Shaftesbury CC day at Hog Hill

surista

Anyone doing the 4th Cat (Novice) Go-Race event at Hogg Hill tomorrow? Start time is 14:45. Also a Women Only event starting at the same time. 30mn plus 5 laps, so maybe a bit short. Apparently the event skips the hill part of the circuit.

I am planning on heading out for my second race; hope to actually finish this time!

Dess1e

So how did you get on S.?

surista

I posted this on my blog, but since only my wife and mom read it <g>

I at least accomplished my goal of finishing a race while avoiding being the ‘lanterne rouge’.

The race was at Hog Hill, also known as the Redbridge Cycling Center. The whole complex was pretty impressive - lots of parking spaces, a big building with bathrooms, changing rooms, a small kiosk with cakes, water and coffee, vending machines – the whole works. Considerably nicer than my first race, which was at Ford’s Dunton Technical center, with nary a bathroom, vending machine, or water fountain in sight. It turns out Redbridge Cycling Center was opened recently; it was quite nice – up on a hill, you could see for literally miles around, including a nice landscape view of the City. Plus, it was only a 40-minute drive from our house. I’m going to be on the lookout for more events at this place next year. My wife also joined me, and we both enjoyed the day.

The course itself was quite a bit different from the Dunton track. The Dunton track had fairly big, wide turns – banked turns, which was a bit nerve-wracking at first since I’d never ridden on a track like that before. Plus, the Dunton track wasn’t exactly the smoothest surface out there - getting up to decent speed on the downhill section was a bone-jarring, water-bottle-jittering experience.

Redbridge, on the other hand, had beautifully smooth surfaces – instead, the corners were considerably tighter and the road itself was (felt?) narrower. I didn’t have a chance to ride the whole circuit before-hand, and it took me a lap or two to figure out good lines through the turns that didn’t feel scary. I wasn’t the only one who had initial trouble – on the very first lap at the very first tight corner coming down the downhill section, the guy in front of me did his best ‘Lance goes cross country’ impersonation, over-shooting the corner and ending up in the field lining the track.

As for the race itself – there were about 20-25 people or so in the race. I started out near the front, but since I was very unsure of the course and the corners, I let myself slide back a bit, and lost contact when the guy in front of me went cross country as I had to slow down to avoid hitting him. I stayed just behind the main group for the lap, but lost contact on the main hill. The main hill is relatively impressive - certainly felt harder than the Dunton hill.

Once I lost contact with the main bunch I spent the rest of the race passing some people, getting passed by some people – mostly getting passed, including by the seven female racers who started -15 seconds after us-. Yikes.

The race was only 30 minutes – and boy did it go by fast. I would have sworn I had only done 15mn or so when I heard the bell for the final lap. I finished definitely near the back, and the official times as per the British Cycling page has me second-to-last, but I know there were at least four or five people finishing behind me (plus one or two that retired early). Maybe the official results just captured the top 20 or so?

Anyway - I finished a race for the first time (granted a short race of only 30mn, but still), I wasn't last, and I got some group riding experience on a course with tight corners - definitely a good day all around.

I'm on vacation from tomorrow for a week, then have some work-related stuff that will eat into my weekends, so don't know if I'll get any more racing in this season, unfortunately...

Dess1e

Congrats on getting your first finish.

Not many events left, but PM / E-mail me and we'll try and sort a program out for you. I know there's certainly a few saturday and one sunday events at Hillingdon in West London.

gattocattivo

Hi, I did this race too. There are loads of photos here:

http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/sportinpictures/gallery/22-08-2009-Women-and-Novice-Men-Shaftsbury-CC-Hog-Hil/G0000KP6gcSEJjQo/P0000O80c2RJT2yg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncyclesport/sets/72157621995309303/

This is my first season. I did three 4th cat races at Hog Hill back in Feb/March and found it very tough: I finished about 3/4 of the way down the field and got lapped every time by the leaders with about 3 laps to go. I spent the summer doing a few time trials and managed to improve my times enough to feel I was ready to give road racing another go and this seemed as good an event to try as any.

I thought the pace was pretty high, to be honest. I was with the leaders for the first couple of laps and we were averaging over 24mph, which is no mean feat with that hill to contend with. On the third lap the elastic snapped and a group of 5 or 6 opened a gap and I was in a group of 4 or 5 behind them (now going at a more manageable 21.5mph!). I spent most of the time sat on the wheel of a bloke from Colchester Rovers. Eventually some of my group got shed, but we picked up some more who had been dropped by the front group. I felt like I was going to die for the last couple of laps, but I managed to hang in there for the 'sprint' for 4th or 5th or whatever it was and picked up 7th spot, which is easily better than anything I'd done before.

I'm doing a 3rd & 4th cat race there on bank holiday monday which is twice the distance (and probably a lot faster) - that's going to be an eye-opener.