Wet and Windy at the seaside

Bridlington CC Road Race 1.2.3 - 13/08/2006 - Burton Flemming, North Yorks

With the cancellation of the GT Ellingworth RR at Grantham, Gareth headed up to Bridlington alone to try and improve on his 5th place last year in the same event. Gareths race diary...

'After the humid weather of recent weeks, I was ready to make an effort today as I knew the high winds and rain would suit me where as I had been suffering in the heat and humidity.

Because of the cancellation of the planned road races at Grantham we were spread around the country today in search of a ride. Richard was missing today because of a painful leg injury which has been hampering is cycling this last week and Andy was racing down south so I was on my own with all to do.

After covering all the moves on the first of 10 laps over an undulating 7 mile circuit, I eventually got clear on my own on the second lap and stayed away for 4 miles before being joined by Pete Hichcliffe (White Knight RC). We worked well together for another lap before being joined by a group of 8 riders who were just seconds in front of the bunch. We jumped straight onto the back of this train which contained Ashley Brown (Featherstone RC), Deiter Droger (Wakefield CC) and Steve Ward (Team Swift). We pulled through really hard for 2 laps and the bunch eventually gave up chasing and by the half way point the break had 2 mins.

We stayed together well with no-one really missing turns until 2 laps to go when Ashley and Pete attacked whilst I was taking a feed. I was not in a position to chase as I needed to get another bottle and as the rain continued to pour we tried to organise a chase but at 65 miles there were some very tired legs with Droger and myself now doing the Lions share of the work.

At the bell Droger attacked and I got his wheel and then he countered and got a gap. I also got a gap but remaining 6 in the break brought me back and just sat on. I sat up and stopped chasing Droger and forced the others to work. I then decided to sit on for 2 miles because I knew I was the stronger of the riders there and then attacked once again up one of the small rise and took a Bridlington rider with me. We got a handful of seconds over the remains of the break but the Bridlington rider would come through and help. Despite this, I put my head down and worked hard on my own and started to make some ground up on Droger and as we approached the finish the Bridlington rider found the strength to try and jump me in the sprint. I wasn’t going to have this as I was disappointed at not taking the win so I simply rode back past him again before the line for 4th place'.