Ride In Peace Team kick off the season

Ben Wood at Prisick

Great start to the seasons racing this weekend. Ben Wood, Nikky and Chris Emsley headed up to Prisick – highfield kitchens cat 3/4 race. Tough race with average speed of 25mph over 30 laps. Conditions were dry with a hard headwind on the finishing straight. All the team rode super well and we were unlucky to not get in the top 10 finish with crashes and some dodgy riding at times. Ben had a two hour rest then raced the 4th cat race and just didn’t have the legs to finish it off after riding well all day. Came in 11th.

Peter Barusevicus at Pimbo

My third race of the season (My second was Soens but I punctured so enough about that) was held under rainy conditions round an industrial estate in Lancashire, called St Helens CRC Pimbo.

This was an elite race so there was a handful of pro and a smothering of elite riders on the start list. The course was held on a shallow incline, of around 3-5%, meaning there was a fast downhill back stretch and a a fast finish straight due to the tailwind; total lap length of about 1.5miles.

Attacks came straight away and were constant, reminiscent of a Belgian Kermesse. I tried my hand in a few but nothing came to fruition so I settled back into the bunch and watched proceedings. The bunch was still all together at 3rd distance and there was a big bunch gallop for the first prime. I stayed put and saved my legs for later skirmishes.

At around half distance a break went up the finishing straight containing Condor JLT’s Joe Moses and Giordana RT’s Richard Hepworth. This looked promising so I jumped across and started working with my fellow escapees, slowly increasing the lead over the bunch to 1 minute. A few laps later Moses sprinted up the road to claim the second prime. We came back together and all started working smoothly again.

At around 3/4 distance, a group of 4 containing One Pro Cycling’s Pete Williams, Raleigh-GAC’s Brad Morgan and ChampionSys-VCUK’s Dillion Byrne bridged across to us and almost instantly started attacking to test the breaks legs. These repeated attacks didn’t come to much except dislodge of the weaker riders from the initial break.

With 3 to 4 laps to go, Williams swung to the side as to protest at some riders lack of commitment to the break. Instead, he slowly accelerated and before we knew what was happening he had a gap. We frantically tried to close it but to no avail. Williams slowly continued to increase the gap to the point where he had 20-30 seconds on us at the finish.

I found myself at the front on the last finish straight and strung out the break as I tried to loose the following wheel, but the remaining pros were too experienced to fall for my zig-zagging across the road and Morgan was the first to launch his sprint, followed by Byrne. I started to come round Byrne in the final 100m but lost out for 3rd by half a wheel.

All in all I felt very strong and was very happy with my performance, holding my own against some pros and one very on-form Pete Williams (up to a point). Amazing ride by Williams to ride away from the chasing bunch like he wasn’t riding.