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Five of us among the lucky ones to get a ride in this morning's Seacroft Wheelers 3rds/4ths - RichD, Tim, JohnS and me plus Nigel getting a ride as reserve. First road race of the season for most people there - you never know quite how you're going until this moment. It may have been a bit of rustiness that made it very stop/start out of corners too, and the combination of sprinting out of corners and overall high pace (just a wee bit under 26mph) made it hard work - even in the bunch - 251W for just under 90mins for me. John and Tim stuck resolutely up front with Tim spending most of the race attacking, from what I could see; full marks, given the high pace. Rather inevitably it all came down to a full-width-of-the-road final run through the woods (with the squeeze of an oncoming car putting Stu Davis off the road and Neil Dean over the top of him), a "whoooaaaaaaahhhhhh!" moment on the penultimate corner when someone pulled their foot out, and a scary-looking sprint - from where I was sat, which was twentysomethingth. Good fun though on a cool but still day; riding out made it seventy-odd miles so can start a "rest" week with something to rest after. How was the afternoon race?

Andy M and I in the afternoon race. Similar sort of pace to the morning really. Break did get away with some quality in there early on. Another small group - I think - did well to bridge across. A couple of crashes...the second of which about mid way thru looked pretty bad. Was fortunate not to get caught up in it myself. Young Kieran (friend of Clifton and riding for Vertex) was not so lucky but only got a few cuts and grazes. The other fella was still being tended to 2 laps later. I had a decent ride on balance...not great but not too bad Nil points for me and Andy though. Andy had a good dig on the last lap before getting swallowed up unfortunately. It was certainly a pleasure to be riding in what I can confidently describe as "relatively warm" conditions in short sleeves with a lot of leg showing .

In addition to the 3/4 race this morning I also rode the 4th Cat race at Yorksport yesterday. Having struggled to get the miles in since mid-January due to work, i've been hit and miss (mostly miss) on the last few training rides, so I wasn't sure how i'd fare this weekend.

Saturday's Yorksport Cat 4 race saw a field in excess of 40 starting in sunny but blustery conditions, with a pretty strong easterly wind making the usually wind-assisted back straight head-on into the wind. The pace felt pretty hard from the off (especially with the wind) and by halfway round there were small groups all over the circuit who posed something of a hazard each time the bunch tried to get past!

I finished in the main bunch but couldn't match the speed of the sprint after the last hairpin.

That race gave me a little confidence coming into today's race and, after finding the first lap really hard, I found my legs and settled into the pace. Never got further forward than around halfway up the bunch but achieved my 2 aims which were: 1. Not to get dropped and 2. Not to hit the deck!

Finished at the rear of the bunch and happy with that given the pace and my lack of miles.

Interestingly (for me, anyway)- today's race was almost 3kph (ave) faster than yesterday's (42 kph / 39.2) but my average HR was significantly lower today (154bpm / 172!). Just shows you the intensity of the Yorksport circuit with all those bl**dy corners!

Great race today, good to see plenty of Clifton Jerseys in the mix- surely a good sign of the season to come

As reported a good race today at high pace and the usual sprint finish,tried to get away on several occasions but nothing would stick.Felt pretty good in the race and a couple of times thought we had something to go at in terms of a gap, the best of which was stopped after 4 of us went round a double bend with a car coming the other way,the rider in front braked hard i missed him and kind of parallel passed the car,lucky to say the least.The clifton riders all looked comfortable and RichD had a couple of goes towards the end but the sprinters had the end in sight.Pretty spent at the end and rolled over the line .cheers timj

As Cam says, 2/3/4 for me this afternoon. Good race and great to be riding with the legs showing in some sunshine! Tried a few times to get away a couple of laps in, the best of which was a group of 4 of us but we didn't get very far. Sat in after that, and found myself poorly positioned near the back for much of the race. Real shame about the crash, and hope no-one was seriously hurt. Cam was looking super strong as always, and didn't seem drift much further back than around 10th wheel for the whole race. Thought he might just sneak away near the end too, when he was 3rd wheel for a good while. I had a last-ditch attempt to get away on the last lap which lasted a couple of minutes, but it was a bit uninspired as I guess in my head I had already told myself it wouldn't work. Fairly pleased with how I felt though for the first RR of the year, even though I did have to 'dig in' a bit at points. Scores on the doors were 26mph and 292W for 2hr 19mins for the race, and a just under 4 hours after a nice ride home.

...and photos now up at http://craigzadphotos.zenfolio.com/recent.html