Hornby Hills Masters Win

After the last time I pinned a number on (three weeks ago), it would be a step in the right direction to simply finish the event with no loss of life.  Were I to make that a joke it might be considered poor taste, but I am not joking.

It took me a while to feel even partially like myself again (I am still working on this) and I participated in the Singer training race last Tuesday with very few expectations.  I saw the winning move, did the best I could to jump on it, made a mistake by following the wrong wheel, compensated, and ended up 10m from the breakaway going into the wind.  Fail.

But I did finish the race and felt a little bit better afterwards.

So I was going into the weekend with a bit of a brighter outlook on all of this (and it helped immensely that my parents came to visit me this week) and signed up for Hornby at the last minute.

yeah... this is what the terrain is like.

The P123 was already stacked with riders who I know would crush me, and I felt that I needed a mental boost more than anything (and certainly more than I needed to spend lap after lap off the back in a tough race) so I entered in the masters field.  My field was almost nonexistent (again) with only two of us, but they combined all of the masters fields and the juniors for a still pathetic ten or so riders.

But with ten, at least we could have a semblance of a race experience.  I made it my number one goal to cross the line first out of all the combined group, throw either one arm or both in the air.

I really thought about that.

So the strategy was the same as the previous year.  Go hard on the first ascent of the long dirt climb, and see who remains.  This did not disappoint.  Going hard (but not suicidal) up the climb enabled it to be possible to keep the pressure on until the end of the second small climb on the paved section, where only three of us remained.  I had raced with Voldemyr before and knew he could beat me in the sprint easily, but wasn't sure about Armin.  He's super strong on the hills, but new to racing and I'd have to watch him for signs of weakness to see how to play this one out.

We go hard for the remainder of lap 1, setting the best lap time of the day, although we held back a bit on the wall to make sure all 3 of us survived it.  Lap two was a different story however, as Voldemyr was dropped on the long climb, and the gap was such that the two of us concluded that we were better off not waiting for him.

Armin and I passing one of the 4s on the top part of the wall

This made things kind of different for me though, since I was now pulling well more than half the time.  I made the decision that we shouldn't push anything too hard.  If we just kept our pace steady, we should be home free to win this one (he's 50+ and I am 40+).

As the laps continued I would make little mental notes.  Where to give it extra, where to take it easy, and especially what line to take at the last (sandy) corner leading to the sprint.  This was important.

One to go!

Last lap and Armin seems to be sagging a bit.  I think he's tired, so I gamble that the best move would be to not attack early and try to let him do the work leading up to the final corner, then nail it into the corner first wheel to take advantage of the short sprint distance.

Perfect strategy.  I swung out wide at about 28mph, braked just enough to not biff it into the sand, stood the bike up in the corner, then hard over after clearing the sand, then full gas sprint to win the race by several seconds.

I raised one hand.  Two damn windy for both.  (this was another one of those mental notes)

Actually it was more of a fist-pump.

here's the strava ride :  http://app.strava.com/rides/6359526  (race is lap 2)

I think we went a bit faster than last year, primarily due to the lack of mud, but the dirt sections were mostly covered with large rocks and potholes now, so you had to "Paris_roubaix" your way over them.