Race Report: Portsmouth CTL Circuits 25th July - Missed the Break! Doh!

Good race last night, just glad I made the start line, as I've started work down at the sailing club now and it makes getting over to Portsmouth a bit tricky.

The legs didn't feel great from the off, not sure why, but I was struggling. I've put in a fair few miles in the last week and I think that I overdid it a few days ago and was still feeling the effects. Anyway, I was having to work hard to pull a few attacks back throughout the race and the legs were feeling the strain.

It amazes me how different each race over at the track is, this one seemed to be a 'to-and-fro' i.e. a break would go, the pack would wait a while to see how it was working, then a few individuals in the pack would decide that enough was enough and pull the break back. It seemed that Wightlink Race Team did a lot of work to pull back break after break throughout this race, which at least proves that we are all getting stronger!

I say that the race was a 'to-and-fro', but I got it wrong in that case.
With about seven laps to go two guys went off the front. I thought that the pack would again start working together after a while and pull them back, but they didn't seem to. So I attacked, but by the time I had got half-way across to the break, the pack were getting their act together and began to start reeling me back in. So I sat up and conserved my energy, thinking that it was better to do that, than wait for the pack to catch me and then the break.

But as soon as I sat up the pack stopped working again and started coasting! With just four laps to go there was now little time to either jump over to the break or pull the break back in. If I had got on the front I might have been able to pull them back, but I would have taken the pack with me as well, and been exhausted for the sprint. So instead I sat back about fourth wheel back and waited for the bunch sprint. Coming into the final straight I kicked to come round two riders, but couldn't quite overpower the last one who took the line. So I got second in the bunch sprint and fourth overall; a solid result, perhaps not quite as high as I would have hoped, but a few more points in the bag. Getting there.