Sadiq on the Road

Sadiq sends in his report from the Tour of Madderty:

I headed up to Crieff the TLI road race on Sunday with heavy legs and a sense of the unknown as I had no knowledge on the circuit other than it was over 50 miles. It was APR format with the first group having about 30 including some very strong vets who had entered this championship race, and a scratch group of about 10-15.

It turned out to be a pretty tough course although a stinging climb was only used on the first of two laps around a larger circuit, with the race finishing after another 5 laps of a smaller circuit.

After a fast start the first group settled down a bit with several attacks reeled back. Conscious that the tail end of the bunch wasn't a good place to hang about with extra work needed to hang on to the bunch after corners I knew I should have moved up the bunch although this was difficult to do in the wind and with some strong riders forcing the pace on the front chasing a breakaway of 6 or 7 riders.

I felt strong on the climbs but the effort required to spring out of the corners was wearing me down and with 2 laps to go 5 or 6 scratch riders joined the group and forced the pace beyond what I could cope with and I was out the back, riding home with another 3 riders. Happy enough with how it went, it is a nice feeling to have a race in the legs after not having done any competitive stuff for a while.