ZENITH CC - Nigel Measom Memorial 2 Day Stage Race

Let the battle begin!

Stage 1. Sat (am) 2.7m Time Trial - Lutterworth - Kimcote
Bright sunny and little wind promised a fast start to this my annual trip with the top roadmen, my first road event of any sort this year short of Mallory Park where I took a pasting in the rain on Thursday preferring (risking) that to another turbo session (Ahhhhhhh!) Over twenty first cats including the Doncaster mafia this year (Sportscover & Planet X) both with teams of five, doing less racing these days now there all vets (or nearly!) with family's (a family day out for them of sorts!)
They didn't have it all their own way in the opening stage and it was local boys Matt Bottrill 6.31 (De Rosa) and James Perkins 5.46 of the promoting club sandwiched Kevin Dawson 5.40 (Sportcover) in the Prologue with me half a minute down (but 20 seconds faster than last year) in =9th 6.03 with several others.

Stage 2. Sat (pm) 63m - Gilmoreton - Kimcote - Bruntingthorpe
This stage just a glorified criterium on flattish roads around Bruntinthorpe aerodrome run off at 27mph the judges lost track of the laps and we did an extra (7m) lap, not to the advantage of a group off the front as we were 30 seconds down at the time


In a Yorkshire sandwich between Dawson (winner) and Tanner (3rd) Bottrill in Yellow (4th)

The bunch kept splitting under the pressure of the constant attacking and the Yorkshire 'boys' put pressure on Bottrill in yellow a bit isolated with only one team mate, at one point a combine of East Midlands riders got together to pull back a big break as they stuck to their task the rest of the bunch got an easy ride and the other Sportscover/Planet X riders kept a close eye on the front but did not try and break it up. We all came together in the last mile apart from Mark Lovatt (Planet X)1st and C. Hyumphrey (Sportscover)2nd and A. Bird (Team Echelon) 3rd and I managed to get up in the finish sprint for a top 15 place Tim Lawson (SIS) winning the bunch sprint (he will be one of my opponents in the Masters Pursuit later in the year I feel) from Bottrill

Stage 3. Sun (am) 80m Gilmoreton - Bruntingthorpe - Walton - Peatling Magna
Using half of yesterdays circuit but a bigger loop to take the lap over 11 miles of rolling countryside and a wicked wind had developed overnight which made the days racing hard as hell. Same pattern as yesterday with the Yorkshire 'boys' ganging up on Bottrill who had hung on to his lead overnight, but this time he could not relie on the help of others which melted away under the constant attacking. It was all I could do to stick near the front of the bunch and work to pull back the various groups that went up the road, my legs just do not have the explosive power to cope with all the starting and stopping but when I get in a smooth moving group I'm OK and I sat making the tempo on the hill to give myself an easy ride and deter anybody from attacking a couple of times. After sixty miles there was a general re-grouping just as Lovatt, Dawson and Tanner went away on their own to take the stage win (& the major honours) a group of nine formed from the bunch and I could not quite get with them penultimate time up the hill and dropped back to the bunch and we paraded around for the final lap beaten men although by this time over 20 had retired (one crash). I came in at the front(ish) of the bunch 3 minutes behind the winners but satisfied I'd been in the race and given it everything, my final place 21st. Lovatt won both road stages but lost out to Dawson in the overall due to a poor prologue Tanner 3rd and Bottrill 4th after gamely chasing all day my enduring image is of Lovatt attacking up the big hill on the big ring with a big cheeky grin on his face looking at the man in yellow as if to say " Get some of this" Yorkshire 3 Leicester 1
I was tring out Carbon bars (and stem) for the first time after getting pins and needles in my hands in several races over the past couple of years and I can say that It seems to be a big improvement as I was definitely gripping them bars for all I was worth on occasions over the weekend, It gives the bike a bit of a different handling but I think that also has something to do with deep carbon wheels that I have only been using for half a season and they are disconserting on windy days.
I did not have a recurrence of the cramp which blighted my road racing last year, maybe I'm just fitter but my legs felt OK (up until the last hill) but It would take a lifetime of racing to match those guys in the attacking style that they like to go all out until the opposition quits.

This man can sell your energy drink?

Result Here