LEICESTERTESTER: World Masters Track I

I thought I'd come up with the perfect solution to avoiding the dreaded lurgy in the run up to the World Masters, I'd work from home away from all the germs and risks of cross infection, the house in need of attention so why not kill two birds with one stone and re-paint the house as part of my preparation. I was careful to not overdo it on rest days (Mon & Fri) so light duties only, nothing above ground level.

2KM Pursuit Heat Result

This year I'd been asked by some other riders to be part of the Team Pursuit discipline, age groups are blocked together 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and >65. two of our number are the Bronze from last year but we are all 53 and above now so it will be tough to qualify against those nearly 10 years younger. In the normal five year age groups you can feel the competitive edge drift away as you progress and with tight competition and always a stream of young talent results are more difficult the older you get until you graduate to a new age group. This is my forth year on the 50+ so I'm expecting it to be tough, the riders that took the titles last year were new-by riders like I was the year before

I have not ridden a TP since 1983 the All London Title and the SWRC were the winners! Alan, Phil and myself, our fourth man on holiday so we rode as a three, myself doing full laps (on Herne Hill!) we beat the De Laune and the Old Kent. Alan was at University so not very fit, we gave him my best wheels (Campag 28 spoke shod with silk tyres) I'd won the Individual Pursuit earlier in the meeting. Equipment a bit different these days, bigger gears, faster speeds, on a banked track (I'd ridden a TP at Leicester) but not on aero bars it was all pretty daunting

We had a get together for a weekend in Leicester, utilising the new Derby track. It went pretty well, we did some flying 2Km with changes at race speed (16.5 second laps) and some starts, hard on your legs, cant do more than a couple in a session. Then we did a day at Newport, the day after a Derby Track League meeting, two days in succession in what I kindly describe as 'Petrie dishes' of germs, and of course the day after I come down with a head cold, all my good work to avoid picking up a bug and 10 days before it's all come to nothing

GOLD - Monthier (FR)

I have a few days off the bike, all the heavy work is done so just the taper to complete, it's started a few days early, hopefully this will clear up before my first event the Individual Pursuit. I'm hoping the TP practice and TL will have benefited my performances. IP not my best discipline but It gets you into the swing of it all, get used to the pressure of competing at this level. The feeling of going out for a final (heats even worse!) is quite exquisite, almost unbearable during the time you are there, and then so soon it is over and you need to be doing it all over again. The only drug sanctioned at this level, adrenaline!

BRONZE - Wiffin (GB)

I do my usual preparation for the IP and I go two seconds faster than last year, only 2/10th off my best but such is the competition I drop from last years 9th to 15th this. Can there really be that much competition? Last years Champion Scot Peter Ettles (Sandy Wallace) does not it into the top four! So does not qualify to ride for a medal. The winner is French Ex Pro Pascal Monthier from the Italian Luciano Pasquini but as last year Mark Wiffin manages to move up from fourth qualifier to take the Bronze from evergreen Italian Roberto Dardi

Next up the Scratch race, we have no rest this year, three events in three days, heats in the morning and finals in the evening. I have done three day training/racing sessions all though the season to prepare for this, What you cannot prepare for is the sheer psychical stress of it all. The Scratch race always the most nervy and fractious, heats are only 15 laps, not enough time to have a sort out, always skittish and dangerous. I'm in the second heat so watch the pattern of the first, whatever happens ours will always be different, It pays to pay attention, only twelve to go through. We have all three Argentinians in our heat, they always come to race, but they leave a trail in their wake, everybody need to be careful

Three to go in the Scratch - Argy Bargy on the inside

Our race is twitchy and fraught, just a continuous series of involuntary lurches as Ian Greenstreet (GB) tries to get things moving but there are too many good riders and you have to be confident you can sprint it out or pack up and go home. Coming up the final sprint I feel a rider try to push me to get out of the pack, I'm concentrating on my race and stay put. On the final lap there are three incidents that split the pack, I'm in front of the first as a rider (Argentinian) hits the deck, there is the sound of metal and carbon as well behind me then in the final banking a South African rider on the inside also comes a cropper, I have to swerve up the banking lifting myself over the incident I pull my foot out the cleat in the heat of the maneuver, I manage to hold onto the bike and cross the line in 11th place, a near thing for both crash and qualification, if there had not been so many incidents I'm sure others would have got past me and I would not have made it

Scratch Race

The final in the evening, we are the last race so 10pm, I always go into the Scratch race with an open mind, its not my preferred event and I don't think one rider can influence the outcome, you have to get your position right and keep your powder dry for the final strike as there is unlikely to be a chance for a second. Its been a good few years in our event since anybody has got away in the final during the race it all happens in the last five laps. Daniel Casper (USA) won the 45-49 yesterday with a well timed break with six to go, a perfect move after a tough race where the British riders made all the running but slipped up in the finale. Would I be so lucky? Our race is shorter 30 laps, they go past at a rapid rate,Ian Greenstreet has a go early on (again!) with the IP silver Pasquini and Dardi gets up to them but it all comes back together as last years silver medalist Blasczyk (Ger) and Toth (Can) get across. There is no more concerted attempts to get away and its lining up for a big sprint. I have kept well out of the way up the back watching the moves but with five to go I follow Toth up the inside (3:36:20) as I sense he will attack but the bunch comes down on us and we have to kick back hard. This effort takes me to the front, not the place I need to be but as my dad always said 'In the last five laps you just keep going forward until you hit the front' the back of the bunch is not where the race is.

Mike Rice - Bronze

As we enter three to go I am perfectly placed at the front, all the main players are there, the speed is high and the riders 'wall to wall' so going over the top not much of an option. Crossing the line I am in a dangerous squeeze with riders coming at me from above and below and I touch riders on both sides but manage to hold it and not hit the deck. I have to get out of my 'box' and in doing so loose my place at the top table but it was just too dangerous. As i extricate myself I see that it is an Argentinian rider coming up the inside on the Cote d' Azure (3:37:32) that has caused the squeeze in getting to the front up the inside, he goes on to follow Dardi's attack from two out with a lap to go and win the race by a long way (3:38:25) I come behind the inital scrum in 8th place but lost my place when it just got too risky with riders crowding the front caused by the mass of riders crowding the front.

Scratch race - Result

I go to make an official complaint to the judges about the 'Argy' riding up on the blue, they say they are looking at the video, its outside the last lap so I don't hold out hope that they will find anything but they inform me it was this rider who 'manhandled' me in the morning heat (and got an official warning for it on the result!) The result stands Gustavo Faris (ARG) the winner from Geoff Baxter (AUS) and De Laune Michael Rice third closing fast but just mistimed his effort. Last years Champion Blasczyk has crashed on the final bend in the melee, He was foregoing the Points and had booked the track for an hour the next day (£750) to attack the Masters Hour Record so I guess that will be off! I have to say its the most dangerous and perilous days racing I've ever been involved in. I feel a bit disconsolate with my effort and the fact that I backed off at the crucial time, all I can console myself with is that I survived to race in my favorite and best event tomorrow o7ò