Mallory Park In The Rain 15.05.2012

Awesome race at Mallory Park in the rain 15.05.2012

Cycling in heavy rain has a marmite effect for many cyclists- you either love it or hate it. Personally as long as I can stay relatively warm I love it- especially as you see other riders' faces drop and become despondant.

The heavens opens prior to racing at Mallory Park last night (15.05.2012) in their newly expanded 2/3/4/W format. Coupled with temperatures around 5 degrees celcius it led to the initial battle being keeping warm. We even saw a number of riders racing in Assos winter jackets and about a third of the field raced in rain capes! You definitely needed a set of road bike tires for wet weather riding today!

You also know it's bad when the commisaire offers you your money back for entry if you choose not to race and it seems there were a few riders that made that choice however a big thank you must be sent out to Elaina Kennedy and the team last night for letting the racing go ahead. It must have been nasty for them simply standing on the sidelines.

Around 50-60 riders started although there were a good few that seemed to drop out and the conditions on the Mallory Park Tarmac were wet. If it was a motorbike race it wouldn't be particularly safe however fortunately with a number of 2nd cat riders in the field it tended to calm down some of the hap-hazard riding that you often see in 3/4th cat bike racing events.

Mallory Park Circuit

How did I get on?
After my ill fated last race at Birmingham in the cold, wet and wind I was rather nervous befor ethe start that my form would be ok- especially finding out that the Mallory Park Races were now 2/3/4 cat races so I'd be stepping up a level. In the end I had no need to be worried and felt fine throughout. The legs felt OK too considering i'd riden 220 miles over the previous weekend and felt some soreness still in my quads.

I finished in the main bunch. A break went late on with around 12-15 riders and just didn't seem to be coming back until late in the race. I felt ok helping the chase in some points at the front of the bunch but there wasn't really a full scale effort to catch the break and they subsequently stayed away. It seemed that people were more interested in looking after themselves then the end goal of catching the break so in a sense it was raced like a 3/4 cat race in the end. I did shout at one point when at the front for riders to start going through and off but either it wasn't heard or simply riders chose to ignore it.

Congratulations to Carl Dyson (2nd Cat) of Clay Cross RT for the win

What I've learnt from Mallory Park in the rain

• Strength is ok. I felt fine when the pace went hard
• I'm a little reluctant to attack at the moment. Couple of times I should have had a dig on Tuesday night but decided to play it safe, I need to take a few more chances in future races
• Fitness seems fine even racing up a level