Well, after a lot of deliberation and “should I, shouldn’t I?” discussions with myself, I finally plucked up the courage to enter my first race yesterday – the TLI event at Croft.
On the drive up I was thinking “am I doing the right thing?”, “maybe I’ll just watch”, “perhaps I’ll just do a couple of laps”, “I’m going to be right out of my depth” etc, but pretty-much the first person I saw when I got there was Rich of this parish, who was also racing for the first time and who revealed that he’d also had the same thoughts on the way up!
Seeing a familiar face certainly helped, and we both signed up to ride in the novices group with a dozen or so others. Our group went off third of five, but we only rode 14 laps rather than the 15 that the other groups rode. Each lap is around two miles, and although the course is pancake flat, the strong wind did make it interesting at times!
As seems to be the norm, the novices group didn’t really work very well together, but Rich and I both did spells on the front and it was a while before we started to get passed by the faster and bigger groups. The first two groups that passed us did just that – passed us! The difference in speed was amazing and there was no point in trying to jump on (plus, the slightly complicated rules didn’t allow it – it was a bit confusing at times!). When a third group came passed I lead a small group on to the back of it, but we slipped off again pretty promptly.
Finally, with three or four laps to go, a largeish group slid past and Rich, I and a few others managed to get in with it. The pace picked up and we hung on in there, I was generally sat about a dozen places back on Rich’s wheel – not sure how big the group was (I wasn’t looking back!!).
Into the final straight (with the winners having finished and most of them having made their way home judging by the space in the car park when I got back there!), and Rich put in an amazing sprint to cross the line first out of our bunch. I was about fifth (I think I could have got fourth, but I used my last breaths screaming at Rich to “go go go”!!).
I’m really glad I plucked up the courage to get up there. We were made to feel very welcome by the organisers and other riders, and nobody that I met seemed to be taking it *too* seriously. The only downer is that the next event is Thur next week, which clashes with the SPOCO!
Totally recommended as a great introduction for anybody else considering racing for the first time.
Jason.
Croft TLI Report
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