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I was lucky this year to be one of the "chosen few" to ride the Seacroft Wheelers 3rds/4ths race, although I wasn't entirely convinced of my good fortune when I rolled out into subzero temperatures for the ride to Wistow. Thankfully the sky was blue and by the time the lead car led us off down the wrong road (bless!) it was chilly but otherwise pleasant - given the past few weeks weather it could have been much worse.

I settled into the front part of the bunch and tried to read the race a bit while TimJ and RichD positioned themselves up front. There were a few goes off the front but nothing stuck until about three to go, when a small group went swiftly up the road. Rich was splitting his time between trying to drift away with another rider and towing the bunch along, so with the brisk pace it wasn't until halfway round the final lap that a few riders managed to get a bit of a head start at the run-in to the finish. Legs complaining about the cold, and too many elbows for me in the sprint, so rolled over around twentieth with Tim in close formation. 24.5mph and 244W for me.

A chilly ride home followed by Tour of Flanders on the laptop, joining bacon and eggs on the kitchen table. Things don't get much better. How was it for everyone else, and our brave boys in the afternoon 2/3/4 race?

A fair bit warmer by the time Martin and I set off in the 2/3/4 race at 12.30. I have ridden round Bish a few time so know the circuit well but this was 11 laps or 44 times sprinting out of corners! Not quite short sleeves weather but at about…oooh 6 degrees (?).. it felt like a real treat . Two good sized groups got up the road early on. Unlike last week, I tried to keep a bit closer order near the front of the chasing bunch…Didn’t want to miss any splits. On the penultimate lap one guy rode off the front, gaining about 20 metres. It seemed like the bunch were in ‘dawdle mode’ so I jumped across and had a word with him. We managed to do some thru and off for ¾ of a lap gaining some decent ground. It looked like I had better legs than him and with the bunch getting a bit closer I rode away with ¾ lap to go. I am usually pretty poor at working how many riders there are up the road and although there were apparently points down to 15th I, realistically, didn’t think that I was in with a shout of that but it certainly felt good to be riding quite strongly with a big group behind me. Another rider did get across to me and we did bit and bit until the home straight. Chuffed to finish with more riders behind me than in front. After a morning on officiating duties, Judge Darren said I came 18th so that that ranks as one of my better rides

Good racing today, and nice to see it split up a bit on Bish for a change..certainly made the job of sorting the finishing order out easier.
Cam did a good solid ride in what was a very good quality 2/3/4 field. Well done Cam I'm sure the results will come when you step back down to the 3rd cat races now.

I think Seacroft have about 80 paid up members, and they're not really a big road racing club, but it looked like about half the club were helping out today which is really nice to see.

Start of race season for me at Seacroft RR.After a pretty bad season last year with this and that i go into the season with a sense of trying to enjoy it as anyone who races knows when u cant get any form due to illness or injury it is not nice as last season was for me.Today started as a go slow neutral section @10/15 mph then within a cats whisker it was up to 30/35mph and legs screaming and lungs burning so i was glad to be at the front and not at the back.It settled down and RichD was looking way toooo strong up front and he was getting marked every time he went there.I was going ok and did a couple of efforts on front and stayed up there most of the race positioning myself well so not having to sprint out of corners and into the wind not quite strong enough to have the confidence to have a massive effort to try something hopefully that will come.Sprint at end and that straight never gets any shorter and rolled over in the bunch.RichD looking real strong.Very ENJOYABLE morning cheers Timj

Seacroft 3,4 ride with Phil, Tim and Gavin. Good, well organised event and even a free water bottle at signing on. As Phil said, an amusing start as the lead car got lost in the neutralised zone, but after that all went smoothly and thankfully no crashes this year. In retrospect did too much on the front, hoping I could slip into a developing break, and then followed that up by trying to simply pull away with one or two others, which was never going to work on a flat circuit. Probably should have waited and gone all or nothing with 2 or 3 to go, but did not feel confident enough. I suppose when you are hurting so is everyone else, which is the time to do it?

To put things into perspective, caught the last 20k of Flanders later in the afternoon and read later that Cancellara had averaged a tad under 31 mph into a slight headwind for the last 14k after already riding 250. God knows how many watts that took. Different planet.

No racing for a couple of weeks so will be on the training ride hopefully this weekend and I expect the chain gang once it starts in the next week or two?

I raced at RAF Barkston Heath today, was a DNF thanks to people not being able to hold a line and forcing me off the circuit into an area that I could not easily get back, lost about 50metres so no chance of getting back on as the average pace up to that point had been 40km/h.

Looking back I should have placed myself better, but I am still learning, 3 weeks until my next race (a triathlon! ) and need to get in some solid training so will be out at the training ride for the next couple of weeks.

Rather belatedly, but just in case anyone who was there hasn't spotted them yet, there are some rather fine pics from this race at http://twgphotos.zenfolio.com/p136346790 including plenty of RichD and TimJ out front and a complete team shot near the end!