Guildford Town Centre Criterium 2010

For one day in July Guildford town centre closes to cars enabling men, women, and children to rule the streets on bikes.  The senior crit race has to rate as one of my favourite races of the year, mainly thanks to the massive crowds and the shear brutal nature of the course.  The course begins on a slight rise with a cobbled surface, you quickly swing round to the left and descent before a sharp left in to an alley (raised curb half way round the corner to watch out for), along the alley which is slightly uphill before hard left onto the cobbled climb and over the start/finish line: hard in the dry and brutal in the wet!

Looking down the start sheet the field was far stronger than any previous years I had raced: including a strong representation from Sigma Sport (Wouter Sybrandy, Gareth Montgomery, Phil Sykes) and Orbea-For Goodness Shakes (Marcel Six), and the full Kuota–Road.cc and Felt squads. 

The start is vital in this race and for this reason I kept near the start line in order to be first on when the support race finished.  Unfortunately a few other riders had the same idea and indeed did not even wait for the support race to finish before taking a place on the start line.  They got told off by the commissaire (scary) but not sent to the back of the grid which would have been more deserving punishment. 

I was stuck at the back which I knew meant the first half dozen laps would need to be attacked with some aggressive riding thrown in to make up positions.  Typically the situation was compounded when the rider in front of me slipped a pedal.    I quickly made my way past and after a bit of ducking and diving (and perhaps a little shoulder to shoulder action) had managed to make it into the front half of the race.  Within 10minutes riders were being dropped and withdrawn from the race, after 20minutes a lead group of nine had established a lead which I was not a part of-a massive effort and I made it across to the leaders and from there we proceeded to lap the entire field. 

In lapping the final chase group disaster struck when I failed to get past a rider and was distanced from the lead group.  By the time I made it passed a small gap had opened, the elastic stretched until it finally broke.    I kept my head down and rode hard for the remainder of the race to come in 10th- the last of the riders not to get lapped.  A good result but not what I had hoped.   I am left wondering about the if only….I had a better start, I did not get held up by the tail ender, I was not recovering from illness…Next year I will be back and looking for a top five!

1st Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport)
2nd Jody Crawforth (Hargroves Cycles)
3rd Phill Sykes (Sigma Sport)
10th Simon Ernest (AW Cycles)