With a quality field of 60ish riders and some sunshine making an appearance Matt Ryan, Sionny, Dave D and myself were the Rhos attendees taking on the 7 laps of the Llandyrnog circuit. Nice!
The race started off at a steady pace which Dave took advantage of to make an early break with Steven Fiddler (Team Elite-Paul Bethell) and Pete Windsor (Dwyfor). Unfortunately for Dave and his fellow escapees the bunch was motoring along by now with attacks coming from Mark Lovatt (Planet X) Matt L (Maxgear) and Dave Williams (Kuota) which kept the pace high and the break in sight. The catch was made at the start of the third lap and from there attacks were coming more and more frequently until on the fourth lap Tom Black (Cycle Premier Metaltek) got away with another rider (Wills Wheelers). At this point the four Rhos riders were all well placed around the top twenty but as planned keeping well away from the front.
Mark Lovatt and a few others started to make further attempts to get across to the break but with the quality at the head of the bunch nothing was sticking. After a little while (4th lap?)I started trying to attack and get away with Giles Drake (Team Elite- Paul Bethell) and a few others including Lovatt but again the bunch wouldn't let us go until...
...fooled by my hairy legs the bunch just sat up and allowed myself and Giles to ride off. So that was it, chase on!! We worked well together for the next half lap until we caught the break and continued to work from there on building a decent gap over the bunch.
On the final lap the climb to Llandyrnog proved a hill too far for the Wills Wheelers rider and he dropped off leaving three of us to fight it out for the win. By now I was flagging and missing the occasional turns while Giles and Tom were both looking strong until Giles picked up the pace on our final climb to the Denbigh turn off and Tom was dropped by 5secs or so. Unfortunately he soon closed the gap and was back to putting me under pressure on the final run in to Denbigh.
So there we were, into the final corner with only that lovely uphill sprint to go to the line. I stood up to sprint only for my calves to protest, cramp up and leave me cruising over the line for third!
the race was won by Tom with Giles second and Lovatt 30secs back in fourth.Matty and Dave crossed the line shortly after in the main bunch and Sionny had taken a lie down on a verge somewhere and was a DNF! Muppet!
Pleased that my plan of trying to ride a more intelligent race paid off!
Anyone still awake??? Hello???
Thanks for the Sunday ride posse for coming along to cheer us on except Justin who needs a kicking for not racing!!!
