BMCR Result: API/Anglia Sport Criterium des Vainqueurs

Paul Stewart and Matt Holmes two of the winners at API/Anglia Sport’s BMCR classic race, the Criterium des Vainqueurs on October 8

BMCR Result: API/Anglia Sport Criterium des Vainqueurs

Race Report (E/F/H/G/W) : With a few well chosen words from a whispering Kevin Hickman and his side kick, a man with a white flag and Kazoo, last heard being played by Sam Spoons of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band on ‘Hello Mabel’; we were off. Nothing frenetic, time for ample fumbling as feet attempted to clip in and we sounded like it was first rehearsal for ‘Waltz Clog.’

The pace rocketed up as the fired up attempted to fire off the front. Seconds in we were enjoying searing lungs, burning legs and the question, ‘Am I on a good day?’ One man was; Beales who partnered up and without adieu made his way ever onwards. Or so he and his mate intended. Clearly the boldest of moves so early and it looked decisive. Two away, too far and too little, if anything, was the pitiful response from the bunch. We’d only just rolled a few laps. The front was lively make no doubt of that. The E’s had the responsibility to chase and Jones was alert.
An unfortunate term ‘bunch’, to lump us all into that misnomer of an epithet as we were not united, similar or content. Despite the race having gone up the straight and round the bend it wasn’t the madness it might suggest.

However, what was unbeknown was that Beales abandoned. Reason unknown. He felt ‘the legs just weren’t there today’. The rest of us had the option of choosing ‘the wheels came off’ for our response was woeful.

If I mention a sense of Deja vu, you’d probably say ‘here we go again.’

Ellerbeck kept his powder dry for all of 10 minutes. Like a weight loss club thinks donuts are a good idea, he took to the front and began to time trial his way through a Crit Race. The bunch were content to take the Sunday papers out of the back pocket and have an arm chair ride.

Questions needed to be asked. ‘Does anybody know 14 across?’

With 4 kph added to the draft from this barn door figure thoughts turned to a new sofa. Laps unfolded and energy saved yet few were prepared to force the break. E cats did little to snap the elastic. Whippets and grey hounds are built for speed. Men too of that lithe, snake like twist, look the part but today lacked the alacrity to explode from the bunch. Too often an attack would come blind from behind and rip away off the front sending a panic through startled riders whose legs would surely fail them in response. A lightning crack of shock whipped down the line as men rose to the challenge, pressed hard on the pedals and fought to accelerate within range. No need. The attack, like a wet firework, failed.

Such attacks were like a summer shower. Blink and it was over. We were again moulded into this homogenous mass once more devoid of difference, uniformly utilitarian, flagrantly functional and far from fast.

When there was a break it was dangerous. A whippet in blue, no pinz – no pain, shot past not to be chased and with the CWR rider, yellow and black wasp, the two, as one, were away. Time seemed to slow.

A Schils rider, giant man on a Giant bike, made it across. Three. It was looking good for them. The bunch packed with complacency, the like of which was on a scale with ‘The Apprentice’ candidates, rolled as one as if the unfolding nightmare were unreal. It wasn’t. Freddie Kruger, dreams become nightmares, had teamed up with Michael Myers, the bogeyman in plain sight and Jason Voorhees, formidable, unstoppable ….. or so it seemed. For Sunday the 8th think Friday the 13th. Halloween’s round the corner, they were too. My response was more ‘bald guy in a mac’ aka Samuel Loomis, rather than Seth Gecko as I went after them.

It was a sensing of being able to do it. Never looking back. No thoughts of taking anyone with me. Full commitment. It’s not enough. The gap is closing too slowly. The brain starts to whisper its insidious intent. Quit. You’re dying.

I’m 25 meters off and I can’t close. Legs or head? The road rises and swings right then left. Ahead, a well oiled machine, legs and wheels in unison, spinning swiftly taking them forwards. Whippet man cutting through the air like a knife. Me, by comparison, frantic, committing to a final deep, emptying effort to close; hit every apex. Go full on, maximum risk. Their ripple effect of slowing legs, that momentary, imperceptible pause to corner, no grounded pedal by me that may allow me to reduce an impossible chasm. They sweep to enter the finishing straight, when the wind and their combined speed will surely be my nemesis. I push to within 8 meters but the straight threatens to multiply that gap and I lift my cadence to what feels like a blur. Legs or head?

The Schils rider. Big build. There’s shelter if I can stay on the wheel but it’s so close to losing everything. I’m on. My heart rate is at implode numbers. That’s where I’m at. But I’m there and able to recover. The beauty of numbers. I’m in blow up territory but survived. Mentally, you know you can do it. But can you find the will? I expected mine to be read Monday morning.

