Mojo Rising

For a while now I've been thinking about the fact that I've never won a race. I've come close, I've raced well, I've been proud of my effort, but not won. It's clear that I've often not really tried to win, because then if I failed it would be a big failure. So maybe it's time to take some risks and see what I'm really capable of.

Last Saturday I raced with my club, Broadford-Seymour. The race format was a "Sealed Handicap", a new format for me. It's a bunch start with no-one knowing what handicap they've been given until the finish.

The simple plan of course, is to try to stick with the fastest A graders for as long as possible. Their plan of course, is to try to lose everyone else as fast a possible. They achieved this in the first kilometre with a searing pace that almost had me having a chuck on the roadside. So, one kilometre in I was gasping with hurting legs, the A grade guns disappearing into the distance and an array of the people I should have been riding with strung out in front of me. I didn't worry too much as School-House hill was coming up soon and I knew I would catch them there. I set about catching my breath a bit and finding some kind of rhythm.

At the top of School-House we had a bunch if six riders who I thought would work well together and we did. Silas was disappearing fast but we kept some touch with the next group of three A graders. With 7km to race we hit the hill out of Sugarloaf Creek. I hit the climb hard and dropped the group on the first pinch. It was now or never, because these guys would all out sprint me in a bunch finish. I really smashed it over the top of the hill and down the other side, knowing the final 5km was largely on a slight uphill meant I had a chance of holding a break to the line.

On the corner at the bottom of the hill, my 200m advantage was back to around 50m so I dug in, the gap see-sawing between 50 and 150m for the last 5km. The run to the line was again uphill and I spent everything I had to push up that rise.

With 20m to go I saw a wheel drawing up to me. It was young Sam, who had bridged the last 50m on his own. I dug yet again. Nothing..... Sam shaded me right on the line, with Ian and Jeff following shortly behind.

In the end I won the race with a handicap of 15 seconds more than Sam who came second.

While I won this on handicap, and got passed on the line, I'm really proud of this ride. It's the first time in racing where I have really stuck out my neck and taken a big risk. I played to my strengths and this time it paid off. I'm not so sure where this thinking will take me but I'm sure going to have fun finding out.

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