The end of Winter?

I woke up feeling grotty. The week had been a long one, and Friday in particular was miserable and draining. Not that I was feeling anything like what I'd classify as "poorly", but certainly not 100%.

In my fuzzed state, I missed wandering around the corner to my favourite local café for my Saturday morning hit (but I did get a bunch of laundry done - how's that for messed up priorities!). I got the bike, race bag and other racing essentials into the car on time, but misjudged the traffic and ended up being stressing about missing the race. I still fail to understand how it is possible that it was quicker to get from our previous home in Reading than it is from Battersea, but that is how it is, go figure. Anyhow, thanks to deft navigation (thanks Garmin), we arrived with enough time to sign on, unpack and get onto the circuit. Perhaps it was the adrenaline of trying to get to the track on time, but as soon as I was on the bike the fuzzy head was forgotten and I was feeling ready for action.

The first few laps of the race were quick; though probably felt faster than they were due to my lack of a warm-up. The Imperial trio were turning up the wick at the front which strung the group out a little. I moved up and got stuck in a little.

Thinking back to the first race of the Winter Series, it is amazing just how much the racing has evolved. Previously the racing was fairly cynical, a collection of random, ill-conceived attacks that, combined with little co-operation, would inevitably lead to nothing. Yesterday's race was a lot more interesting so that now the 4th Cat race is no longer seems to be mostly about riding around for half an hour and then hoping to finish in a reasonable place to get some points.

Back to the race: after staying right at the front in the early stages I decided to drop a but further back into the shelter of the group but keep an eye on what was going on. I was feeling great and was looking forward to the final lap. I got myself into two break attempts that looked like they had at least half a chance. The second was unfortunately ill-timed. For some reason I thought there would be just a lap to go when it started, but there were still two. I was gutted to head up the finish line to see the "2" board. Argh! A lap at full bore would be OK, but not two.

So I settled back in to catch my breath. I still felt great and was really looking forward to putting everything into a final surge to the line; I was ready to do something special. Unfortunately my run up to the line didn't go at all according to plan. I got boxed in and passed on the back straight and so ended up further back than I wanted to be heading into the 2nd last corner. Then that sickening sound of bike hitting the deck.

Being on the right edge of the track, I had nowhere to go but the grass, my momentum taking me right into the (thankfully flat) field. I've always wanted to do cyclo-cross, but this wasn't how I'd envisioned my debut on the rough stuff. And so ended my ambitions of a great finish. The guys who went down were OK, so I turned my cranks up toward the line to complete the duty of the lantern rouge. But despite the disappointing finish, this was possibly the best race so far - or at least the second best (last week was particularly enjoyable!). I felt great and I believe a good finish was definitely on the cards.

As with so many things, my experience of the Imperial Winter Series was completely not what I expected and all the better for it. Naively I has wanted to get stuck in, grab some points so I could start the season as a 3rd Cat.

I missed that target, being four points shy. But I have ended up gaining far more from the racing. I've learned a lot and my race craft is certainly sharper. I've also grown a lot more confident as a racer.

For now I'm looking forward to the rest of 2009, certainly a lot more racing. Firstly I'm going to have a lot more fun. And secondly I'm going to chase those points down; there are still a few races around in the coming weeks, so perhaps I'll drag myself over to Redbridge to see what that all this talk of the big hill is all about.