This is the winning move. Then underneath my pedals a shadow appears. Timely too, for Paul Stewart had tried but missed this move, but now, left for dead, he’s on. I glance back at him and he tells me ‘he can’t’. I hadn’t said anything. He adds, ‘just jumped across’. Some jump. I remember the one for mankind. I’m more confident with Stewart on board. A man who has often berated riders telling them to ride harder. Demanding of them what he demands of himself.

Chickens and eggs.

The bunch, never giving up, responds. Baird like Hercules with the challenge of the Stymphalian Birds upon him bores down on us. He was to pay a heavy price for his efforts towing the bunch into contention, as his strength was gone for the sprint. All is lost. We just didn’t know it.

With time running out, so few had done so much while so many had done so little other than follow. Voracious of appetite they showed no mercy. And now, like a final desperate throw of the dice with the bell about to toll, a rider broke free. Who would respond? It was Jones, the F Cat Crit Champ for all of 3 weeks, who reverted to trusted tactic and fired up the diesel in pursuit.
The two, a match as attractive as Den and Angie locked in a fight as they stayed clear during those fateful final five laps that saw Ellerbeck once again on the front yet unable to close.
Jones was my quarry.

With no other choice, unable to rely on a mainly lethargic bunch, I went after them. Up the rise I was clawing them back with a bunch lined out behind me all waiting for the sprint finish that would surely engulf me.

But the bends provided protection and I was holding and closing but not enough. It was then full gas into the final right hander. The bunch, parasitic like enjoyed the symbiosis of self preservation as they sheltered from each other and saved every watt possible. My intent was to pass the two ahead.

It was happening. I was there. Then boom! The sprinters unleash. Guys appear like the Charge of the Light Brigade: Half a length, another length, a further length forward, all in the final straight, flew the fast riders. The line looms, the race is lost.

Won by Stewart.

The sprinter who magnanimously later thanked his lead out man; me.

A worthy winner in Stewart. A man who gives a lot to the sport and is a born racer always giving his all. He jumped across, nose in the wind, do or die. He raced and he recovered and struck when it mattered, which is what sprinters do.

Please support this race. It has a noble history and we need the best riders, the winners after all, to take up the gauntlet thrown down by men of yore, men far superior to us, but now we shape the history of this event.

Many thanks to the Sponsors and to the Organisers under Kevin’s direction.

… Continued after the advert …

CATEGORY E/F/G/H/W
1 Paul Stewart Moda RT E
2 Adrian Ward Team Terminator E
3 Robert Tillot St Ives E
4 Paul James Crawley Wheelers E
5 Martin Meades Ciclos Uno E
6 Peter Boyce Team Senza Limiti E
7 Stephen Piper Velo Schils E
8 Barry Woods Velo Schils OOC
9 Clive Jones Velo Schils F
10 Steve Wade-Jones Bishops Stortford F
11 Gary Hetrick Velo Schils OOC
12 Ralph Keeler St Ives G
13 Domnic Lowden Diss CC F
14 Tony Carter SDL Wonga F
15 Chris Dunn API – Anglia Sport F
16 Howard Clark Private E
17 Duncan Thomas Team Aerocycles E
18 Claire Hall North Essex Velo W
19 Julian Niles-Cunnington Black Cyclists Network E
20 Lindsay Clarke Fenland Clarion W
21 Dave Burton Sussex Nomads H
22 Patrick Ellerbeck St Neots CC F
23 Jeff Baird Team Enable E
24 Steve Clarke Fenland Clarion E
25 James Gowan Train Sharp H
26 Raymond Batsford Penge H

CATEGORY A/B/C/D
1 Matt Holmes Arctic RT B 1
2 Colin Ward Essex Roads B 2
3 Paul Thursfield Graham Weight RT D 1
4 Marco Coppola Colourtech B 3
5 Richard Barker Lea Valley CC B 4
6 Trevor Ormes Rapha CC D 2
7 Rory Havis Ely & District CC A 1
8 Mike Smith Private D 3
9 Brad Lamb Victoria CC C 1
10 Ben Paton Amis Velo RT C 2
11 Graham Rudd API- Anglia Sport A 2
12 Jeff Wharton Velo Schils C 3
13 Lee Smith Long Steady Days C 4
14 Dave Farrow Eagle RC D 4
15 Dan McKenny Inflite Type One B 5
16 Neil Chapman Maldon CC D 5
17 Os Assem Finchley RT B 6
18 Julian Boulter Eagle RC D 6
19 Cliff Steele Brixton CC D 7
20 Paul Spicely Colourtech C 5
21 Damien Foy Eagle RC D 8
22 Simon Constable Basildon CC B 7
23 David Appleby API- Anglia Sport B 8