Race Report – Kibosh RR National B E/1/2/3

Harrison Wood reports after a day in the break:

I was looking forward to this event after a good set of races at Chitterne and Tom Hawkins. The start sheet however had me doubting how I’d do due to the strength of the field. The event was being promoted by Kibosh who did a great job of organising it and put on some great prizes and pasties! The course was fairly rolling with some little kick ups but nothing too major. This did suit me well to be honest. The neutralised section saw me get to within the first 10 riders to stay out of trouble. The flag dropped and straight away the pace ramped up and a few attacks went. An initial break had formed maybe 10 or 15 seconds up the road including Jake Alderman, Dan Maquillan, Charlie Revell and some others. I decided to get stuck in straight away and bridged across after 5 miles! After getting across we worked well doing through and off.

We were then joined by a chasing group of 6 including another St Piran rider in Duncan. This meant they alongside TRI UK, Mid Devon CC and Team Tor were all represented in the move. Then after around 20 to 25 miles I saw that Ashley Towey was also coming across with a strong lad from Exeter Uni. A 13 man group now was formed and working well with well over 1 minute back to the bunch but with a group of 5 coming across at 30 seconds. As Mr Parker said post race this was proper racing! The group made it across and it was 19 man strong group including most notably former MDCC now Vc Toucy rider Charlie Meredith!

Chaingang was going well and I was beginning to feel the effects of now nearly 45 miles in the break. After 50 miles Charlie once again put the hammer down and I was with him going over the climb and 3 others. I was on the limit and I just lost the wheel slightly over the top. Junior gears then caused me to go backwards towards the rest of the break sadly In my head I knew we were never going to get them back but I tried a few times with Jake and others but nothing getting close With 5 miles to go Jake and 2 others slipped off the front and I was caught behind and was knackered. I tried to close but couldn’t. The finish was on a slight downhill so everyone was able to kick on it and I was left spinning the 52-14 across the line to take 13th with Ash only just behind in 15th after a mega strong bridge across to the break. The bunch then rolled in at around 4 minutes behind us as they had basically sat up Still a good experience for me and I don’t think I’ve ever spent as much time in a chaingang as that before!