I was a lone ranger at Goodwood for the 2nd race in a series of 9. It was a good turn out on a sunny evening prompting me to ride there and back for some training miles. Within that group was no less than Sean Yates, legendary british cyclist and now director sportif at team sky. I have to admit I had no idea who he was when I lined up to sign on with him behind me, I just thought he was another commuter with a team sky jacket, how wrong I was!
Along with Sean was his brother Conall Yates who immediately showed that he was one of the stronger riders on the night! Being a handicap race the E/1/2 riders soon caught those ahead and the attacks began with Conall showing his TT skills to string the bunch out! Although a couple of small gaps being achieved nothing stuck until half way through the race when myself and 4 others broke lose including Conall. After shedding 2 of the weaker riders we were joined by three new riders to form a strong group of six. It wasn't perfect but we worked together well enough to stay away for the remainder of the race with the bunch chasing hard.
The last lap we had to work together to maintain the gap but the games quickly started once we knew we were going to stay away. I wanted to be on Conalls wheel knowing that he was really strong but he had other ideas and made sure we was at the back of the group. The sprint was fast with Conall taking the win narrowly and myself coming in 3rd about a second behind! Another 120km in the saddle and feeling strong, hopefully strong enough to get a win for the team on our Focus bikes that continue to do a sterling job! (Results and possibly pics to come).
Eelmore tonight, so looks like I will be posting again soon!
Phill
Results here: http://www.velouk.net/2012/05/10/result-surrey-league-goodwood-gallops-2/
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