Drummond Trophy 2010

[Guest Jim Daly]

My energy levels have recovered enough for a few notes from the race on Sunday, 2-5-10.

 

Back to the more traditional course around Drumclog and the Darvel Transmitter. I can only assume that Gary the organiser received complaints that the race wasn't difficult enough, so it was 4 x Drumclog laps before the big loop adding another 10 miles to the usual distance.

 

This weeks' unexpected technical issue was getting my bottles filled really close to the start time and one of them being tipped upside down by a kitchen helper spilling all my go-faster powder into the sink. Oh well, only a 95 miles road race and maybe I won't need all the sugar a human can possibly consume

 

The race set off immediately at around 30mph with a slight following wind. About 100m later and Paul Rennie (twice winner) attacked and was joined by around 5 others. I didn't see them again but after a very different race experience, Paul was only 1 minute ahead at the the end.

 

First lap went by ok, at high speed but manageable. Jamie Drever was obviously struggling to find the right gear at the top of a wee hill and then crack! His rim had failed and he was down and luckily not hit by a race car. I begun to get too cocky and started jumping off the front on the basis that I may as well put in big efforts at the front rather than the tail. But the clever money was being saved and spent at later stages in the race. About 5 miles later, in the crosswind flats just before the wee hill. A rider I know quite well but won't name cracked and took out three out the back including me.

 

Max effort to stay in touch and then we three Gareth Barnes (Walkers) and Grant Stevenson (G Wh) settled into a good effort for the next 10 miles that would have got us back to the bunch in any other race. But the bunch was being driven by the fast riders not already in the break.

 

We then settled for a steady race pace and picked up and dropped riders for the next 20 miles. Many of them were not a pretty sight, eg, Michael Nichoson with a hang-dog expression tapping pedals at ~10mph. 6 now made the outward journey up to the Darvel Transmitter: Hard work but not the usual lung searing race surging pace. I was happy to push on the pace mainly together with Gareth and Raymond Turner (Newcastle-may have suffered brake rub) for the next 30 miles.

 

Stevie Dunn (Falkirk) made sure we didn't catch him until he had cleared the top of the climb over the moor and encouraged a more even distribution of effort to the finish where Gareth was first to attack and the friendly grouppeto left me behind. I gave everything and passed one of the slackers and caught the others at 200m. They had stalled a little and I had a go at catching them off guard in the right gutter.

 

Finished 31st in 4hrs 20mins. Fully 27mins behind Evan Oliphant who went round at 24.5mph ave speed! There were 33 finishers from about 60 starters.

 

Jim

 

Taking the race length plus distance to start and from finish lines plus a warm up plus climbing of not less than 5000ft, can I claim a Century ride?

[Ramsay]

Good effort Jim. Sounds like real hard work. Most of us would struggle with just riding 95miles, let alone racing!

 

Cheers,

R

[Darryl Gunson]

Good training for the confined APRs though Jim