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Straiton Struggle


Ramsay
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Guys,

 

Thanks for the messages of support I enjoyed my race day overall but a bit of an anti-climax at the end.

 

The day started early as my wife for reasons unknown set the bread machine to start at 4 o'clock in the morning, so after an hour of listening to the soft whir of a Panasonic bread blade I gave in and got up, needless to say I was at the strip in plenty of time for a good warm-up.

 

After positioning myself well at the end of the neutralised zone, I uttered the 1st profanity of the day as my chain almost shipped off the outside of the big ring but luckily managed to feather it back on whilst still in motion. After that all went to plan and clocked down the miles of a cracking wee course whilst sitting in the top 20 of the main bunch - a few lone breakaways went off intermittently but these were doomed to failure in the wind. The race was not really attritional with a few surges out of corners and up the drags but nothing sustained and I had no intention of doing hee-haw but sitting in. After about 40 odd miles we turned off the looped section for the final run in and I was sitting top 10 - 15, again a few wee surges went but no real sustained pain. After 45 miles I was still in the top 10 or so and mentally digging in for a frantic last 5 miles as we went up a dragged incline, from behind 2 or 3 Ayr boys came flying up the outside, whilst the guy in front of me basically stopped pedalling(think he had cramp) boxing me in a bit, anyways as a result was tailed off the front group by about 100 yards, channeling the spirit of Wiggo I didn't panic figuring there was about 4 miles to get back on and I didn't want to bust myself by sprinting. Instead me and a guy from Glasgow South started to work back on to the front group only to be a bit bemused by passing a wee black and white chequred flag planted in the ground by the side of the road then a bunch of stationary cyclists - it actually took me a few seconds to twig that the 50 mile race had ended after the Garmin had clocked 46.1 :angryfire

 

Don't quite know my final position but feel I could have at least had held in 'till the end and gained a few more places, that said it was the same for everyone as nobody realised the finish was where it was which led to a fair few grumbles back at the strip.

 

For the record great wee course if a wee bit rough at times (2 carted off to hospital :-( ) and no real hills only drags (Billy, you would have been fine), Garmin details as follows....

 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/201822438

 

D

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Davie,

 

Well done. Sounds like your bunch positioning is good and just a bit of luck would have seen you right up there!

 

All great in hindsight, but one of the golden rules (can't remember how many there are!) is to always check out the finish before you start! Although, by the sounds of things lots got caught out.

 

Keep the report coming.

 

Cheers,

R

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Chapeau Davy

Ramsay makes a good point, know the course. The real positive thing about that last statement is that you are now at a level where knowing the course will make a difference, or in Sky language an 'incremental gain'

Well done man

Oh ya dancer !

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