June 6th, Bole Hill by Bunch Cam Dave. ( Fitted with long lense)
"After a few weeks out from racing, with the time spent touring and recovering it was back into action this week with the local CDNW at Bole Hill (Doveholes).
For those of you who don't know the course, this is generally regarded as the toughest CDNW race of the year. An eight mile lap, basically it consists of three climbs, two steep and one drag, joined up by a couple of fast descents and some windy sections. As evidence of the difficulty, it is the only event this year that still had space in the 3/ 4 event on race day, usually these events fill up at least a month before.
When I looked out the window first thing this morning and saw that the forecast rain had arrived, my attitude was something like “oh well that means less starters, so less people to beat!”. Look at that for optimism! At that point I'd forgotten that I couldn't climb and was hoping my form from the End to End would kick in, so was thinking of winning but how long would that last!
I drove out via the Brickworks to see if I could catch sight of some of our guys in action on the Spud Riley Sportif. I got lucky and saw our boys riding up the steep bit just on the run up to the Brickworks proper. Dave Genders was already setting a hard pace in the rain and the gaps were opening. A few minutes later and already on the Brickworks climb proper and passing people left right and centre was Duncan. I gave him some encouragement and we had a quick chat as I drove past, probably the only time I'll ever leave Duncan behind up there!
Anyway onto the race, well almost... There were 3 Wills Wheels riding in the 3/ 4 race, Mr B, Ben and I, leaving Manny (who wished he was in our race but his reputation had preceded him, leaving him stuck there) and Jimmy Frog along with our super fast Juniors Jack and Rob to play uphold honours in the E/1/2 race.
Pre-race talk consisted of a few jokes at Jimmy's expense for being daft enough to ride out in the rain, followed by curiosity over what deals Mr B had done to get Mrs B to fulfil his marshalling duties allowing him to ride! Even this entertaining topic got overlooked though when we realised that Jason 'ex-club road race champ!' Pickford down on the start sheet was nowhere to be seen. I think it was Ben who came up with the best line “probably at home polishing his aero helmet”.
Good news came in the riders briefing as given the tough course and poor weather we were only doing 5½ so 44 miles or so, with the E/1/2 race doing 7½ or 60ish miles.
Now really on with the race...
The race started and as soon as you turn onto the course you are faced with the first of the steep climbs, making this one of the few races of the year that you start in the little ring. The pace was fairly steady and I just had to avoid a couple of people who had hit the reverse button oh and one chap whose gears exploded leaving him scooting to the side. Along the run down to the quarry Mr B launched the first attack of the day but after his recent good performances the bunch weren't letting him get anywhere. We were all together as we hit Bole Hill for the first time, it was right about now any delusions I had of winning the race went out the window and fast! We were going up hard but steady and I was finding it tough, even using a bit of sliding room. The bunch was reduced with Mr B, Ben and I all staying within it.
The reduced bunch stayed together pretty much intact as we were running down to Bole Hill for the 2nd time, at which point we caught Manny who had dropped from the E/1/2 race, this was the first sign of the carnage that must have going on up ahead in that one.
As we hit the climb I was in the first two or three riders, to allow myself plenty of room to slide. Then I experienced a couple of minutes, that felt like hours, of sheer pain! I'll try to give you some impression of what I felt here. The hammer went down big time as those who could actually climb attempted to distance those who could only dream of it. A group of five started to go clear and everyone was on the limit just trying to get up as fast as they could and see what group they ended up in at the top. All my sliding room was used as we got halfway up the climb and I was just trying to hang on the wheel in front, despite my best efforts that wheel just edged ever so slowly away. It was at this point I just shut my eyes and squealed as hard as I could before looking up again a few seconds later. The gap was about 15 metres and I had a moment or two's doubt thinking is this it and the gap grew to 20 metres. I dug in a bit more and luckily this was the top and I managed to throw it into the big ring and get back on over the top.
Taking stock the bunch was down to about 15 – 18 riders with 5 men up the road. Mr B was in the bunch with me and looked almost in as bad a way as I was, possibly due to being stuck in the big ring. Unfortunately Ben hadn't quite made it and was in a small group a little way behind.
The bunch held the break to about 20 seconds for the next lap and at a couple of points the gap looked as if it could be crossed. However, every time I was mentally preparing to do so the road went up and those thoughts soon vanished. At some point in this lap we caught Jack and Jimmy Frog along with another few riders from the E/1/2 race. However much I was suffering they had had it 10 times worse. Also suffering was Alistair Rutherford who managed to crash on one of the tricky corners, whilst leading the break in the E1/2 race. I've spoke to him since and he's okay just pretty scraped up and will be feeling pretty sore for a couple of days. Not good timing as he's off to Estonia pretty soon, rest up!
If there was any doubt that those in the break were the ones who could climb they proved it 3rd time up Bole Hill as the gap of 20 seconds quickly became 2 minutes and it wasn't as if we were just cruising up there either, or at least it didn't feel like it.
That was pretty much the race the break stayed at 2 minutes and what was left of the bunch focused on survival. We weren't really racing any more just riding round happy that we were in a group. I resorted to riding on the front up the climbs at about 98% of my limit, hoping it would be hard enough that nobody would come round me and at the same time stop people jumping around, which would have been the end of me. This tactic worked and got me round, in fact I even started to feel a bit better but it was probably just everyone else was going slower. Every now and again ones and twos would try to ride off but they soon came back without any real need for us to chase.
We were frequently teased by sights of other riders coming back to us, we hoped this could be the break coming back or at least a couple having being dropped but alas as we got close they turned out to have orange numbers, meaning they from the E/1/2 race.
At some point I saw Rob on the side of the road too, not a sight you often see but it was down to a snapped chain rather than snapped legs. All hopes of any result in that race gone. So it was down to Mr B or I to salvage anything we could for Wills Wheels... As we hit the bottom of Bole Hill for the last time (the finish is halfway up) Mr B came past me along with another couple on his wheel. I dug in and tried to go with it but didn't have the legs and another couple came past me, then a couple more. I tried to claw them back but it was like sprinting in slow motion and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't gain a yard. I think Mr B was 8th and I probably just sneaked in the top 15. To his credit Ben had kept going and came in with a small group a few minutes further down.
And that was that, not the best race and not what I was hoping for on my birthday! Maybe it was because I haven't raced for a few weeks or maybe there aren't any excuses, I just didn't have the legs on the climbs today. Still as I sit here typing this I'm eating a 14inch take away pizza and sitting with a 2 litre bottle of coke, now THAT's more like my birthday!"