I got caught out in crosswinds midway through the second lap as the peleton echeloned and then split in the middle - I'd just been riding in the wind moving my way up the bunch so was already on my limit, then the pace rocketed as there was panic in the second group trying to avoid losing contact with a strong group riding away at the front. I was still hanging out in the wind, and instead of trying to force myself into the line (noob error) I started to slip back, but didn't realise how close I was to the back - as soon as I lost a bike length I didn't have the energy to chase back on and had to watch the peleton gradually move away despite riding at my limit. Lesson learned for next time.
At this point I wasn't even sure if I was at the back of the race. After a painful and demoralising lap riding as hard as I could on my own, my spirits were lifted by a pair of Roadclub cheerleaders in the form of Phil Evans and Andy Gardener who had turned out to watch
Eventually I got caught by a rider who had got dropped earlier. Working together for a couple of laps we caught a couple more dropped riders who we worked with for half a lap or so before they firstly stopped taking turns on the front and eventually we left them behind.We caught a few more riders on the final lap and ended up in a group of six heading for the final climb, I managed to hide at the back for a couple of minutes leading up to the climb and used my fresher legs to power up the hill, dropping 4 of them, and then outsprinted my companion of the last 3 laps to at least salvage something from the day. Not seen the official results yet, but I reckon I was somewhere about 40th out of 50.
I'd like to thank all the members of the club for your support. With the experience, advice and encouragement you've all given me over the past year, I've gone from never having ridden in a group before to competing in my first road race. Well I was competing for the first 30 minutes at least! Next objective is to try and finish one in the bunch
