The next day we have the Points Race so the same thing again, heats in the morning and finals later that evening. Even with the attrition of the previous day there were still enough riders for heats, one rider with a very black eye and a fair bit of skin lost in the Siberian wars! But only twelve to go through and with only three sprints (30 laps) only twelve lots of points available (5, 3, 2 & 1) so in theory one point enough to go through, unless riders got a lap (unlikely). In reality some riders would get more than one so it was possible to go through with zero if you were well up in the final sprint, this was still beyond the current British National Champion who went out without a point but I gleaned a single in the first sprint so I could afford to take it easy while the others sprinted and sweated it out (to be fair one of the S African riders did get a lap on his own!)
Points Final - Half way
The final would be an altogether different affair and require different tactics, I like to wait until the second half but its only a twenty minute race and with only six sprints (60 laps) these days its a game of Poker how long you leave it. Two sprint places (if one of those is a win) enough to get you a medal these days and with such a good field riders unlikely to gain a lap. Those first few sprints are always ferocious but the British rider Blair Buss (Swift) getting away from the gun and takes the first sprint so that means reduced points for all that effort but its the first three from the Scratch race Faris, Baxter and Rice in the frame for the rest of the points.
Unsurprisingly its Peter Ettles the fourth placed rider from the Scratch taking the second sprint from the other Argentinian Pereyra and that man Baxter again with previous World Scratch Race Champion Peter Toth (CAN) edged out for the single. I had a go at splitting the field before the previous sprint but with a rider away its not possible so I use my timing and I manage to clip off the front and overhaul him keeping the bunch at bay (2:55:00) to take the third sprint, five points on the board and second at half distance behind Peter Ettles who has scored in the second and the third behind me (8 Pt's.) Toth is also there again picking up two points this time but two consecutive efforts like that for so little return is almost too much to recover from and he does not score for the rest of the race. Buss who took the first sprint by staying away has gone straight out the back and lost a lap (eventually DNF) its 5 points that will not count in the overall so even less points needed to get a medal. For the next sprint an Argentinian and an Italians are away with Ian Greenstreet in the middle picking up three, the other Italian Dardi picking up the one remaining.
I could afford to gain my composure in the bunch but top road-man Mike Twelves (MI Racing) riding his first Masters goes away solo to win the next sprint just from Baxter and the Faris the first two in the Scratch close on his tail. The top six all separated by three points so it would all come down to the final sprint, the other Pereyra & Ettles leading with eight Twelves, Baxter and myself on five, Faris third in the middle with six.
Breakaway with Ian Greenstreet
50-54 Points race - Result
I attack at the first opportunity (3:02:50) while the others are still blowing, slipping between two riders to shake off any company, only Greenstreet gets up to me and I have to make a big effort to get on. We have a decent lead and press our advantage with six laps to go. Unfortunately we were the victim of a bit of teamwork from the Italians who kept the pace high and although Ian and I work well together we do not get the lead we need. We were caught with a lap and a half to go, its the first time I've been the victim of this type of partisan riding and the culprits were docked their points in the result but the 'leadout' not only took us out of the sprint but helped Faris and Baxter to first and second in the final sprint and in the overall result. Peter Ettles held onto the Bronze by virtue of being well up in the final sprint and Pereyra dropped from first to fourth so the biggest looser When you analyze the points scoring its the same riders in the points as were up there in the Scratch Race, The same Gold and Silver Medalists (as last year and the year before when I was Champion in the Scratch and Silver in the Points) It leaves very little but scraps for the others in the race My five points still good enough for Fifth place to go with my Silver and two Fourth places in the last four years but I was in the mix right up to the end was so close to taking a medal
The Points Podium Baxter (AUS) Faris (ARG) and Ettles (GBR)
Team GB1
We had a days break and then the Team Pursuit on the Saturday the final day of the Championships. I'd had to purchase a GB skin-suit for the performance so we all 'matched'. It was a little on the snug side! But then I guess a 'speedsuit' does what it says "On the can" It kept everything in place and a little unforgiving but I don't think I'll be using it for a '100' TT any time soon
Not being able to come up with a suitable name, some don't want it to be humorous or a pun and others not wanting it to be to serious or Po faced like 'The Apprentice' we settled on the hopeful and catchy GB1, it made us sound like a record speed attempt but at least we got in early and did not have to be GB2. Three Kilometres that's twelve laps of the track, only three efforts each on the front and then hang on in between.
