Richard 2nd at Hillingdon

This is Richard Unwin's race report from Hillingdon last week:

Second place in the 4th Cat. race at Hillingdon, Magic Homes Crits on Sat. 26th Feb

I was really happy to finish 2nd at Hillingdon at the weekend. I’ve been doing some training on my turbo trainer but the week before I went on a group rider with the Sunday fast boys and only just managed to hold on, if it wasn’t for all the puncture stops I would have been dropped in the first hour, so I wasn’t expecting to finish 2nd.

I raced there a few weeks ago in the final race of the winter series after recently joining VC Meudon and talked to Josh just after his victory. In that race I never got into the right position and I was in about 30th coming round the final bend, I managed to finish 10th but sadly no points because I had not updated my race licence.

At the weekend I new I could get into the top 10 so long as I got into the right position. Although it was a wet race the pace was quite fast but I felt comfortable and even drifted to the front a few times. There were not many attempts to break away so we were all together most of the race, although we must have lost some riders because when I looked round with 5 laps to go there was hardly anybody behind me and about 10 in front. There were at least 30 on the start line!

I managed to stay in around 10th position round the final bend then started my sprint. I overtook as many as I could but I never got anyone else’s wheel. However, it is a good feeling when you go past other riders who are riding flat out. I was closing on the leader but ran out of time. I felt I could have carried on for a while longer so I guess I should have started my sprint earlier but hard to say for sure.

I can’t wait for my next race and hopefully I’ll join the 3rd Cats. soon.

Richard Unwin