It had dried out nicely by the evening, after the day's torrential downpours, and whilst a strong wind promised to make for an interesting race, there was a full field of 40 riders present on the start line of what was to be my last 3.4 Category race.
Several breaks went in the first part of the race; a few of them I was in, the rest the team and myself did a good job of chasing down and controlling. When a break I was in got reeled back in about 25 minutes into the 40 mins + 3 laps race I was just about ready to sit up and coast along in the pack for a bit. Fat chance! As the break was absorbed, I saw we had left one rider just off the front with a few metres gap. It was the same rider that had gone with me in the race a few months back when we had a successful two man break, and I had won and then been disqualified for celebrating (Report here). As a result I knew he would work with me so I made a small sprint to get across and round him; he obviously clicked onto my idea as he latched onto my wheel and we were off!
Once the adrenaline of that first gap-making sprint had worn off though, my legs began to argue; something along the lines of, "Are you f**king kidding me?! You can't hold off the main pack for 15 mins on the track with two riders". In true Jens Voigt fashion it was then a case of "Shut Up Legs" and get on with it.
Gradually the clock began to fall, but every time I was on the front my heart rate would rocket and the lactic started to flow, especially on the brutal head wind section. However we were managing it! 5 minutes to go, 3 minutes to go, then the lap board went up for the final 3 laps and despite the chasing peleton closing the gap to just quarter of a track from the half that we had at some points, it looked like we had it in the bag! They slowed up, we sped up, and the gap widened.
In almost deja-vu of the race a few months back, I made sure I was sat second wheel going into the final lap. I let him lead me round through the headwind section, then launched my sprint on the final 200 to go and took the line by a good five bike lengths!
A great race, that made up for the disqualification a few months back and more importantly gives me easily enough points to move up into second cat. for the remainder of this year and next.
One of the 2012 Objectives ticked off! Result!
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