The Team - Ian, Peter, Nigel and myself (and a nice bike)
We are a team who have all won medals at the World level (Two Gold, a Silver and five Bronze between us) so plenty of fire power, what we have not done is practice enough, not short of experience and speed but what you need for the TP is technique. We had sorted our order at the practise sessions and had Ian the slower of our more experienced riders going 'Man One' as he was the steady option as managing the start and the transition to speed the crucial thing you can only do under race conditions, Peter took the second part here with me third and Nigel tucking in at the back. The ride went as well as could be expected, we had Rachael (new '30' Competition Record holder) at track-side calling our numbers. We had no problems with the changes or splitting up, I think this being the last event of the week we were all pretty tired. Nigel did two turns and swung away leaving the three of us to finish, I did the final two lap stint as its negledgible if a change on the last 3/4 lap is worth doing as the front rider has to swing out on the final banking to let the other two inside and we finished nicely
We were half a second a lap off the pace to qualify with 4:31 for the ride-off (only four) and had to settle for 6th. Not bad for a team of all 50+ riders giving away quite a few years to the other teams. Baxter (AUS) and Tim Lawson (GB) the only 50+ riders in the teams that qualify. We have to look on it as good practise for two years time when we will all be in the 55-64 group for the TP. We were a little deflated as we did think we had a chance but like many of the other events the competition gets tougher every year and this time age and practice against us but we looked good and feel that we will go faster in the future
In the finals it went to form with the Welsh squad just holding on for
the Bronze and in the final the Champions for the last two years the USA
made it a triple crown with another World Record time (to go with
breaking it in the morning) The Aussies had to be content with the
Silver but they went inside the previous WR as well.........o7ò o7ò o7ò o7ò.......
10 mile Result
For the final event of the week there is the Brian Cossavella 10 mile, (Brian to organiser of the Masters for 10 years until his untimely death at 54) a race open to all competing during the week, Its always a good race and with the full age range from 35+ always a test for us in the upper reaches and I was the only 50+ finisher last two years in 13th and 11th place albeit a lap down. This year I try and do better. Amazingly fast from the gun to the sound of Rolling Stones music in the background (Brian's choice!) riders are already getting shelled out the back. I hang in there and at half distance the race splits apart and I manage to stay in the front half. By the time I get to the end I have no effort left for a sprint which goes to Matt Glanville (AUS) from Martin Van Wyk (RSA) and John Mc Clelland (GBR) I roll over in 8th place one behind Baxter (AUS) the only two 50+ finishers o7ò
Cossavella Winner with the Director of the Masters Ian Emmerson
A nice innovation this year the organisers (BC) had most of the
racing put on the UCI You Tube channel), I have put links below and
approx. time
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
50-54 Scratch Podium - Baxter (AUS) Faris (ARG) and Michael
A nice innovation this year the organisers (BC) had most of the racing put on the UCI YouTube channel), I have put links below and approx. times
A few weeks of racing dominated by the Track, I entered my first proper 'Open' meeting since 1984! At a track I'd never ridden on before, the Newcastle-under-Lyme track at Stoke. It was on of the National Hard Track League run throughout the season and although I had a series of 'B' I chose to do the Elite races with some of the top track riders in the country. A lovely outdoor track in a park with a good tarmac surface, the rain of the day before had cleared up. The meeting had quite a bit of sprinting (Senior won by Sean Mayer the son of an old friend (and adversary) from the past. There was Ladies and schools so plenty of time to recover between the races. I didn't show myself up too much in the 'warm-up' Scratch or Points races, not out first in the Devil (but suddenly ran out of puff!) It was the day after the National 50 so my legs ached like buggery anyway and it was all down to the 20Km Scratch finale. As I say legs were about shot so when six of the top riders set off up the road I sat tight in the bunch and bided my time for them to gain a lap while doing a few strong turns and then when it was all back together I was able to hang in and got 8th overall in the finish sprint.
