Pimpama (Sunday 21/02/10) Race Report

Hi All

Nick and I travelled down togetther for a bit of road racing action and Toby was also there. It was a bit wet on the way down but as we could see the sun was trying to come out we hoped the race would still be on. We all raced A-Grade and this being my first A-Grade road race I was intimidated when Haydon Brooks rolled up to the start line and starting thinking what the hell am i doing!? Anyways the pace started quite easy and I am pretty sure Haydon must of got a flat because after around 20k's I saw him rolling in the other direction.

The race is quite safe as it is 7km laps on a closed road with 20 hotdog u-turns (70km race), the accelerations out of this corner are quite hard and the terrain is rolling. I found the pace ok and was just trying to get comfortable riding in the peloton as the tactics are a little different to B-Grade.

As we got within 20km's I was starting to feel good and felt i could be in with a chance. I was starting to put some hard turns in up the hills and riders were getting spat on the turn-arounds. Coming into the final lap one guy had gone off the front and the chase was disorganised and messy. About 1km before the finish another guy attacked and got off the front also. So the peloton was sprinting for 3rd place and I all D3 riders were in the action. As we got close to the Line i had great legs but found myself boxed in. In the end Toby got 4th in the sprint and i got 6th. As there was 2 guys up the road we finished 6th and 8th respectively. Nick rolled over in the reduced bunch also, only around half the entrants made it to the sprint.

For me this was a good result in my first A-Grade road race and if we can get a bigger team down there I believe we can be quite competetive. The next one is not a open though as it is on the same day as the Dutton Park race.

Link to a video of the finish. Easy to spot Toby with the orange bike! Yo nick you got beaten by Simone!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxaGdx859HEHi

-Jason