Gorrick Autumn Classic R1 - Win

Sunday the 14th of October saw the 1st round of the Gorrick Endrua Autumn Classic, with the Juvenile and youth races kicking things of at 9am. I arrived at Tunnel hill at around 9.45am as my dad was racing in the Veteran category for the 1st time moving from Open. He still had to complete the same number of laps which was 3 but after being ill last weekend he didn't really know what to expect. He got a good start following Daran Blackwell of Dees Cycles/Specialized but fading and falling down to 7th after lap to and continued to ride hard but it wasn't hard enough to hold of the surges of other riders finishing in 13th place which i think was good considering it was quite a strong field and last weeks Ilness.

Saturday the day before race day the back brake decided not to work and the lever pulled the whole way to the bars. I was furious after having the brake bled during the week and the brake being fine then to then checking my bike the day before with it playing up once again. Once again a trip back down to the bike shop to buy a cheap Avid BB5 mechanical brake just to see me through the race but this didn't fit because of the mounting place on my frame so another journey back to the shop. After all this agro i had to buy an old style Shimano Slx brake to get me by with an extra long hose which was routed abnormaly to take up the extra length of the cable. Onto my race which i signed on to do Expert but then found out that there was only 1 other rider entered in expert and the National Junior Champ was entered in Sport so i opted to change my entry to Sport and the 1 expert rider started at the same time as us which was good. From the Gun National champion Sam Stean took the lead with Gary record the only expert rider following his wheel and me very close behind with Martin Turton leading the rest of the field behind me. After a short while on the front Gary attacked on a short climb which i sort of went with but didn't immediately as i didn't want to blow me legs to bits on lap 1 of 4. After this i bridged to Gary and worked together for 3/4 of the 1st lap before he began to drop the pace ever so slightly which gave me a little gap which i kept growing throughout lap 1. After lap 1 i was 14 seconds ahead of Gary the leading Expert rider and a further 71seconds ahead of 2nd placed rider Sam Stean. I continued to work on my own but was weary of a chasing group working together on the Fireroads to reel my back in but this wasn't the case and i kept growing my lead lap by lap finishing a staggering 6minutes ahead of 2nd place which was a real shock. But looking back at my lap times now i can see why because of the consistency of my lap times which was progressively slower but only by 10+ seconds a lap, with most riders slowing up 20+ seconds a lap. 

Results avalibale via the link - http://timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/EVENTREPORT.aspx?eventid=222TunnelHill14/10/2012#Sport%20Male 

Pictures avaliable here -  http://joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=1311&q=764#image=178414

Next race is the West Drayton club Night Race, Night of the Knobbly tread. Where i may have to use my new Muvi camera that i have recently purchased for filming races.