2007 British National Road Race Championships - Essex

         I looked out the window this morning to see if the rain would be welcoming us today! It did not let us down as it was wet wet wet!       The race got under way 40 minutes later than expected due to another race being held on the circuit for the men so we had to hang around in our already wet kit for another 30 minutes before the start.  

         We had to do 5 laps of a 13 mile circuit which had 1 main climb of around 1.5k and the rest of the circuit was flat to rolling. I already knew the circuit after riding around it a while back and I was looking forward to the race today especially as my mum and sister had come up from Dorset to see my race.  The main people to watch today where Cooke, Heal, Pooley and Wyman.   

           Before the main climb I punctured on my brand new rear tub and got my first wheel change!   I had to chase hard to get back to the bunch but thankfully nothing much was happening up front until we got over the climb when Global put in an attack which Cooke followed.   Pooley led the chase with me and Harris bridging to Cooke.   We got a small gap on the bunch but not enough to keep the group away.  We re-grouped and then Global started throwing their girls up the road.   The 2nd time up the climb I punctured again!  This time I was getting really annoyed especially as unfortunately, my service car had drawn last in the ballot for cars and then, of course, the Mavic cassette didn't want to work with my Campag set-up!  I thought the race was over then as this part of the course was going to be tough to get back on but I tried and it seemed to take forever to get back to the bunch but I got back again but then when the break went I did not have the legs to go with it unfortunately.    Cooke went on to win alone with Heal 2nd and Wyman 3rd.

 It was a great shame today did not go to plan but that is bike racing.  Now I must re-focus and think about my next races.
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