Late Report - Vets 2 Day 9/10 August

Keith Brooks and myself travelled up to the Malverns to contest the Ernie Clements Memorial 2 Day LVRC race.

An early start to get to the race on saturday morning involved missing the Olympic Mens Road Race and when we were greeted by low cloud over the Malvern hills & heavy rain, things did not look promising. Then more worries as we were faced with a changing room full of ex-Pros and Vets World champions (well 2 or 3 of them), all taking their warm-up for the short (1.3 miles) prologue very seriously.

Colin was first off and what had looked to be an easy ride on a downhill course actually turned out to be a slog into a block headwind and speed was hard to come by. Also using Craig's shop-Zipp 404's Keith met the same conditions and struggled to get the Colnago moving. Duly finishing 11th and 7th in our respective categories we were already languishing after stage 1.

A long wait, loooking out at more rain preceeded the afternoon Stage 2. Fortunately the weather perked up and the six laps of a grippy rolling circuit was more productive. Colin's race - the action came thick and fast in the ABC race, with yellow jersey, Nick Yarworth VC St Raphael and other GC contenders, jumping into every move for the first part of the race but eventually the continous accelerations took their toll and a 5 man break was allowed to go clear. They quickly built a 3 minute lead before the chasing resumed. I just managed to claw my way into a big split with 10 miles to go but the bunch returned to full strength as we started the last lap. With around 5 miles to go I attacked to test the water and instead of being chased down I was joined by 2 other riders and we worked well staying clear to the finish. I ended-up 8th on the stage, 30 seconds up on the bunch. Much to my surprise I was now 2nd on GC in category B. Keith's race - A similar race with plenty of hard racing but a field of well-matched contenders kept things together - It all built up to an almighty (and fairly dangerous bunch sprint) won by ex-Pro ( and thoroughly nice bloke) Graham moore - Bristol RC. Keith was up in the action but just out of the placings.


Sunday morning dawned and we passed all kinds of weather on the way to the HQ but again the rain held off for most of the stage. Sadly the wind did not and a fierce gale blew all around the circuit and slowed the race to around 10 mph up the finishing straight.

Colin's race report - With different people riding with different priorities ( one overall GC and 3 category GC's to contend) it was difficult to monitor all moves and work out which were important. Just like the previous stage, lots of attacks, lots of chasing until finally one was allowed some leeway. All the GC leaders thought it was safe to let them go, but none had accounted for the strength of one of the riders in there. With just 2 others for company, Simon Alexander (Wyre Forest CRC)( and 2nd in the Dartmoor Classic Sportive 2007) rode the remaining 2 hours of the race off the front, building a 5 minute lead at one point.

That struck fear into the other top 5 GC riders and a fast co-operative chase continued for the final 20 miles. I was content to sit in for the ride, knowing there was nothing in it for me to assist, but more to gain from shadowing Nick Yarworth who was 5 seconds behind me on GC. Into the headwind finishing straight and plenty of attempts to attack into the wind faltered, allowing me to slide up into 3rd in the sprint as the line approaced, for 6th place on the stage. Nick Yarworth pipped me for the 5 second 5th place bonus so I finished joint 4th on GC.

Keith raced the same long windy circuit over a 50 mile distance. Various attacks gained only small time gaps with plenty of category contenders happy to chase every move. Then finally, small bloke Kevin Shand - West Pennine got a small gap which he amazingly held over 2 laps to take the line 20 seconds clear and steal the overall.
Keith finished 9th on GC, which, with everyone in the E category finishing the road races together, was decided on prologue times and time bonuses.