Cycleways Cup
The Cycleways Cup A3 race featured a strong Orwell team, with Bryan Geary, Bernard English, Brian McNally, Mark Holland, Eddie Lynch, Paul Perry, Sean Murnane, Shane Toman and Michelle Geoghegan. For most it was a bad day, and it was particularly awful to see Mark Holland on the ground with a broken collarbone 200m from the finish and Paul Perry with a leg he could barely move (thankfully no fracture) after an earlier encounter with the ditch, both casualties of an edgy race. Most of the Orwell lads were up there at the end, and all wiped out in the crash, to be honest I would probably not be the one writing up the race had it not been for the destruction.
The course consisted of two laps of undulating landscape with one drag up to a KOH and a fast descent to follow. The atmosphere was fairly aggressive I thought, fast enough in the main group that none of the few attacks that went out there got enough out of sight to be out of mind for the chasers. Oncoming cars and trucks made everybody mid-peloton struggle for room on the road.
Going in, what I wanted from the race was to keep up, maintain position near the front, not get dropped on the hill and get up there at the end if the race was still on. Realistically solo breaks and chasing breakaways down are not something that my motor is able for at the moment, I felt this strategy was probably most likely to work out for me. Having managed to stick to the plan coming into the last major turn, the race was most definitely on, and for once the legs had some power still left in them. I consciously decided to go for it... a terrifying prospect considering the competition and the fact that I had felt completely outclassed in every A3 race I had entered to date both in terms of fitness and physical courage. Attacks were frequent and had an all-out urgency to them, but in general the men up the front would let out a snarl and leap onto the wheel of any opportunists. A couple of very strong lads managed to get a decent gap but the peloton was humming along at this stage (not sure if the racers behind trying to move up would agree but that's how it felt with an established spot at the front grabbing wheels and staking out territory). The eventual winner made a super strong jump (at about 700m out I think, it is all a bit of a blur), and put the head down while others were getting in gear and steeling themselves. Flying over the railway tracks, bike shuddered but momentum strong, and just as the sprint took off in earnest a deafening crash of carbon breaking and men howling just behind. I did not look back but imagined a crashing wave of bikes and men about to engulf me, and stood up and gave it everything, strange how the fastest part of the race goes into slow-motion. I thought I was in for second place as I gradually reeled in the winner who was fading fast coming to the line, but the velo-revolution guy I had not realised was creeping up on my right nipped it while I drifted off in contemplation of the surreality of the situation and the craziness of the sport.
The Orwell A3 team is excellent at the moment, there was luck in my success on the day and I am sure that any of our lads contesting the final sprint could have had a great result, there were so many of us up there. Bryan Geary did well to get away on the last lap and I was sorry to see his group reeled in on the hill, he was Orwell's main aggressor in the early stages of the race, but in fairness all the Orwell racers were up there dictating the pace and holding their position in difficult circumstances throughout."
Mark Holland, Shane Toman, Michelle Geoghegan in the thick of the action during the race (photo thanks to Sean Rowe)