Ceremonial Opening at newly re surfaced Halesowen
A couple of weeks later I had the British Masters Track at Newport, I did a dismal 2Km Pursuit (slowest ever!) for 9th but when you are in the company of the World Champion Peter Ettles (Sandy Wallace) then all performance is relative. And such is the competition here that even he could not retain his British title and pushed into second spot by World Bronze medalist Mark Wiffin (Tavistock Whs.) 'newby' to this age group but a rider with another World class time Johannes Roux (Giant) only taking the Bronze. After feeling great the day before in the 8Km Scratch final. I was here there and everywhere, up the road in a break of four most of the race but i could just not get it to stick as the others were unable or unwilling to make a real go of it (a bit of both I suspect) so as we finessed the finish I'd used most of my bullet's and ended up 7th with the same podium as last year Peter Ettles Ian Greenstreet (Newbury RC) and Adrian Ward (Shaftsbury). In the Points race I fared better but with the race reduced from 60 to 40 laps (& only 4 sprints) it became a 'sprinters' race and as I never get going until half way I was off the front chasing the eventual winner Ian Whittall (Manchester Whs) with Ettles an Greenstreet when the bell went for the end of the race. We were only 20 meters short of lapping the field (so 1/4 lap!) which would have seen us taking all three medals (10 Pts for gaining a lap) as I was I had to settle for 6th the Manchester rider winning (with 9 Pt's) from Ettles and 'newby' Michael Rice (De Laune) 3rd an old friend from Herne Hill (& Dunraven days) who got up in several of the early sprints
1982 Winner
I had another visit to my past this last weekend at (newly resurfaced) Halesowen Track for the Dudley GP another National Hard Track League meting . It rained all morning so the start delayed for a couple of hours and then an opening ceremony with the Mayor and all that jazz. I was a bit more confident here knowing a few more of the riders and having a few more races in my legs but I'd done a terrible (I thought) ride the last week in the Belper RC 25 (54:34) and set out to recover my TT legs by doing a few hard sessions in the week so my legs feeling a bit wobbly after 70m yesterday and track legs suspended until later in the year. I suppose I never worry that I will be able to 'turn on' my track legs, I've never been the super quick type so transition not all that difficult but having done some specific track sessions and a bit more racing has definitely had an effect on my 'testing' ability so I needed to reverse it If I want to put up some decent times
In the bunch with William Fotheringham
All the races were quite long 20 lap Scratch 32 lap Points and a Devil that went on forever (I went out after 12 or so) and with only a Ladies and Schools Omnium to compliment it we were up and down every twenty minutes. It was tough going, the wind blew up making the home straight a bit of a graveyard and I'd left my 94" gear on from the indoor track making it even tougher. I was determined the the best riders would not get away from me this time and there were a few more endurance riders to take on the chasing and the wind discouraged riders from going out on the attack too much so all the races stayed together apart from the end of the Points when I attacked and got half a lap up by the finish, this with an early win gave me my highest place.
Alistair wins the Billy Jones '10'
William Fotheringham the Guardian journalist is a Halesowen A & CC member and races in my Masters age group but he has not been around recently claiming no time to race but he was sponsoring the final race and gave a good account of himself without walking off with any of his own money. At easter I started reading his Eddy Merckx book while staying at Adrian's, I did not know if I was going to get on with it but within a few chapters I was gripped, the only sad part I had to leave it behind half finished but not much time to read in the season so I'll put it on the list of things to catch up with along with the Sean Yates and Sean Kelly books that brother Phil just gave me (he needs to get out on his bike more!)
Podium Loney, Rutherford & Notley
The final event was the Billy Jones '10' forty laps of the track in the company of some pretty fierce (and allot younger) competition. I was determined to stay with the leaders this time however hard the pace went and the race developed differently and I was able to hold the pack all the way to the finish. David Bradley (Vertex) helped by making a solo attack that lasted for the first half of the race but was destined not to succeed in the wind and he was pulled back and by this time in the race the contenders had decided to settle for a sprint finish so there was a bit of finessing before the final gallop and it was Alistair Rutherford (NAB) from James Notley (Mammoth) and long travelling young Scottish rider Zac Loney (LFH).
I had won this race in 1982 with a solo win when there were only four riders left on the track, three of these were SWRC riders as we decimated the mainly sprinting field with constant attacks one of my favorite memories of racing o7ò
