Unfortunately the curse of working in retail finally hit home last week when 2 pre-entered and paid for races had to go unattended because duty called. It was bound to happen eventually. The pluses still out weigh the minuses though. Getting parts, nutrition and accessories at massive discount and having a full workshop at my disposal most days makes the life of an aspiring cyclist a little easier. But the main draw back is having to be in work while everyone else isn't. Missing out on Saturday and Sunday club and the mad rush from a late closing shop to a mid week crit is a struggle but still worth while.
The two races in question above were pretty important ones too. The Out of the Saddle Road Race and Shrewsbury Sports Village Evening Race. "Out of the Saddle" was hugely over subscribed this year with the organisers forced to run two events on the same course on the same day both with full fields of 60 with 10 reserves each. Sounded like a cracking event and I'm very sorry to have missed it. I think the reason the DNS's are bother me so much is because I had this plan in my head that a 2nd cat licence before the end of April was well within reach. For the last two weeks (give or take) I've been within 7 points of that aim. Alas it's now the 1st of May and I'm having to console myself with taking another bunch sprint for 5th at Litherland. Still, only 2 points to go now.
I don't want to bore anyone with a long wordy report of an evening crit, we all know what they're like. Lots of attacking, came down to a bunch sprint, some prat tries to hit the last hair pin corner and 48kph up the inside and ends up sideways being sworn at by the rest of the bunch. Done and dusted. See you all next week.
The big news of this week has been that, for the second year running I've managed to sneak and entry into the Ras De Cymru, Wales premier 5-day stage race at the 11th hour. I'll be riding for Cadence Cycling (the organising club/team) with a couple of Welsh riders, one of whom is making a trip back from the luxurious setting of Southern France. God knows why.
Last years Ras saw me in a team called Student CC which, despite its name, contained no students. One University drop out (that's me), two recently qualified students and a giant of the Welsh Time Trialing scene Richie Harris. Safe to say I played the part of rolling parts waggon for the team for most of the 5-days but I finished and that's whats important. This year though it's not going to be hard to improve on the "almost lantern rouge" I achieved last time. Ideally I'd love a stage win but we'll see how things go.
Finally my cousin,Chris Deeley, is doing the London Triathlon to raise funds for the mental health charity Mind this July. This will be the 2nd time Chris has competed in the London Triathlon and from the sounds of things he's been training in one discipline or another everyday for the last couple of months. Donations can be made through the link below and will be greatly appreciated.
No comments:
Post a Comment