Brother Alan and yours truly rode the LVRC National RR Champs in Leicestershire at the weekend, In the Welland Valley CC promotion we rode the 40-45 and 45-50 respectively. Alan and I had been around the 'rolling'(as the handbook describes it) course based near Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome a couple of times on the Saturday in preparation for the events on Sunday afternoon. The start was delayed for half an hour as riders were stuck in traffic on the M1 as the weather closed in on what has been a patchy week with rides snatched in the various dry spells or a pattern of zig zagging across the landscape to avoid the various and frequently heavy downpours. (I had been out 4 times and got soaked twice - not a bad average for the wettest summer on record)
The extra time came in handy as I had to dismantle my bottom bracket in the car park as I found it to be tight, (so that's why Alan kept dropping me on the hills yesterday!) without the right bits of kit and with nobody else at the race seeming to have more than a pump and some allen keys!- what is it with bike riders these days, I had a 'top' road man ask to borrow a valve extender at another event recently!
It was still clear as Alan's race headed off ten minutes before mine with a field of forty odd riders, I had been placed Eighth in this event last year with the same tough bunch of Ex Pros and top road men(still racing and getting results) I however had moved up an age group and felt like the new boy
There was a moderate start and several solo attacks on the first lap until Walton hill with the finish on top and the race got a bit more animated, soon after I had a bit of a preliminary solo attack for 3 or 4 miles until a group of five got up to me but they had allowed the bunch to close in so we all came together until the end of the lap
Shortly after this I had a back spoke break in my trusty Dur-a-Ace wheels and with no service vehicle I was out of the race, as i stood by the side of the road with my un-rid able bike I lamented my mis-fortune in a race that i could have done well in but having not had so much bad luck during the season it's best to put it down to fate. There has already been several punctures on the grit strewn roads, a rare event with modern tyres, so i got a lift with a marshall to where the lovely Fiona had been standing but she had gone home (a mere 10 miles!) to get the camera, after having seen me come up the road on the front of the bunch the previous lap. As i waited for Alan's bunch to come around there was no sign of him with a group of ten away by a minute, he trundled up a few minutes later 'out of sorts' and we stood by the roadside and cheered a solo Mick Davies away by over a minute in my race
Alan roed back to the HQ and I stayed basking in the sunshine but dark clouds were rolling in from the West and i knew soon we would be in for some rain.
When it came it was a sudden and torrential downpour, luckily Fi had just arrived so we headed off to the finish to watch the last couple of times up the hill. Both races were decimated by the conditions but the expected victors came out on top, last years winner Roy Chamberlain repeated his feat in a solo escape and the winner of the Percy Stallard season long series Paul Stubbs won my event from an excellent Davies and Simon Day who had been with Stubbs with a lap to go.
So with two DNF's against our names the SWRC/Parkinson team had a pretty dismal day of it, all we can say is that we did'nt get to race in the rain and don't have to clean our bikes until the next bout with the weather
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