutralised, it was very easy to enter the corners too fast on the greasy, gravelly roads. (The underlying road surface was brilliant and way above the bumpy rubbish we put up with in Renfrewshire/Inverclyde) There were not enough hills on the long laps to break up the pack so we entered the last four shorter laps in a bunch of about thirty. Here the constant accelerations on sharp corners and nasty wee hills started to separate the group and the pain levels started to increase. There was a sharp left turn about 800m from the finish and it was clear that the first folk into the bend would have a major advantage so the pace really stepped up over the preceding few miles with a few elbows out to hold position. It was definitely going to be a bunch sprint. I'd spent the last three weeks doing sprints on my commute and hoped I could hold on Twenty of us entered the corner as fast as we dared, if you braked you were dropped. I dropped onto the wee ring to allow some serious spinning for the start of the uphill sprint and then banged it onto the big ring for the last 500m and looked for a wheel to follow. For the first time this series I went forward, rather then backwards through the bunch and gained about half a dozen places before finishing in 11th place. My best result in the series. Haven't seen Frank's place yet. That's the end of a very well organised race series with hard competition in both groups. Hope we have the same again next year. A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2023 Subscriptions P McDonald Posted September 7, 2008 2023 Subscriptions Report Share Posted September 7, 2008 Well done Alan - great to hear your rounding out the season on a high note. Plenty time to make a cunning plan for next year ! cheers PMcD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jim Daly Posted September 7, 2008 Report Share Posted September 7, 2008 Alan Good result! full results at: http://www.scuonline.org/newsdetail.asp?Nid=2031&DID=2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 Alan, Fantastic result on a very difficult day ! I'm sure you'll be racing as a 3rd cat before much longer. Frank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Committee Alan McLean Posted September 8, 2008 Author Committee Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 I have no idea how license points are awarded but it seems that these races don't qualify for points. If anyone has a spare couple of hours perhaps they could explain it to me sometime. Anyway I can barely hang on to the Cat 4s and I have seen Jim and Paul suffer with the bad boys so no plans to join them. What happened to you Frank? I thought you'd be in the big bunch but never saw you after the start. A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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