Fowlmead 6th June

[Guy Phillips]

The 1/2s soon joined up with the 3/4s on this windy race, and from then on it was run at a fast pace throughout with a lot of attacks. There was a block headwind on the bottom turn and up to and past the start/finish line. It made for a really hard and fast race, with the race mostly lined out. There were 20 1/2s and a lot of strong 3rd cats in what was a large field for Fowlmead.
I had a good race and was in some of the breaks. After 40 or 50k the usual suspects (Toachim House) broke free, 3 of them, 1/2s, and for the rest of us it was down to a bunch sprint. In the sprint I was well positioned but took the right hand line and found myself heading into the blockwind which was not at all helpful. Sprinting out of the saddle was hard going, tho' I finished in the sprinters bunch but was unfortunately pipped on the line by Graham Hills to take my second 11th of the season.
All in all a good race, but my finish was not great in that I found myself at the front too early and it was hard to sprint with tired legs. I really enjoyed the race tho' - it was pretty brutal and I was often chewing the bars to stay on.