A wet cold early start and the prospect of circling Pimbo dozens of times. Enticing? Well, it turned out to be a little less dull than expected. Not the result anyone wanted, but a good showing by the team playing an active part all race.
It’s been a while since there was a post and a few things have developed. Ryan is a 2nd cat and I’m trying to put together a late season charge to join him. John has had a bit of a quiet season, but a full race at Pimbo sets him up for the latter part of the year. There’s been a couple of good results too. Ryan got a fine 4th at Horwich whilst I sneaked a podium against the southerners.
That very briefly brings us back to Pimbo. As the race rolled out the usual stupid first lap breaks went. As they did Mike ‘positive’ Rawson from Maxgear reliably informed that ‘that’s the winning move’ right before the guy sat up and waited for the bunch! The early stages continued with more daft attacks. However, there was entertainment to be had in the bunch as the wet weather was exposing the fact that someone had not rinsed his shorts properly after washing them. A foaming arse was on full display.
Slowly the attacks got a bit more serious, between me and Ryan we tried to makes sure we got involved, which we managed, in all but the one that stuck.!!! Ryan to be fair was unlucky, picking a fast wheel to bridge, but that wheel sat up.
Now it was time to salvage what was left as a big group had gone down the road. John joined us at the front to raise the pace, but no decent chase was being formed as Maxgear’s veteran team captain was marshalling proceedings too well. It needed another break to stand any chance of getting across. With a well timed bit of team work I made a move clear off the front. I was soon to be joined by 4 or 5 other strong riders and it started to work. Then things started to look even better as Ryan bridged with a few more in tow. Sadly the bigger group never got working and after a few laps off in no mans land it was all back together.
With the break gone and only a few laps left, Ryan made one more move in a small group to fight for the scraps, leaving me and John back in the bunch. To make things a little more interesting for me I agreed to give Phil from Kuota a lead out for the sprint. That resulted in ¾ of the last lap at full bore launching him into the last 250. Seemed to go ok, which is a good sign when we need to do it for real within the team. (Yes Ryan that’s a promise for the next bunch sprint).
So no points, no glory, cold legs, a day on gel duty for John and dirty new skin suits. However, the signs were positive, we were active all race. Fair to say I think we’re all ‘pinging’ going into the latter part of the season.
Scary isn’t it. We’re already talking about winter training camps and team plans for next year. Bigger? better? stronger?
