Moscow or Belgium?

Yesterday's APR on the Moscow Circuit was a right old mix - Moscow temperatures, but Belgian cross-winds on the Grassyards road! Fortunately the huge holes in the road had been filled - thanks EAC! - so we could concentrate on the racing, rather than staying alive - that was until Jim Cuisik caught us!

We (group 3 of 4) were just catching the front 2 groups on the 3rd lap, when Jim went past like a rocket - I thought the whole scratch group were on us, but turns out he had dropped them ages ago! After bridging across, I worked as hard as I could with Jim up to Moscow - I don't think I've ridden that hard in a long time - and we formed a decent sized group at the top of the hill.

As is traditional in Belgian Races, even ones held in East Ayrshire, the cross-winds proved decisive, and it is one situation where working hard with a guy who can rip your legs off at will is the clever thing to do - as you get at least some shelter! The group was whittled down to 7 riders by the time we got to the A77. Triathlete Kerry Lang was extremely impressive - she showed no fear driving the group along, and lasted most of the way up the penultimate climb before dropping back (then holding on the the chasing scratch riders, including pro rider Ross Creber!).

The 4 of us who managed to hang on to Jim were almost glad to get dropped by him on the final climb - he didn't attack as such, he more just didn't slow down when we hit the hill - but then we had a bigger challenge - holding off the chasers!

With 30 secs gap at the top of Grassyards road it was touch and go, but everyone buried themselves, and we held on - just! It wasn't really a sprint from our group - more just a survival battle up the incline to the finish!